How is everyone handling clerkships??

I'm doing surprisingly well. I think with me being in school is keeping me pretty busy. I hate when I have downtime in between classes like this week. Cause all I want to do is be with my sweetie. His first four weeks of surgery weren't that bad and we were able to talk a couple times a week and see each other on the weekends. I talked to him last weekend and he said that general surgery is 10X harder than he expected. Both his attending and resident went on vacation so he is working with his team and one other higher up person. Lots of work. he was at my place for a whole 10 mins before he passed out the other weekend 8O !!
does anyone know when they have to take "shelf" exams? and what exaclty are those? Is it like studying for boards?? Just being curious here.. Hope everyone is well...

[Liz2254]

My boyfriend is just finishing up peds. It hasn't been too bad even with him being on call 1-2 times per week. Now that it's getting close to shelf time he's a little more cranky. It doesn't help that I've been fighting with our apartment people since the ceiling caved in 3 weeks ago and they still haven't finished fixing it. He's aggravated that I'm aggravated and that doesn't exactly help either of our situations. Given what I've read on this site we're just getting started. I know I need to learn to handle things on my own... and I can and do. I often just crave a little more of a connection with my medical student and that includes support during difficult times.

[Auspicious]

So far it's been about like I expected, thanks to this board .

He started out with a forensic pathology elective, then anesthesiology, now neurology. He hasn't had call yet. The only adjustment for me has been that now he gets up way earlier and therefore goes to bed way earlier, so I see less of him in the evenings. And that when I do see him he looks like he's spent all day taking a thrashing--so far it's pretty comparable to how people are when they start a new job.

He's enjoying himself, and I've got no complaints at this point.

[Liz2254]

Oh boy, can't wait for OB. My boyfriend starts that on August 23 and it should be an interesting 7 weeks. He's already a little snappy in peds so I can only imagine.

From my recollection, the most difficult rotations were: surgery, ob/gyn, and inpatient medicine. Other factors in that: he did surgery as his first rotation so he was adjusting to 3rd year and a difficult speciality and did inpatient IM in the middle of winter. The worst by far was orthopedic surgery (only 1 wk) b/c the resident was such an a**hole -- always fun!

At some point, they catch their stride and also (hopefully) find something they love doing. It gets better. And it's good prep for intern year.

My DH just finished OB rotations yesterday and it was rough. Call stinks. He was gone by 5 am everyday (bigger commute) and then not home until almost 11 am the next day when on call. Our kids didn't really understand why he was gone so much for those weeks and then why he would sleep during the day! He is so glad to have it behind him. He thought it was interesting but didn't like the hours. We are so excited for him to start Psych for 6 weeks on Monday, heard they are the easiest rotations! Woohoo!

I feel a lil relieved here, after hearing everyone's stories. Surgery seems like its getting harder and harder or busier and busier. he's working Mon-Sat then sleeps all of Sat and studies on Sun. Ugh, I could not imagine. Well I hear it from him but still. his next rotation is OB/GYN which his roomate has now so I am seeing how that is affecting his roomate so I have some understanding of it all when it comes next. I start my second class this Thursday and am looking into starting my prereqs for my nursing program for the spring. So it should be fun and busy for me as well.

DH is in peds. He started with inpatient, and honestly that was like a vacation after his boards schedule. Q4 was not so bad really. DH said the other students on his rotation would just go home when their shift was up. 8O He didn't, so he would come home at 3 or 4 am on call nights, and 6 or 7 pm on non-call nights. The one thing I am VERY suprised about is how much the rotation varies depending on how much work the student puts in. Anyway, peds outpatient is a breeze with weekends off and lighter hours. But honestly, DH would have preferred a second month of inpatient, all the well child visits and sports physicals bore him to death. Medicine is next (he opted to do TWO inpatient months), then surgery. But come January, things should lighten up a bit!

[fluffhead]

For us, OB was the worst. The residents were NASTY, and would do things like wake up the students to go get them food from local eateries. My wife told them where to stick it, which unfortunately didn't make her any friends among the residents.