Finished with my 4th Year of Medical School!

My last rotation as Student Doctor Ward

Happy Monday! Since I’m backtracking on updates, I figured my last physical rotation of 4th year would be a good place to start. I was fortunate to finish back in March since I never took a vacation month to study for boards, and I am so happy to be done. My last actual rotation was an online course, but prior to that, I ended my stint of having to wear the short white coat with an Emergency Medicine (EM) elective in Tennessee. It was an elective that I applied for through the Visiting Student Application Service (VSAS), and probably one of my favorite. EM is a required 4^th year elective at my school, but since there weren’t any available slots open in any Georgia hospitals, I had to apply to out-of-state programs. I definitely wasn’t upset though, seeing as the program I went to not only put me up in a hotel for free for the month, and provided a nice food allowance, but the residents and attendings were some of the friendliest and down-to-earth people I had ever met. It’s just too bad they don’t offer a general surgery residency program, or I’d be all over it! 

I’d have to say my favorite part of the rotation was all the freedom I had. As a 4^th year student, I’ve found that residents and attendings place a lot more trust in me to get stuff done. At this particular location, once they knew I had an interest in surgery, I was the go-to for all the laceration repairs, and I loved it! There’s something about getting my own supplies, walking into a patient’s room introducing myself and letting them know that I will be fixing them, proceeding to do it unsupervised, and having great results that completely made my day! It also freed up the attendings to do other work, so they seemed to enjoy it as well. It was kinda bittersweet when the rotation ended, but I couldn’t resist having the attending take a picture of me on my final rotation of having to wear the short white coat.

Safari Park in TN with my daughter and little sister

Another awesome thing about being in Tennessee was it wasn’t so far that my daughter couldn’t come for a visit. We visited a place called Safari Park where we literally got to drive around and feed zebras, giraffes, camels, kangaroos, and other exotic animals by hand! My daughter was slightly freaked out at first, but she eventually warmed up to it and participated. I also had the chance to visit Memphis for the first time, and I even discovered that my aunt, who I hadn’t seen since childhood, literally lived down the street from the hospital I was working at! I was so happy to have the chance to visit relatives and have people around that made me feel less alone during my rotation.

My first time in Memphis was a great one!

Now that I’ve been finished with rotations for a while, I’m in such an awkward place. I don’t quite feel like a medical student since I’m done, but I’m not exactly a doctor either since I haven’t graduated. I’m also excited for graduation, but I kind of like the security of still having the student title with no major responsibilities. I’m just one confused soul, LOL. Either way, it feels good to be done, and there’s only 17 days left until graduation!