Little Monsters

So, I’ve been on vacation.  Away from all things med school. Now I’m back, and it’s time for the 3^rd year clerkship lottery.

Me (whining about clerkship lottery) – “I hate med school”

4^th year friend – “I hate all the drama, it makes us into little monsters.”

It really, really does. “Choosing” our 3^rd year rotations really is a cruel joke. They tell us to rank everything we want most, in our ideal world; location of each rotation and the order in which we want them. So we do, we research, read what students have said in the past, talk to our upper year friends, talk to each other, try to figure out what would be best for us, our goals, our situations. Some people really want to do surgery at our BigCityHospital, some people don’t have cars and can’t drive to affiliated hospitals, some people have kids, etc, etc.

Then they tell us, “well, you probably won’t get what you really want since we re-randomize the class for each choice and there’s no way to tell us the one or two things you really want for next year.”  Lots of whining ensues.  I’d much rather just be given my schedule and not have this illusion of control over it. I’d much rather tell them the one thing I really want (Family Med at a certain location, Medicine first), and get whatever for the rest of it. Don’t make me rank every. single. option.  And they wonder why empathy decreases in medical school. Apparently it will get worse next year.  Actually 2nd and 4th years are the best for empathy.  There has got to be a better way to do this.