Stress – Page 4 – Supporting an Aspiring Doctor

Dedicated is the study period the is “dedicated” for Step 1. It’s a larger window of time where there is no class, but required practice exams for Step 1. Dedicated and Step 1 are some of the largest challenges of my wife’s Medical School journey, and is the most challenging to date.

Before dedicated started, my wife began laying out how she was going to study during this time. She has online study guides and tools, and she planned to use them accordingly. She planned to go through practice questions in excess of 150 per day, and watch videos to help her remember key terminology. She laid out the study session for 6 weeks, and is currently approaching the end of her fourth week of study.

She began studying at home, but soon found it to be boring. It was hard for her to sit in the same place everyday and try to study. So, she started going out after lunch and studying in a new location. This mixed up the scenery a little bit, and it seemed to help her keep focused. Her favorite locations to study are the alcoves of the simulation building and coffee shops. She loves to have lots of windows for sunshine and scenery.

She hasn’t tried studying with other students, but I think this is mainly because the students work at their own pace and can go through whatever material they want.

In the evening I usually make dinner when I get home from work. She enjoys when I make dinner because it allows her to study up to dinner time, then we can eat together and her study time isn’t used on meal preparation. I enjoy making dinner as well. I tend to make roasts, chicken dishes, or pasta. It just depends on how much time we have and what we are interested in eating.

Unfortunately for her, we are in the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak in the US. This has closed a lot of the places where she was studying, and has made the future seem a little bit unpredictable. The state of Ohio has put restrictions on schools, which has put the status of taking the Step 1 exam in jeopardy. If all goes well, she will be able to take the Step 1 exam early this year and will not have to wait longer.

This is one of the most common phrases that I have heard from med students. Talking with my wife’s classmates, I hear this in nearly every conversation. The main focus for medical students is studying, and time is the biggest constraint. School is their full time job, and they are expected (by the school) to not only succeed, but excel. Medical school is extremely fast paced and time consuming, which makes breaks very precious.

A lot of my wife’s classmates take breaks very seriously. By seriously I mean when they get any opportunity, they travel. They tend to take large trips, depending on the allotted time. These can be fairly expensive trips, especially when they travel to Europe, South America, and Florida on student loans. In my opinion, it is more important to find a hobby and do small trips regularly. Taking large extravagant trips is fun, but the relaxation and enjoyment needs to be distributed. It is good to be able to spread out the relaxation, and not be looking forward to trips just once every 8-10 weeks.

My wife tries to do something fun or relaxing every day, and I think it makes a difference in her mental health. I can usually tell when she needs to take a break. During summer we try to ride bikes daily for 30-60 minutes. It’s not quite as fun when its 95 degrees outside, but it serves its purpose as exercise and time together. This is time where she can talk to me about school or we can talk about anything outside of school. Usually we ride in Metro Parks because we like the nature scenery. We are from rural Indiana, so it makes us feel a little bit closer to home.

Something else that we do that would be considered a “break” is going to the store together. She takes a little time out of her schedule so that we can go to the store and buy groceries. This is also very helpful to me because she gets what she wants to eat, and I don’t have to guess. I try to keep the fridge stocked with food that is easy for her to prepare because she doesn’t have a lot of downtime while she is studying.

My wife has made the goal to be done with school work at about 9 pm every night. Occasionally she is working at 10 pm, but that is uncommon. Having a set end time allows her to spend about 1 hour of her night doing whatever she wants. Her time is a lot tighter now than it was earlier in medical school. She is currently in Dedicated, the window of time set aside specifically for medical students to study for Step 1. This is a very important exam that causes a lot of stress as it is the exam that dictates their entire career (I will talk more on this in another post).

Some final thoughts for the reader:

Find something that you can do daily. If you can find a hobby or relaxing activity you can do daily, you will feel better than trying to hold the stress waiting until your next big break.

Set a schedule, and stick to it. This will make a huge difference in how much time you have to spend with others. Make time for things you love outside of medicine.

Take day trips when possible. Try not to just take trips or do something fun when you have a long break. Breaks between classes or weekends offer a good opportunity for relaxation. This makes it possible to do it more often, and can keep your stress level lower.

Tag: Stress (Page 4 of 4)

Step 1 Preparation

“Let me see if I have time.”