MadameLULU said:
Talked to some of my 2nd year friends today and they were told that they wouldn't have has much time off during their 3rd/4th year b/c the administration is adding a capstone course in the spring of 4th year. Supposedly, they will be adding some more required courses for the first years and the class of 2010 and so forth. So for those banking on the 8+ months of vacation/free time/insert any activity here, be aware that this may not be the case anymore.
Perhaps ms. a knows more....???
We've all been talking about this, especially once one of the women in charge of our scheduling said we should plan on having about 4 months off. That, of course, freaked us all out! It's not exactly true. We still have 9 or 10 months off. Things may very well change slightly with new classes, as these things are always in flux, so what I say might not apply exactly to you all, but it shouldn't be too different.
Here's what we are required to fulfill (starting January of second year):
12 weeks of medicine
12 weeks of surgery
8 weeks of OB/GYN
8 weeks of Pysch
8 weeks of Peds
4 weeks of Neuro
4 weeks of Family medicine
4 weeks of some medicine subspecialties
5 months of elective (this includes a newly required sub-internship in one of 4 fields - medicine, surgery, family medicine, and one other - I don't remember)
All that added up is 80 weeks, which works out to about 19 months. Given that we start rotations in January of second year, we have about 28 months to do everything. When the woman told us that we could count on about 4 months off, she was taking into account a lot of other stuff that can really also be considered as time off. First of all, many people take about 2 months off to study for Step I January and February of 3rd year. There is also some other random exam thing that we have to take at some certain time (I obviously really have no clue what it is or when), but it's apparently only given at a certain time (it involves actually examining standardized patients, so it's hard to schedule whenever you want). So you have to be around for that and not off on some beach.
Then, there are classes that are held during our rotations that we sort of have to be around for. Starting in January of second year, we have something called CABS (no idea what that stands for). Basically, we come to Baylor every Thursday afternoon for a class. There's two exams involved in it, and it's over sometime in May/June. Attendance is not required, but it helps (sort of like PPS). Then, all of 3rd year, there is LACE (Longitudinal something Care something - basically, you follow a patient or patients for a long time). For that, your grade is based solely on how many sessions you attend.
Forth year they are currently restructuring. Currently, they have MMD (basically advanced IPS - the case study course thing). Many people have said that they don't learn a thing, but the administration apparently thinks it's important. So they're trying to redo it. My take is that it will be another once a week afternoon thing with small groups. Then there's the Capstone crap. No one really knows what it is. When we asked the administration at our info session on Tuesday, they said they couldn't tell us what it really was going to be because they aren't really sure themselves. Helpful, huh? The plan is to have it be some "bring it all together" sort of thing that happens during one month sometime in the spring of our 4th year. How one attempts to bring all of medicine together in one month is beyond me, but that's what we're told.
So, you can see that while there are still about 9 or 10 months with no rotations, there are still things going on here that you need to be around for and don't really have completely "off", and that's what the woman was referring to. Obviously, they know that people will be doing away rotations during all of this stuff, and know that people will be missing certain classes. It's fully expected.
I hope that answers the question. Let me know if you're now more confused.
