Med school life discussion thread

[Shenz0r]

Speaking of anatomy, we had our first dissections this week. They got us to try "drain" the pleura and then open up the cadaver and see if we did it correctly.

With our table being all dissection newbies we had no idea what to do. Instead of cutting a window and then putting a tube in that, we pushed the trunk with the bluntish ends straight into the body instead. Ended up going right through a rib and puncturing the lung. Lol.

Then we cut a window to drain it laterally and ended up going through a rib again. lol

[Stick]

I was just wondering what your thoughts would be about having to go rural to study medicine if you are assigned to that zone. With Melbourne assigning zones at random it has become a possibility for me and while I still think I'd take it, I'd probably struggle without having my family and support network around me (although one may argue that may be constructive experience which may make me a better doctor). Nonetheless, it is a factor in my decision. Is it as much of a sacrifice and bad as it seems, or is it actually quite manageable?

[pi]

I have friends who got sent (ie. they preferenced metro... but too bad!) rural for a year, and they had good things to say about it. I guess the important thing in the clinical years, especially the first couple for Monash/UoM students, is to get a good grasp of the basics and what is common. You don't really need (despite how interesting it may be) to see that case of a syndrome seen in 1/1000000 people until later in your training, so rural is more than ok to get what you need. Furthermore, I know at Monash the median exam scores and whatnot for rural vs metro kids seem to have no difference, so that's good. Granted, I haven't done much time rurally so I'm not speaking from experience.

Regarding your family supports etc, I guess you're going to have to move away from them geographically at some point eventually? 4-5 years post-VCE sounds like an ideal time to start building that new level of independence for yourself. Better make that move during uni where you have a bit more free time and your only responsibility is to pass, than during work where you've got a whole lot of real responsibilities. Food for thought I guess.

[heart]

Anyone wanna share there mbbs year 1/2 notes will pay in rare pepes.

[pi]

Anyone wanna share there mbbs year 1/2 notes will pay in rare pepes.

There are heeeeaaaaaaaps of notes on the MUMUS website You'll need an account of course https://www.mumus.org/resources

[MelonBar]

Hey guys, can anyone speak about what life is like as an intern and resident? Like hours worked/week, shift length, overtime, "stress", night shifts, opportunities to do research. Do you have to fight other student dr's to practice procedural skills? I know there's a massive thread on pagingdr but I thought it would be easier to ask here then sift through it.

Also, how competitive is it to get into the melbourne hospitals? I assume its grades/cv/interview to get in like any other job, what are good things to have on the resume?

Thanks all

[pi]

Hey guys, can anyone speak about what life is like as an intern and resident? Like hours worked/week, shift length, overtime, "stress", night shifts, opportunities to do research. Do you have to fight other student dr's to practice procedural skills? I know there's a massive thread on pagingdr but I thought it would be easier to ask here then sift through it.

Russ can probably speak better for all of this, but:
- Hours are usually 7-8am to 6pm 5 days a week, and most people do unpaid over-time on top of that
- Research opportunities vary (as per medical school), a lot has to do with who you know, why you know them, and being in the right place in the right time
- Usually you do the procedural skills for your patients, so you're not fighting with other doctors as they have their own patients. As for medical students, you doing the skill is more important than them doing it, but you can assign a cannula etc to the med students if you want.

Even though it's tedious, definitely worth reading the PD thread too, simply because there are heaps of perspectives there.

Also, how competitive is it to get into the melbourne hospitals? I assume its grades/cv/interview to get in like any other job, what are good things to have on the resume?

It's competitive. All of those things are relevant, plus good references. Anything that you would consider good, is good to have on a CV: good grades, research, volunteering, employment history, etc. Worth noting that different hospitals weigh things differently.

As for grades, if you're keen, look up InternZ scores on the PMCV website, that's the scoring used for Victoria for all of UoM, Monash and Deakin grads. Basically they chuck your med school scores into a normal distribution that has a median of 3.5 and a mean of 1.0 so that it's comparable among unis. How this is relevant? eg. RMH only starts to consider people with a InternZ score of > 3.5, Austin last year was rumoured to take a lowest InternZ score of 4.1, etc. So yes, if you want to get into big hospitals like RMH, Alfred, StV, Austin, and Monash, then you're going to to need to be at least in the better half of your med school. To make matters more complicated, some hospitals secretly prefer their own students, notable examples include StV and Monash. However if you're fine to go to Western, Eastern, Northern, Peninsula, and other health services, then you can probably afford to have a lower InternZ score (in comparison).

I wouldn't stress too much about it, you should enjoy your med school experience

[Russ]

Hey guys, can anyone speak about what life is like as an intern and resident? Like hours worked/week, shift length, overtime, "stress", night shifts, opportunities to do research. Do you have to fight other student dr's to practice procedural skills? I know there's a massive thread on pagingdr but I thought it would be easier to ask here then sift through it.

Also, how competitive is it to get into the melbourne hospitals? I assume its grades/cv/interview to get in like any other job, what are good things to have on the resume?

Thanks all

I much prefer answering specific questions because 'what is internship like' is pretty broad and hard to answer.

You work a 76 hour fortnight at a minimum and even on the lightest rotations (rehab, psych, ED etc.) you'll end up at 80. Surgery has averaged out at a 100 hour fortnight, gen med in the middle. The unpaid overtime isn't too bad after you adjust to the system and become efficient at the job (preround a half hour early, stay back the same) but there's always the occasional blowout.
The three compulsory terms ran something like this at my hospital:
ED 0800-1800 4x days a week
Surg 0700-1800 5x days a week (minus half day, plus weekend cover)
Med 0800-1730 5x days (same deal as surg)

Stress depends on the person. Some people find it bad, others don't. Some rotations are worse than others. It hasn't been too bad for me (other than adjustment periods) but I'm more laidback than a lot of my colleagues.

You might get rostered for a term of nights, which is usually a week on/week off system. Every hospital does it differently but it's usually from 2200 to 0800 (or similar). Some hospitals roster interns to night shift in ED, some don't. Switching between them messes your body up

You can ask bosses to get involved with research if you want. It's almost always just doing the paperwork for them but it gets your foot in the door and lets you either get tacked on somewhere as a sixth author or lets you get an author job with their next project. I've done some and it's really hard to find the time. We published earlier this month only because I'd done most of it last year and my current paper has been held up by me not having much time/inclination to work on it.

I assume you mean medical student by student doctor? They do what you tell them to, so if you want to do all your cannulas and venepunctures yourself then you can (hint, you don't). Getting the medical students to do them is really helpful to your workload.

Look up the CV template, you have very specific things to put on. Scholarships/academic awards are a really big deal because few people have them. Same deal for research. Marks are the majority of it because of the (stupid) z-score system allowing hospitals to easily rank you. Volunteering is only good if it's meaningful (ie a one off Teddy Bear Hospital is worthless, doing a shift a fortnight for 4 years of med school is great)

[MelonBar]

Can you guys recommend a good source for general info about the Australian health system?  Cheers  Even if it's focussing on one aspect.

[vox nihili]

Can you guys recommend a good source for general info about the Australian health system?  Cheers  Even if it's focussing on one aspect.

The Conversation recently did a series all about understanding our system

[Shenz0r]

Popped the OSCE cherry, ay!

5 hours of quarantine really does your head in. Defs need to bring some board games next time.

[pi]

Congrats! Hope it went awesome

[Shenz0r]

Congrats! Hope it went awesome

Cheers! It went quite well. 6 mins is never enough time to finish a full history though 

[Shenz0r]

Allocated to St Vincents for the next three years!

Being stuck at the same hospital for most of the time sucks for people who got their last preference though...

[pi]

Regardless of preference, it's really your attitude and willing to go the extra yard that impacts your clinical experience the most. I know people from both Monash and UoM who were allocated city hospitals but didn't get nearly as much out of their clinical years as some in suburban tertiary centres (and vice versa). Heard good things about St Vinnie's though, I'm sure you'll enjoy it