Hi…
This is a question to the other med student parents and how they handled having their kids and doing their clinical rotations. I know that during some rotations the hours can be really long. Right now (in second year), everything works out pretty well, I drop my kids off on my way to school, they go to an afterschool program until I pick them up, but I’m worried about the rotations (like surgery) when the work day goes late, especially if it’s something that runs long on a daily basis. Any input on how others dealt with this would be great (so I can put my stressing toward exams) 
. Thanks…
I’ve been very fortunate in that my husband works from home and does all the chauffering. Most of the people I know have had someone to help with the kids such as a spouse, parent, or sibling. Occasionally it’s really tough to work out. For example, one single mom at my school wound up sending her son to live with his dad during third year. She missed him terribly and spent as much of her off time with him as she could. Fortunately, it worked out for them all with the added benefit of a closer relationship between her son and his dad.
One of my guidelines for life is "If you really want to do something, you can find a way to do it."
I’m confident something will work out for you. 
Kim
There is no question but that you’ll have to have a child care arrangement with flexible starting and ending hours during your third (and fourth) years. I generally found that it was impossible to get a “straight answer” from anyone in answer to the question, “How long is the day going to be?” and when I got into it, I found out why: it’s just too unpredictable.
In surgery, for example, you might be scheduled to assist on a case that starts at 1pm. Unfortunately the 9am case in that OR starts late and ends up running into complications… before you know it, your case is starting at 4pm. That kind of thing happens ALL the time.
Or, you’re on medicine, and you’ve finished everything for the day and are thinking, hmmmmm, looks like I can get outta here before 6pm, when your team gets an admission and YOUR number is up to do the history, physical and orders on the new person. Damn! If you’d left five minutes earlier, someone else would’ve gotten it, but now you’re stuck for probably two extra hours.
Or (this happened to me just the other night) it’s 9:30pm in the ER and you are supposed to leave at 11pm. it’s been a quiet night… and then the charge nurse informs you, “We’ve got a domestic, looks like some lacerations.” It takes you until 10:45 to anesthetize the guy and clean his wounds, and then you start stitching… finishing at 12:30am.
Like I said, this kind of thing happens ALL the time. Many times you won’t easily be able to even get to a phone to let anyone know that you’re going to be late. It’s very, very difficult - I’ve had some friends pull their hair out over their child care concerns. It seems that the best solution is to have someone who can stay at your house - feed the kids and put them to bed if necessary. Finding someone who can be SO flexible is, obviously, a real challenge.
I wish I knew of a good solution to suggest for you, but unfortunately what I’ve observed is people just kinda cobbling together a variety of solutions over time. Good luck to you.
| QUOTE (Mary Renard @ Sep 3 2003, 12:43 AM) |
| Or (this happened to me just the other night) it's 9:30pm in the ER and you are supposed to leave at 11pm. it's been a quiet night... and then the charge nurse informs you, "We've got a domestic, looks like some lacerations." It takes you until 10:45 to anesthetize the guy and clean his wounds, and then you start stitching.... finishing at 12:30am. |
OMG, Debbie is going to kill me......she doesn't let me stay out late at night. Mary, can you talk to her?
Thanks Kim and Mary…
Looks like I’ll just have to keep juggling the best I can. I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end, at least I always tell myself that 
.
bob