Hello From. . . Where Am I This Month?

[JTJohnson17]

Greetings from the Nomad Medical Student.

 

I stumbled across this forum some time back and this has become a sanity saver as well as a great source of information for tracking down answers to some of the problems I have been experiencing with my Silverado.

 

My name is Jeremy, and I am a fourth year Medical Student out on clinical rotations. I only have another 6 months and then I graduate from medical school, and will be able to go from working 80+ hours a week for free to working 80 hours a week for a pittance as a resident. But, the challenges are great, the people better, and the free food is of an abysmal quality. This website has given me several ideas on how to fix some of the issues my Silverado has developed.

 

The current ride is a 2005 Silverado Extended Cab Z-71 with the 5.3L. I have been fortunate to have owned this vehicle since delivery and it has been an extremely reliable truck, in some cases too reliable as I have been the only student to arrive on time for some rotations. And at almost 40,000 miles put on in the last year, it remains extremely comfortable. And to think that I considered trading it in for something smaller. Now, if it can last another 6 years to get through Residency. . .

 

Thanks,

 

Jeremy T. Johnson

Class of 2010

Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine

 

Proud Owner of a 2005 Silverado Ext Cab 5.3L Z-71 in glorious white

[Stevens03]

Welcome to the site.

[MS3DALE]

Welcome future Doctor!

 

A friend of mine is in her final year of nursing school at Penn State,I see what she goes through with tests,exams,quizzes,and her clinicals as well ....I can't imagine what its like to go to school to be a doctor

[JTJohnson17]

Most days are really good. All are extremely challenging. And the days that are awful are extremely awful. But then you get on the highway onramp and tromp on the gas pedal and listen to the V8 howl and you smile. Then you smile some more when you make it home and talk. I am extremely fortunate that my fiance is also in the exact same spot that I am. So we get to talk things through.

 

 

And RC Cars always bring a smile to the face. I keep two in the back of the truck charged as sanity savers. They have yet to fail me.

 

 

Jeremy

[MS3DALE]

And RC Cars always bring a smile to the face. I keep two in the back of the truck charged as sanity savers.

 

I have a couple myself,But there old....TAMIYA ClodBuster and Super Blackfoot

[SeirraRR]

Welcome to the site.

[bigredmariner]

Welcome aboard.

[99silveradoz71]

Howdy

[Black02Silverado]

Welcome to GMT! Good luck on finishing med school! At least you are going into a field that has jobs. I went to my nephews graduation last weekend at ECU and all the nurses that graduated already had jobs lined up. They were a rowdy bunch of folks!!!

[pwall]

Welcome to

[pistonslap]

Qoute "working 80 hours a week for a pittance as a resident". Curious as to what you consider a pittance ? I know all about the years in school,long hours etc... but around here even registered nurses make pretty good money. Do they screw you on your wages because you are actually still training?

[JTJohnson17]

Qoute "working 80 hours a week for a pittance as a resident". Curious as to what you consider a pittance ? I know all about the years in school,long hours etc... but around here even registered nurses make pretty good money. Do they screw you on your wages because you are actually still training?

 

The residency training programs receive a stipend from the government to cover the training of residents. From that stipend, insurance, training supplies, etc has to be paid. When you remove all of that, we get paid from the remaining. It works out to be about 44K for Internal Medicine. Which is pretty good money, except that most residents have a large amount of debt to pay off and we have been told that we are losing some of the deferment options on our loans which means we get to start paying back immediately.

 

The average resident is capped at an 80 hour averaged work week over the course of the year. You also figure on about 19 days of vacation. So if you multiply 80 hours/week by 49 weeks of work, you are looking at 3,920 hours worked throughout the year. Divide your 44,000 salary by the 3,920 hours and your average resident is making $11.22/hour. Again, it is not bad, just not what everyone thinks we make. So, yes, most of the nurses, the physician assistants, the lab techs will make way more than a Resident. And they get to miss out on 30 hours of call every third or fourth day.

 

It will all work out in the end. But the first years are pretty tough.

 

 

Jeremy

[amtz.zero]

Welcome! Let's see some pictures of your truck.

[lostnfound]

Welcome to the site. Good luck with residency, hope this is your only obligation. Ive always thought how hard it would be to do this while also having a family to worry about.

[JTJohnson17]

Welcome to the site. Good luck with residency, hope this is your only obligation. Ive always thought how hard it would be to do this while also having a family to worry about.

 

In a way this is my only obligation. I will be getting married 5 days after I graduate from medical school and about two weeks before I have to report for the beginning of residency. I am lucky in that my fiance/wife will also be starting her residency, so we will both be going through this together. The running joke between us is that we will never see each other, so we will never argue. And when we see each other, we will be too tired to argue.

 

I have several friends that have young families that were started while they were in medical school. They are a lot better at time management than I am. They have also learned to be extremely selfish with their personal time and protect it. They also have very understanding husbands/wives.

 

The nice thing is that I have no friends that are going for Neurosurgery and are married right now. The joke of Neurosurgery is that training takes 7 years and 7 marriages, but you will come out with a 7 figure salary. I would rather not find out if that part is true or not though.

 

I plan on getting some pictures up when I am finally on my vacation rotation in 9 days. I will finally have a chance to sit down, take a deep breath and clean the truck. Thing is a pig stye right now.

 

Jeremy