January 26, 2008
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Freakout
So recently we had our first career day. What does this mean?
Well, as you may or may not be aware, I am a 3rd year medical student. That means I will shortly be a 4th year medical student. Now during third year, we are required to go on certain specific core clinical rotations. These are
Medicine, Family Medicine, Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Obestetrics/Gynecology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Neurology, and Ambulatory
The idea is that these core rotations give us an introduction to the basic fields in medicine and help us decide what kind of doctor we want to become while learning basic skills necessary to each field.
4th year is a little different in that you are supposed to know what you want to do, and choose electives that are much more specialized. For example, rather than doing a clerkship in medicine, I can do a 4 week rotation in just infectious disease, or gastroenterology, or forensic pathology, etc.
This puts a lot more freedom on setting my schedule on me. Thankfully I am one of the lucky ones in my class that knows what overall field I want to go into (internal medicine) if not necessarily the exact specialty.
However, with this new freedom comes more responsibilities. No longer does the school set my curriculum and i just have to show up. Now the responsibility is on me to locate an elective I want, the hospital that offers it (which may not be in the same state, or even country!), and all the paperwork i need to participate in the elective at that location. Since most of these electives need the paperwork completed a MINIMUM of 4-6 weeks in advance of the start date, I have to try and plan out my whole year now
Except there are a few stumbling blocks. I cant just pick electives willy-nilly. I have to make sure I do some in states i want to rotate in during the early part of the year, before i turn in my residency application, so the staff there knows me. Some electives are only offered during certain times of the year. Some electives are offered year round, but i will get better letters of recomendacion or more renowned professors based on the site i choose to do the elective at. I have to do my sub-internship in medicine early as well, not to mention scheduling and taking my step 2 licensing exam.
Oh and i also need to find a place to live, since only 14 weeks of these electives are required to be in Illinois, and i am not signing a 52 week lease if i will only be in chicago for 14 weeks.
There is also the consideration that during the months of november through january i will be flying about the country to interview for residency applications (hopefully, anyway, knock on wood) and therefore need to make sure i try and pick electives that wont require too many plane trips back and forth
So there is quite a lot to do, and frankly it is a little overwhelming. In little over a year from now, I will know where i will be working as an honest to goodness doctor for the next several years of my life. And the sheer number of factors that i need to accomplish to begin that process is daunting, to say the least
So you will have to forgive me if i have the occasional freakout about how in the world I can plan an entire year in a couple months. Hopefully it will all go according to plan, but regardless i shall be sure to keep you all updated as to how the process goes. Any of my fellow meddites out there, any suggestions or commiserations would be welcome...how are you all dealing with this?
I will do my best to adhere to the Dalai Lama's advice:
"When confronted with a great problem ask yourself: is there anything I can do about my situation?
If the answer is yes, then there is no need to worry
If the answer is no, then there is no need to worry"It has helped me in the past, lets see how it stacks up now
Time to get this year in gear
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Why Not Zoidberg
Comments (4)
Oooh, exciting! The Josh, I had no idea you wanted to do IM! We will be IM buddies! (If I am able to stick it out the entire residency, haha..)
Come interview on the East Coast and visit with me and Dan!
There's a long road ahead, but look at the road you've traveled. I can imagine it can be overwhelming and perhaps too overwhelming at times, but you are on your way...and like a song says in Spanish, "un dia a la vez." Take care.
That Dalai Lama gives some good advice. Good luck in everything! Its stressful, but its got to be exciting too, right?
What am I doing? Nothing. Because I am not going to be a doctor. But hopefully your medically-inspired friends will have words of wisdom. All I can offer is my confidence in you. You've gotten this far with a sense of humor and passion for medicine intact, and I'm positive that you will succeed. Because you're great. And you would be, even based on personality alone, one hell of a doctor.
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