Goodbye classroom, hello hospital!
Sean began his rotations at the beginning of the month. So instead of spending all his time in a lecture hall learning how to be a doctor, he gets to try it out! Big improvement. He started in the Psychiatry rotation which seems to be a pretty good transition into clinicals. The psych ER has been interesting for him. Notice Sean not wearing a tie? He was told not to. For his own safety. Heh.
As much as Sean enjoys rotations, it does have it's costs. How about a compare/contrast.
Classroom Sean
Time: Lectures were always scheduled from 8am to noon monday through friday. Three or four days a week, he'd have some commitment in the afternoon (be it another class, visiting a proctoring doctor, etc.). But that still left at least one day a week when he could come home at noon, while most of the other commitments would send him home between 3pm and 6pm. PLUS... his morning lectures would be recorded so Sean could stay home and watching it streaming online. It was awesome awesome awesome when he'd do this :)
Study: Sean would have to spend a lot of his home time studying. It wasn't so bad the first year when subjects were a bit simpler and class blocks were really long (taking a day off from studying wasn't such a big deal). But as he was learning more difficult things and classes shrunk to three weeks long, he was studying like mad. Not to mention the huge basic science exam at the end of last term. I treasured the couple of days between finals and the start of new classes since I finally had a care-free Sean on my hands.
Interest: Sometimes, a subject is just boring. Or a teacher seems to have taken notes from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Hospital Sean
Time: Well, there's definitely no wiggle room in Sean's schedule. It's like a job: you can't be late and there's no skipping. For Psych, he's scheduled for nine hours a day, M-F, plus he's on call every couple of weeks or so (on a Saturday or a weekday evening). And so far, the schedule's constantly changing (though it'll probably be more regular next month). It's frustrating for Sean because he sees the boys a lot less-usually just a couple hours in the morning or a couple hours at night. This also means I have less help with the boys. And less time with my hubby.
Study: This may change as his shelf exam approaches and with other rotations, but Sean has not had to study nearly as much. So despite less time at home, it's usually better quality time.
Interest: This is what you envision when you sign up for med school! Sean loves doing real work, meeting with real patients, gaining hands-on knowledge. Even in the psychiatric medical domain, one in which Sean won't likely end up, he's getting lots of exposure to medical needs and treatment options. Something that's rather boring to learn about in a lecture suddenly becomes exciting in a real life situation. Plus, he likes to tell me about all the drugs that are advertised on television. Did you know that most advertised anti-depressants are primarily anti-psychotics?
Overall, I'm really glad Sean is enjoying this part of medical school so much more. And I love the quality of his time at home. I sure wish he could spend more time with the boys but at least he has great quality time with them when he's here. Thank goodness his rotations started at this point in the boys lives. It used to be so hard to care for them by myself. But now that their sleep is better, they're a little more independent, and I've got a good routine going, it's not such a daunting task to care for them each day.
And he's such a sweetheart to me. For instance, last week Sean had a nine-hour day followed by hours on call. It was his first day without seeing the boys at all :( So it was a rough and tiresome day for him. Of course, I went and got a monster headache. When Sean came home at 11pm to a whimpering wife, he stayed up to rub my head until I fell asleep. Another day, he brought home flowers. I love that man.
I knew what I was in for when Sean applied to medical school. And I know he'll just get busier (surgery's going to be a doozy. And then there's residency!) but we'll take it in stride. Sean's doing so much so that he can provide for our little family and I love him for it.
