How You Can Spend Summer As A Medical Student

This is advice I would have appreciated before summers of the past years of med school. Unfortunately very few people in life - especially med students - like to share information that might help others (one of the main reasons I started this blog, to provide information that might help everyone)

1. Summer after Foundation year: Foundation year is like an extension of high school. So unless you need to repeat a course you got a less than optimum mark in, then this is pure beach- and sleep-filled vacation. There is nothing career - medical career that is - related you can do, that I know of, at this stage.


2. Summer after Year 1:
   A) Summer courses (university electives and compulsory courses), if need be, are preferably taken here.
   A chat about summer courses is overdue at this point: In foundation year, lecturers scare you about not finishing elective and compulsory courses before graduation. They tell you stories of students in their final year of medical school but who had not finished the elective and compulsory university courses and were not allowed to graduate because of that. Scared shitless, many medical students spend all 3 summers after foundation year trying to finish these courses during the summer semester. This is an utter waste of time, unless you feel you cannot manage studying an elective course with your usual medical studies. With a little planning, you can finish all your university compulsory and elective courses before Year 3. I felt confident enough to juggle elective and compulsory courses alongside with my medical studies. Based on that, I laid the following plan for myself. Remember, lay down the plan you feel suits you. You don't need to compare yourself to others. By year 2, students who had taken 2 summers filled with courses were nearly done but I wasn't. Yet they spent a 3rd summer to finish these courses while I got to enjoy 2 summers more than they did.

B) Start preparing for USMLE Step 1 if you are planning to take it in the next few years. Most, if not all, students think that the USMLE, like all exams, is cramming. Exams are not about cramming. Give your brain time to consolidate memories of information. Read and re-read. Then read again the same information. And again. Over time. That is the real secret to understanding and keeping information in your long-term store for use even past the USMLE and college exams (which I assure you, you will need). Even though cramming works, students know it is only a temporary storage of information. Yet we are forced into it because of a lack of time.


3. Summer after Year 2: If you are interested in research, allocate a time during this summer to learning about research (whether in our university or elsewhere). Research labs. Community research. Whatever interests you. Contact professors in university or other universities who are conducting research and ask to be mentored. (This is a point I wish I had known about at the right time. I only discovered the fact that our university conducts research a few weeks ago.)


4. Summer after Year 3: This summer should be for a clinical attachment. Public hospitals may have clinical attachment programs (Rashid Hospital, Dubai Hospital, you may want to try Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah. There are many more hospitals but these are the ones I know of.). Contact the department you are interested in and ask them or visit their website.



Alternatively, you can take a break in the summer after Year 2 (I know how hectic that year is). Then in this summer, allocate 1 month to research and 1 month to clinical attachment.
(I juggled both research and clinical attachment in 2 months at the same time. It was utterly exhausting. Why did I do this? I didn't know till this summer that our university conducted research.)


5. Summer after Year 4: shortest summer of med school. You will have 6 weeks to do your elective in any place of your choosing (I'll write a post after I've stepped in a few puddles myself and found the solutions and right way of stepping over the puddles)

Note to all med students reading this: Medical life is tough because of the competition. It's easy to get lost in the heat and jumble of things, lose yourself, your health and your life. Summers were meant to be a break for the mind and body. The above is only a humble suggestion from yours truly. But you can always spend summers to grow your talents.