Med school life discussion thread

[datfatcat]

Just curious, do you guys spend all week in hospital as well instead of uni?

We do in clinical years (Year 3+)

[vox nihili]

Just curious, do you guys spend all week in hospital as well instead of uni?

We spend years 2-4 in hospital, only first year at uni

[abeybaby]

anyone care to enlighten me on their experiences in terms of work life balance and free time? Anyone have had any time to travel overseas as such?

Does it get even harder to do so as you progress to internship,etc?

Thanks

3rd year Usyd student, we just started our full time clinical placements 6 weeks age (we used to do 1 day per week in hospitals before 3rd year).

Free time has gone out the window... this last week I've had four 12-14 hour days, leave the house at 6am and get back 8.30-9pm, 2 days ago I slept on a hospital couch at 2am and got up and straight back to work the next morning. So it's exhausting... Not everyone's experience has been that way - I know a lot of students who do 9-5 and that's it, so I think it's very true that you get out whatever you put in. Good luck!

[Orson]

Free time has gone out the window... this last week I've had four 12-14 hour days, leave the house at 6am and get back 8.30-9pm, 2 days ago I slept on a hospital couch at 2am and got up and straight back to work the next morning. So it's exhausting... Not everyone's experience has been that way - I know a lot of students who do 9-5 and that's it, so I think it's very true that you get out whatever you put in. Good luck!

If I ever get there...that is something I look forward to for some reason. I can't quite put a finger on it, but something about having to sleep on a hospital couch, instead of going home seems awesome. It's something about being so involved in it, that you have to sacrifice something you've taken for granted your whole life.

[pi]

something about having to sleep on a hospital couch, instead of going home seems awesome.

Done it once at the Angliss, heavily over-rated

[MelonBar]

Yewww guise. thoughts on eastern health/bokky hospital for placement? Really tempting to return to melbs but apparently the more rural/regional placements (geelong, warnambool, etc.) are pretty solid too. What are the pros & cons of metro vs rural for year 3 and 4 clinical years ?

Thanks!

[Splash-Tackle-Flail]

Really tempting to return to melbs but apparently the more rural/regional placements (geelong, warnambool, etc.) are pretty solid too. What are the pros & cons of metro vs rural for year 3 and 4 clinical years ?

Thanks!

Pros of clinical in Warrnambool:
-my mum is a GP there, and does tutes for Deakin medical students

[pi]

Yewww guise. thoughts on eastern health/bokky hospital for placement? Really tempting to return to melbs but apparently the more rural/regional placements (geelong, warnambool, etc.) are pretty solid too. What are the pros & cons of metro vs rural for year 3 and 4 clinical years ?

Thanks!

Eastern Health has it's pros and cons, and I feel quite sorry for you Deakin folks because I think your third year is an absolute nightmare (and I think it's very poorly organised by your Faculty too). I was at Eastern and had tutes and was friends with a few of the Deakin kids, lovely people.

Pros:
- Lots of opportunity to study, you have heaps of free time
- Lots of opportunity to see patients and do procedures (basically you can do whatever you want if you have supervision)
- Staff are super friendly, never had any issues with doctors not wanting to teach me stuff
- Box Hill is new (I was there DURING the transition from new to old Box Hill!) and is a very nice place to work at
- Cheap Asian food everywhere

Cons:
- Barely any formal teaching in terms of lectures and tutes in comparison to other Monash clinical schools
- I didn't feel well-supported by the clinical school admin in comparison to my friends elsewhere
- You don't get many rotations, basically three a semester: med, surg, ortho (thanks to your Deakin curriculum grrr....), so not much exposure to the various specialties
- Maroondah is not new and looks terrible
- Cheap Asian food carries a real risk of food poisoning

Feel free to ask me more about Eastern, I was there for all of third year and for o+g last year too

[Russ]

If I ever get there...that is something I look forward to for some reason. I can't quite put a finger on it, but something about having to sleep on a hospital couch, instead of going home seems awesome. It's something about being so involved in it, that you have to sacrifice something you've taken for granted your whole life.

Aggressively try to reign this in, it's not a sustainable approach to life and medicine is hardly worth being that involved in. Being rosy about this sort of commitment isn't healthy

Doing a rural placement can make it a bit harder to get references and things for your intern application, depending on the staff and location and so forth but there's no reason to avoid it (assuming, of course that you're happy to relocate for a year).

[Orson]

Aggressively try to reign this in, it's not a sustainable approach to life and medicine is hardly worth being that involved in. Being rosy about this sort of commitment isn't healthy

Doing a rural placement can make it a bit harder to get references and things for your intern application, depending on the staff and location and so forth but there's no reason to avoid it (assuming, of course that you're happy to relocate for a year).

Wait...so employers don't like students who had rural placements? So even if someone gets into Deakin BMBS, they aren't guaranteed an internship like FFP kids? I thought all CSP students were pretty much guaranteed an internship. I'm prepared to move to Geelong if its necessary.

 

Yewww guise. thoughts on eastern health/bokky hospital for placement? Really tempting to return to melbs but apparently the more rural/regional placements (geelong, warnambool, etc.) are pretty solid too. What are the pros & cons of metro vs rural for year 3 and 4 clinical years ?

Thanks!

Can you choose your placement? Is it based on academic merit, or completely random? What would have a better chance of getting you an internship?

[pi]

Wait...so employers don't like students who had rural placements? So even if someone gets into Deakin BMBS, they aren't guaranteed an internship like FFP kids? I thought all CSP students were pretty much guaranteed an internship. I'm prepared to move to Geelong if its necessary.

That's not what Russ said at all lol? He just said it may be harder to get references as hospitals apparently prefer consultant doctors (physicians or surgeons) over GP references, as these consultants are harder to come by in rural and regional areas and everyone will be trying to impress them as a result.

Your internship as a CSP student, for the moment, is still guaranteed. Although what will be the case when you plan to graduate medicine in the mid 2020s, who can say.

If I were you I'd be paying more attention to the first part of his post

[Orson]

That's not what Russ said at all lol? He just said it may be harder to get references as hospitals apparently prefer consultant doctors (physicians or surgeons) over GP references, as these consultants are harder to come by in rural and regional areas and everyone will be trying to impress them as a result.

Your internship as a CSP student, for the moment, is still guaranteed. Although what will be the case when you plan to graduate medicine in the mid 2020s, who can say.

If I were you I'd be paying more attention to the first part of his post

AHK! I know. It's a long way away. I just realised my wording was extremely bad here:

So even if someone gets into Deakin BMBS, they aren't guaranteed an internship like FFP kids?

I meant this, as FFP students are NOT guaranteed an internship. Anyway, that makes heaps of sense, unlike what my conclusion was.

Okay then. Cheers pi and Russ! Helpful as always!

[vox nihili]

Aggressively try to reign this in, it's not a sustainable approach to life and medicine is hardly worth being that involved in. Being rosy about this sort of commitment isn't healthy

Doing a rural placement can make it a bit harder to get references and things for your intern application, depending on the staff and location and so forth but there's no reason to avoid it (assuming, of course that you're happy to relocate for a year).

So so much respect for that statement.

Yewww guise. thoughts on eastern health/bokky hospital for placement? Really tempting to return to melbs but apparently the more rural/regional placements (geelong, warnambool, etc.) are pretty solid too. What are the pros & cons of metro vs rural for year 3 and 4 clinical years ?

Thanks!

It's worth mentioning that Geelong hospital actually isn't a rural hospital. It's RA1 just like Melbourne.
Obviously that's nitpicking, but I don't think you should expect the same experience in Geelong as you'd expect in other regional cities. I mean, Geelong has three hospitals, with a fourth opening next door to Deakin this year, so obviously its health infrastructure is far beyond most regional cities. Add to that the fact that you've got CSIRO down in Geelong and Barwon health and Deakin doing their own research, it's more city-ish than rural in many ways.

All that said, I've only ever been a patient at Geelong hospital so have a reasonably limited idea of what it's like to work or study there

[MelonBar]

@pi Thanks so much for your write up man. Eastern health sounds really appealing. Someone in my year said metro places like eastern health have too many students (also from monash) so you get less attention from supervisors/opportunity to practice things. That was my main concern but your post suggests otherwise, I get a different vibe altogether.

Wait...so employers don't like students who had rural placements? So even if someone gets into Deakin BMBS, they aren't guaranteed an internship like FFP kids? I thought all CSP students were pretty much guaranteed an internship. I'm prepared to move to Geelong if its necessary.

 

Can you choose your placement? Is it based on academic merit, or completely random? What would have a better chance of getting you an internship?

I think deakin have a preference system in place, but beyond that it is random and not dependent on marks. Someone posted some stats on PD. Most people seem to get their first preference. Surprisingly, not many people from the deakin cohort 1st preferenced box hill. Geelong hospital on other hand seems really competitive. May reflect the number of locals in the cohort, and you'd be surprised how few melb kids are here.

Pros of clinical in Warrnambool:
-my mum is a GP there, and does tutes for Deakin medical students

Haha neat, I'm sure your mum's a great tutor. My clinical tutor at the moment is a GP from the geelong area, she's actually the best. In fact most of the deakin med staff have been amazing

So so much respect for that statement.

It's worth mentioning that Geelong hospital actually isn't a rural hospital. It's RA1 just like Melbourne.
Obviously that's nitpicking, but I don't think you should expect the same experience in Geelong as you'd expect in other regional cities. I mean, Geelong has three hospitals, with a fourth opening next door to Deakin this year, so obviously its health infrastructure is far beyond most regional cities. Add to that the fact that you've got CSIRO down in Geelong and Barwon health and Deakin doing their own research, it's more city-ish than rural in many ways.

All that said, I've only ever been a patient at Geelong hospital so have a reasonably limited idea of what it's like to work or study there

You're right, I was surprised how developed Geelong is when I visited for the 1st time. In my mind it's a huge town, no doubt it's RA1. There's also quite a number of private specialists working in the CBD.

[vox nihili]

You're right, I was surprised how developed Geelong is when I visited for the 1st time. In my mind it's a huge town, no doubt it's RA1. There's also quite a number of private specialists working in the CBD.

Hahah the number of times people at uni will say to me "oh you're from Geelong, so you're a country boy!". Well sure, yes I am, but because I'm from a country town outside of Geelong...Geelong's the city to me hahah.

Definitely some decent stuff down their hospital wise, though it's close enough to Melbourne to not really justify having some of the more highly technical stuff in spite of the population size.

I'm curious to know though, have you heard anything about the Epworth? I asked at the Richmond one yesterday which Unis were getting it, and they seemed to have no idea about it.