In which I pat my own back: Last day of medical school was today

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I sat for my shelf exam in Psychiatry today. That concludes medical school for me. I have to get ACLS certified tomorrow and take the second part of the USMLE (the clincal skills exam, I’ll study around 3 hours for it) in mid May, get a few forms signed, and that’s it until graduation on May 23.

Yesterday, I said goodbye to my old friend Ben Taub. Today, to the fourth floor testing rooms. Tomorrow, to the third floor conference rooms (where my ACLS class will be). And Monday, to the rest of the school when I turn in my badge.

I started medical school, 22 years old and fresh out of UT Austin, on July 31, 1997. Nobody had heard of Monica Lewinsky. The WWW was still a pretty limited thing – Internet Explorer was the default web browser for Windows only late in 1996, and IE 4.0 was released in 9/1997. Gas, in Houston, dipped to $0.99 a gallon, if I remember correctly. Clinton fired some cruise missiles at some upstart named bin Laden. I left medical school in July 1999, did my PhD. Joined the SDMB sometime in 2001, around the time the Concorde crashed. I returned to medical school in April of last year in order to finish up my 1 year of requirements. 9 years of postgraduate education.

I realized today that not only do I predate much of the faculty at my school, but I predate many of the Texas Medical Center buildings – the TMC Commons, the new Alkek building, much of MD Anderson, the new mouse facility, Texas Heart, the Texas Children’s expansion, and all of the new buildings that they are building now. I ambu bagged vent patients on Y2K drills and been on standby overnight on the millenium. I’ve seen it through the biggest disaster in Houston history (TS Allison), as well as the smaller flood in 11/2003. I was here, in the Astrodome, Astroarena, and Convention Center after Katrina. I’ve watched the TMC and Baylor reach out and absorb another medical school (Tulane) and associated residency programs, staff, and patients. They are mostly leaving now. And I, finally, will too.

It was a valuable experience, if not about 3 years too long. I feel old now, though, and arguable the hardest part is about to begin. Personal milestone accomplished and noted. I’d burn my short white coat as catharsis but interns wear short coats at my next stop and I may find some use for them still (after pulling off the Baylor patch and bleaching them a couple of times).

2

I’ll give you a great, congratulatory thump on the shoulder too edwino.

That is an awesome achievement, but, one must ask, when are you going to start your ‘Ask the Shrink’ thread?

C’mon, you know you want to. :stuck_out_tongue:

3

Congratulations!

4

I put off psych till the end because I knew I didn’t want to do it. I’m doing Internal (infernal?) Medicine.

I’ll answer psych questions right now because I know the stuff as well as I ever will. But my knowledge shortly will be going down the toilet shortly. Just like my OB/Gyn (my previous rotation) did over the past 2 months…

5

Y’know, something about doing your rounds in OB/Gyn and ‘going down the toilet’ just sounds a bit…um…

:smiley:

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/edwino/Someone call me a doctor!/edwino/
You’re a doctor!
Yay! Good job!

7

Oh my goodness! Well done edwino!

I have to get through the medical and surgical clinical exams on Monday and Tuesday (that’s 1 long case, 3 short cases and possibly a viva voce for each), and then (woohoo) I’ll be done too.

It’s been a pretty hectic few days here at Irishtowers-
My husband passed his final exam (he’s now some sort of IT developer master or something), confirmed with his company that they’ll transfer him up to Belfast and our offer on a duplex apartment in Belfast was accepted this morning.

Now all I have to do is not say anything stupid or dangerous while examining 8 patients and we’re all set…

8

What is your PhD and undergraduate education in?

Do you know where you want to move now, if you are setting up your own practice or joining a hospital or what?

9

Good on you, mate (as they say some thousands of miles from here)! Where are you doing your residency?

10

Now you’ll get paid to scut work (is it up to $0.06/hr?). Where are you doing your internship? I am kidding, of course. Congratulations, and good luck where ever you end up.

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congradulations, best of luck to you
Larry

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Congrats irishgirl! I have a similar exam in the USMLE Step II CS, but nobody takes it that seriously – I think you get 30% of your grade for speaking English. I’ve already taken the hard one (the CK exam).

Good luck!

I graduated with a BS in biology (molecular track) from University of Texas. My PhD is from the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, my project was somewhere between genomics and developmental genetics.

I’m going to Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Hospital. Residency in Internal Medicine. That will be at least 3 years, then probably a research-oriented fellowship so I can get an academic appointment at a hospital and medical school.

There’s a law on duty hours now, and programs faithfully pledge to abide by it (80 hours a week average, no longer than 30 hours on duty at a time) but I believe these rules are probably stretched to say the least at all programs. It wouldn’t be professional to leave a patient who is rapidly decompensating when you have been the one actively managing him for the past day. The programs all pay in the mid $40k range. Figure, with 5 weeks of vacation, 47 weeks at 80 hours/week = 3760 hours per year, so around $11-$12 an hour.

13

So you went and joined the Osler Marines! They will love you there, you with your mud-phud!

I was a lowly med stud there, but it sure gave me opportunity to learn from some giants, like Phil Tumulty, Donald Coffey, Sol Snyder, Willis Maddrey, Vic McKusick, and Richard Johns, among others.

Congrats!

Enjoy Baltimore, eat the crabs, climb to the top of the dome, and practice with Aequanimitas! You WILL earn that tie!

QtM, MD 1983

14

'Grats, Dr. Ed! That’s a monster of a trek, I hope you’re doing something terribly exciting to celebrate :slight_smile:

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Thats a bit of a raise. I understand it used to be 100 hours a week in the 30k range.

What about on call time limits? Are there periods where you are not on call or are you on call 24/7?

16

Feh! Back when I was an intern, we did 120 hours a week for $17 K. And had to walk thru snow to make rounds, and wrote our progress notes on the back of a shovel with a piece of charcoal!

17

Johns Hopkins? Nice!

Any advice to a potential pre-med (entering college next year)?

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Uphill and against the wind both directions.

Congratulations edwino

Maybe you can help username_taken this his question in this post before you forget all the psych.

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Congratulations, weeen! You’ve always been one of my favourites.

And killed bears with your binder, yeah, we know… :wink:

20

Edwino, you’re at Baylor? I thought I was the only Baylor med student Doper, much less the only one in the MSTP.

Anyhow, congratulations on graduating and matching extremely well (first choice?). It gives me hope that there is an end to this; I’m just a first year in the program and, needless to say, it looks like a very long road from here.