surgery rotation --- how do you get meaningful studying done??

[Lifeblood_20]

M3 on a busy surgery service, standing for 10 hours for cases daily + rounding etc. that sum up to like 12 hours of work in the hospital every day. Not including the 1-2 hours every day that I spend to read up on all the cases that day because my attending asks me a lot of hard questions so I want to make sure I seem at least a little prepared. All of this leaves me too exhausted to do any meaningful studying at night. I get some done on the weekend but it's not enough. I'm on week 3 of the 8-week rotation and honestly freaking out about the NBME and our school's OSCE and computer-based assessments (known for being notoriously difficult) that are in 5.5 weeks.

I know this is probably not a unique struggle on surgery but would appreciate any advice.

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[DarkBluMage]

Just starting surgery myself and this is a concern for me even though ours is 3 months long. Lookin forward to helpful suggestions.

 

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

Right there with you.

At some point, you're going to have downtime during the day. I try and study as much as possible during the rotation so I don't have to study when I get home.

If that doesn't work for you, then it looks like you just gotta utilize weekends as much as possible.

Surgery sucks and I don't see how anyone can do it long term. Hang in there.

 

[operaman]

It’s difficult.

1) you’re learning more than you think day to day. Much of the shelf is surgical decision making and periop management. There’s lots of overlap with IM and basic concepts as well.

2) have a couple comprehensive question banks on your phone and try to get through all of them by the end. Do the math and figure out how many that is per day and keep up. I liked banks with shorter stems so I could spend more time thinking and learning rather than slogging through a long UWorld style stem. Seeing a lot of questions helps get you in a surgery mindset. You’ll know you’re there when you read my #1 above and think I’m nuts and that there’s no IM on the surgery shelf at all. (And you’ll be right)

3) most schools will also have good high yield didactic sessions that tend to cover a lot of shelf relevant stuff.

4) videos are nice to review when you’re tired. In my day it was Pestana. I’m sure there’s newer and better things now, but some solid high yield videos can help you start thinking clinically. And these are easier for me than reading when I’m tired. Nice way to squeeze in some study.

5) surgery is definitely a marathon. The key is doing a little bit each day, and then using weekends to be a bit more aggressive on the study. This is a rotation where you cobble together many 10-15 minute sessions over the course of a day. This isn’t the go home by 2:30 and study til dinner time rotation.

 

[Billiam95]

1. Best advice would be to focus your time on high quality resources - uWorld, Amboss question bank, and CMS forms. Some endorse review resources like Dr. High Yield or Divine Intervention, but I never got much out of them. I was recommended Pestana's and de Vergilio's but I found Pestana's to be an absolute waste of time. IMO, focus on a complete pass of uWorld, uWorld incorrect (time permitting), subject-specific Amboss question sessions (ie, breast mass questions, etc), and CMS forms (absolutely necessary).

2. Make the most of your down time. Prairie dogging an OR room for the residents? Use that time to do Anki/uWorld on your phone. 30 minutes for lunch? Eat quickly and get some studying in. The hardest part, and the most necessary, is to get into a routine of forcing yourself to study for 2-3 hours a night after work. It does suck, but it won't last forever. Additionally, use your time on the weekends to crank out uworld questions.

3. This might be controversial, but put must of your effort into what will pay the most dividends for your final grade. I realized pretty early on that getting nitty gritty pip questions right generally had very little effect on my final evals, and therefore studying for boards instead of studying for pip questions was a better use of my time. Mileage may vary depending on institution.

Key to doing well on the surgery shelf (and all shelf exams) - cranking out as many uworld and amboss questions as you possibly can.

Honored the shelf last year using above strategies.

 

[Lifeblood_20]

Updating this thread to say that I took the shelf last week. I just received my score and I passed, which is all that matters for my school. (I got 72% with passing ~64%)

All I did was 1 pass of Uworld (560 questions) and that was enough. Granted, I think I learned A LOT from the day-to-day work in the hospital.

Happy to be done with this rotation.