Going above and beyond for certain rotations
Cardiology 🫀 ❤️
Why I believe in going above and beyond in certain rotations:
I remember at the beginning of year 5, we had a meeting with the hospital director who introduced us to the hospital and gave us a warm talk.
In his presentation, he mentioned something that stuck with me as one of the most important things he mentioned that day. Simply paraphrased, he said, “Even though you may have special interests in some rotations, do not half-ass the other rotations” (he didn’t use the word ass just FYI lmao).
He used the analogy of being a digger and every hole you dig is a different rotation. Deep hole means you invest everything into that rotation (study hours, rotation hours, on calls, etc). He said if you barely dig any holes for the entire 2 years that are left, but dig the deepest hole for one that you love, you will struggle in your exams with the rest and you also might miss out on what might be a good rotation that sparks your interest.
After hearing that advice I decided to go into every rotation with an open mind and the main goal was to learn, get hands-on clinical experience but most importantly, see what each rotation would be like as a future job for myself.
As much as I loved the director’s advice and I agree with it. I tweaked it a little. What I think is the right balance, is to invest an equal amount of time in most rotations that I had a neutral feeling towards, such as paediatrics and OBGYN. In the rotations that I hated as subjects in class, I walked in with an open mind. Such as psychiatry - unfortunately, even with an open mind, I still hate psychiatry. Another one was Neuro, I hated theoretical Neuro, however, because I walked in with an open mind, I ended up LOVING neuro and it genuinely made me so interested in it that the 5 weeks of Neuro rotations flew.
With that all being said, and again, as much as I agree with the director, there are certain rotations that you just can’t help but immerse yourself in. For me that rotation is cardiology. From day 1, I have loved every single moment. I go in at 8 am every day, I help with ECGs, bloods, I am interested in every disease that is spoken about and more recently, I am becoming interested in Interventional cardiology. I am also doing on-calls in cardiology. Basically, I am digging a very deep hole in cardiology, but that is okay BECAUSE the other holes I dug are not shallow. The other holes are all of substantial depth (except Psychiatry, that shit is shallow).
Where am I going with all this? Do not favour just one rotation. Do not put 1% effort in 8 rotations, and then put 100% effort in one. Put some good effort in most, some that you hate can get the 1% effort no matter what, but the ones you love and you know that this is what you want to do in the future, put 150% in. Get the full experience, the full shabang if I may.
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🚶🏻♂️ About me:
My name is Habib and I am a 5th-year Medical student currently in Cyprus. I grew up in Tanzania (Hakuna Matata is from the local language of my country and the second tallest mountain (Kilimanjaro) is found there).
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