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VCOM Students

Marisela Davis: Riverside Regional Medical Center, Newport News

If you could write a “letter” to your second-year self about rotations, what would you say?

Mari, things are about to change. Your schedule and everything in it will have to be adjusted and that will just be part of the journey. Keep yourself as flexible as possible, remember to always ask questions and for feedback. Most importantly, keep pushing through. There are hard days ahead that will arise over the next year or so, but with the right mindset you’ll find your way around. Good luck!

 

What stands out about your third-year rotations?

There isn’t one thing that really stands out to me – but looking back over the last year or so I’m pleasantly surprised at how some rotations really pushed me to grow and I’m proud of how I handled that.

Being on call for a rotation like surgery, where you must be ready to respond at any time during the shift, taught me the importance of balance. Some days it can be nearly impossible to do anything more than be a student learning on a rotation and that’s ok. The key is to realize that you’ll need to shift your schedule around in other ways to add things to your life like studying, working out or being with your loved ones. Sometimes you have to sacrifice your Saturday to get caught up, that’s just part of this period in your life!

 

What is a "typical" day like for you?

This is dependent on the rotation. It also really depends on if you are in the hospital or outpatient in a clinic somewhere. I’m more of a morning person when it comes to productivity, so regardless of what rotation I’m on my morning usually starts around 5 a.m. I get a hot cup of coffee and sit down for at least an hour or so to try and work on board prep or study for the rotation I’m currently on. On a hospital rotation, usually I’m there by 6-7 a.m. and leave by 6-7 p.m. If I’m on a clinic rotation, this usually is more like a 7:30-8 a.m. start time to a 5-6 p.m. leave time.

The key to eating dinner consistently as a third year is to meal prep when you can! Set aside time on Sunday for this if possible – it’ll make life that much easier. I eat, shower and then try to get at least another two hours of studying in before I try to get to sleep, no later than 10 p.m. Every other morning, I do try to get a small workout in or at least get home and take my dog for a long walk to make sure I have time to decompress and transition from work to home too. This is an important part of the day!

How has the rotation experience helped solidify what you want to practice? 

At this point in my third year, I’m ready to pursue emergency medicine as my career choice. I had not decided on a specialty going into third year but had experience in EMS in college, which I tried to not let be the sole guiding factor on my opinion on what field I wanted to go into. I tried to just let the rotations happen to me and be open to the possibilities. Two decisions to make after you’ve had a few rotations are if you want to be in a surgical specialty or not and if you want to be in the hospital or outpatient. After my surgery rotation and experiencing out vs inpatient medicine, I knew I wanted to work as part of a team, have the opportunity to do procedures as opposed to surgery, and work in the hospital as opposed to outside of it. I also reached out to students ahead of me and the emergency medicine advisor to talk over my decision-making process which was honestly some of the most helpful advice I’ve ever received. 

Overall, I would summarize this as: Be open to the possibility that any rotation could really win you over. Don’t be afraid to explore different fields and to talk to people who are currently in them. Making a decision is one of the hardest things you’ll have to do, trust the process and when the time comes, the pieces will come together. 

 

What do you want people to know about what rotations are, how they work and why they are important?

Rotations for a third-year medical student are vitally important to our journey as young medical professionals. During the third year, we work with doctors in a variety of fields and learn how to do what they do, care for their patients, and try to assess and see if we ourselves should become part of that particular field. It is a transitionary period for students from the classroom to the clinic and serves as a steppingstone into the next part of our medical school experience.