I didn't realize when we started this medical school journey, that after the first two years of book work our good friends would move away. I always imagined our medical school family sticking together for four years supporting each other with vent sessions and date nights. We were lucky to have Morgan, Chase and Colt nearby for most of the year. They moved farther away at the end of this year so that Morgan could be near family while her husband is traveling in Year 4.
Morgan always gives great advice in her perspective posts. You can read Morgan's perspective from Year 2 by clicking on this link.
Q: What are your responsibilities this last year while your med student was on rotation?
A: Taking care of my crazy one year old. Keeping up with the house, groceries, cooking, etc. I took over paying all of the bills this year, just to make things easier and make sure nothing gets missed. I did most the packing and unpacking for our moves. And most important being supportive!
Q: What did you do differently in year three to support your med student?
A: I don't feel like I did much different. We did talk more about the future and discuss the pros and cons of different specialties and different residencies. Chase said that having me be as excited as he is about residency and the future has been a great motivation and support for him.
Q: What surprised you about clinical rotations?
A: First of all, I didn't know that we would have to be moving, but we ended up loving our home base city.
It was interesting to see how different each rotation was. Some rotations I got to see my husband a lot more and other rotations he was gone pretty much everyday for very long days.
My favorite part of rotations was seeing the excitement my husband had. He was so happy to be out of the classroom using the knowledge he had gained and then trying to learn everything he could from the rotations. It was great to know that all this work, sacrifice, and time was all going to be worth it because I was able to see that he is going to love his job when it is all said and done!
Q: How are you preparing for residencies?
A: Right now we have really scaled down our spending and are budgeting so when graduation comes we will be able to make our loan payments and pay that off as quickly as possible.
As far as considerations for audition rotations... Chase wants to do Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose, & Throat). That really narrowed down residency locations. There aren't very many DO ENT residencies. From there we researched online the different residency programs. There was a helpful forum on Student-Doctor Network where students had shared their audition rotation experience. Once we had narrowed it down, Chase got in contact with a current resident from the programs he was really interested in and asked them questions. Another big consideration was how many residents they take each year. A lot of the ENT Residencies only take one each year so Chase made sure to set up audition rotations with the ones that take 2 or more each year.
Q: Any advice SOs beginning third year?
A: Try to not compare your journey with others'. Dream about the future - it's motivating! Support the other SOs - we need all the support we can get! Do something fun when your husband has time off!
No comments:
Post a Comment