Cannot believe matching process is around the counter. Now, to chair DS along hit iff his amazing research year.
[quote]
@WayOutWestMom "Many students report that during/after taking Step 1, they feel sick and discouraged.[\quote]
âŠand at the end of Step 2 CK, and Step 3 if they arenât IM or EM residents and with each In-Training Exam, and after their board certifying exam and oral boardsâŠ
Yep, residency over with, fellowship begun, studying for boards and, again with the âOMG, how will I passâ imposter syndrome feelings
Step 3 today.
@WayOutWestMom
In the overall scheme of things, I remember Step 3 to be for a small bump in the road. But I also seem to remember that when S took it, it was only one day exam and now itâs a two day exam, yes? If yes, do you know rationale for change?
Hmm⊠youâre right Step 3 is now a 2 day exam. Per the USMLE website, the test was divided into 2 part to better access different aspects of medical knowledge & practice.
Full rationale here: https://www.usmle.org/pdfs/step-3/USMLE_Step_3_addendum_to_2014_BOI.pdf
Whoah! This is A LOT different than the Step 3 D1 took 4 years ago⊠No wonder D2 has spent the past month studying for it.
Yay! Another milestone.
First overnight 30 hours shiftâand in L&D during the âChristmas rushâ.
Nice! :)) D just had her last 28 hr, or at least till the next one as she says. Did your daughter get at least a few minutes sleep, @WayOutWestMom ?
I would think people avoid L&D during Christmas. 
I wish we could know how many hours a doctor has been awake before allowing them to do anything on/to us. Thereâs no way Iâd want a doctor working on me with less than 6 hours of sleep in the past 24 hours.
Iâve seen way too many studies about what sleep deprivation does to humans (doctors or not) to want to subject my body to such a thing. Give me someone who is decently rested. I hate that we donât know. Thatâs a system that needs to be fixed IMO.
You can always ask, then request a different doctor if you feel the one handling your cases is sleep deprived or acting erratically. I know several people who have exactly done this. You donât need a give a reason when requesting a different doctor.
ACGME did 2 long term studies (3 and 5 years) on patient outcomes (one w/ surgery residents and one w/ medicine residents) that found there were no increases in medical errors and fewer patient hand-off errors when interns worked longer shifts. <---This isn't to say that residents don't hate working an overnight; they do, but patients aren't being endangered because of it.
And just because a resident is on hospital call doesn't mean they haven't slept recently. Unless the resident is actively required to be on the floor, they're allowed to sleep/nap in the on-call room--which they all do.
D1 says hospital call sucks, but it's one and done and you have recovery time built in. Having a shift change is worse because it screws up your sleep cycle long term.
D2 is enjoying her guaranteed duty-free 18 hours off by going mountain biking then attending a cookout w/ her friends from med school today. @WayOutWestMom Oh Iâm aware that napping on call is common and certainly have no problem with that (for any job). I just wish we knew how much actual sleep doctors had when theyâre not able to get those naps in and theyâre the ones working on us. We have no way of knowing.
I see way too many brain/life/driving/whatever studies to agree that thereâs no harm. Heck, I can even tell the difference in brain video game scores with sleep deprivation or early morning/late evening differences. Itâs easy to see in the classroom too, but in those situations I know what Iâm looking for. When doctors are making decisions I simply donât have the knowledge to know if theyâre making the right call or not.
My mom had a chemo nurse putting her bag on telling us, âOk 180 minutes, thatâs 2 1/2 hours.â Um, no, it isnât. Thatâs one we can catch (not sure all would have TBH). There are plenty of decisions made that we donât have the background to catch.
On my daughterâs last two 28 hour shifts, she got about 6 hrs sleep on one, and on the other, zero sleep. Zero. And sheâs a surgery resident. Makes me nervous.
Good to know we can request a different doctor. No offense to your kids, but residents always make me nervous, with our familyâs odd medical history. The straw was when a young resident was going to RELEASE my son from the ER when he was acting very oddly. I asked to speak to the supervising doctor and he immediately reversed the decision. But why did the mother have to get involved in something so obvious? The thought of an exhausted resident is even scarier. 
Truck drivers have to have so many hours off the road each day (my nephew is one). Why not doctors? Both have jobs where others lives are at stake when/if something goes wrong. I donât want a tired truck driver on the road with me and I donât want a tired doctor making important decisions about my life.
I donât know a single person who does any job better or even at their best when tired. Humans need rest.
And just like that, DS is on this path. Wishing all else good luck on this residency journey.
My D is too, @learninginprog. Good luck to your son.
Awesome @dheldreth . Good luck to her
Itâs real. A couple IIs received.
Looks scary, one of the II my D got had interviewed 60 candidates for 4 positions last year.
Whats the success rate you guys have been experiencing?