As you can imagine, going on residency interviews requires a decent amount of time off. During the interview season, I scheduled research blocks so that I could travel for my interviews. Since I’ve been traveling and doing research, I’m starting to get worried that my clinical side is getting rusty. I always found that my clinical knowledge was being formed and retained because I was forced to know it during my clinical rotations. Now that I’ve been out of clinical rotations for a few months I already feel like I’m getting rusty.
Something struck me while I was reflecting on this. While I was on my clinical rotations, I longed for breaks. I wanted to have time off of clinical rotations because I was getting tired of it. Now that I have had a decent amount of time off for interviews, I find myself longing to be back in the hospital. I was amused at this cycle. When I’m not in the hospital I want to be in the hospital and when I’m in the hospital I want to not be in the hospital!
Either way, I’m worried that, come intern year, I’m not going to remember basic medicine. The rotations I have scheduled currently include ophthalmology, SICU, and PM&R. I think that all of these rotations will be useful in kickstarting my return to the medical world. Looking back, I don’t think I would have changed my schedule in any other way. Just make sure you’re still doing something medical in fourth-year!
