iscr wrote: » That whole issue of RCSI bullying- You know not the hour or the day when it can happen. It's random.Saw a guy this year pounced upon while making a simple powerpoint presentation, physically manhandled and totally humiliated in front of his peers. He was in complete shock as were the rest of us. I've seen incidences on the streets of dublin that were less frightening. Then, you have very nice guys who treat you well and it's easy to learn from them. Maybe the bullying is an Irish Doctor thing ? Do these kind of these kind of things happen in UCD or are there limits imposed on the behaviour of those who train student doctors?
pc11 wrote: » Could some people from either UCD or RCSi write up a little about their 3/4th years? Even just an outline of the year, where they were, what rotations, and how it went would be great. How did you find the different rotations? What did you like/dislike? How did you find the various hospitals? Did you feel like it was crazy and overwhelming or did you actually manage pretty well? Anything really!
WoolahUrma wrote: » Can you tell me what you thought of your classmates? Also, was the travel a pain? Into stephens, back out to sandyford What about connolly? Thanks again for the effort
pc11 wrote: » RCSI YEAR 1Begin September 9th Classes for 6 weeks, then 1 week break Classes again until Xmas Exams after Xmas in mid-January then 2 week break Exams in May, then off for June/July (only around 8 weeks) Hospital placement in August Based in Sandyford mostly, 2 afternoons in Stephens Green, some visits to Beaumont RCSI YEAR 2Begins early Sept Exams before Xmas In hospital for January Exams in May In hospital for June, Summer holiday ~8 weeks Based in Blanchardstown all year
etymon wrote: » Yep. Though we never got a mid-term break in GEP1. By the way, are you guys aware over 23s in fulltime education can sign on the dole for the summer?
pc11 wrote: » You didn't get a break? How so? Has the year structure changed or did they make you work through the break? RCSI confirmed the 1 week off in October. What was your year 3 outline like? Are you serious about the dole?? I had no idea! (EDIT: not to doubt you, but can you provide a link to read more about this? I have never seen it mentioned anywhere) I've been enjoying your blog, by the way. EDIT #2: Apparenty the dole thing might be true! See http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Jobseekers-Allowance.aspx Do CTRL-F for 'mature' I'm stunned, it never occurred to me.
etymon wrote: » Tis true, I got approved for it within a week and have already been 'paid'. I worked the other summers but it's good to know it's there if you need it.
etymon wrote: » Year 3 is six weeks of Paeds, Psych, OB/GYN, GP and med/surg each in turn. Year 4 is all med/surg with a few weeks of ophthalmology and ENT.
etymon wrote: » Holidays after GEP2 and GEP3 are good - we now have three months off, absolutely nowt to do.
etymon wrote: » With the greatest of respect, as I know you guys are excited and anxious and wondering all the same things i wondered before I started, don't get yourselves hung up on all these little details. Wherever you end up, you will enjoy. You will not get through the four years without some gripe at the management or the facilities. You will have at least one argument with a classmate; well one sober one and at least five drunken ones. You will absolutely despise some rotations despite good teaching and love others despite dodgy teaching. All the colleges spit out a doctor at the end and if you think your consultant in intern year is gonna be bothered about where you got your degree or how well you did in the class you're wrong - s/he just wants to know that you can stick cannulas in people and chase up Xrays etc.
pc11 wrote: » Nice one. Do you know if the month in hospital in Summer 1 would be allowed for dole?
letsdothis wrote: » I would sincerely doubt it. You wouldn't been "available for and genuinely seeking work". DSP are now applying this condition even more stringently that in years gone by.
pc11 wrote: » Fair enough. In practice, do you think they know about the specifics of courses like this?
letsdothis wrote: » I couldn't say for sure but there has been a massive crack down on social welfare fraud in the last two years or so and I wouldn't be surprised if they contacted the college to see if you are genuinely available to work. If you are on placement it doesn't differ from being in a classroom, does it?
letsdothis wrote: » Haven't said that, based on a very conservative estimation of you not getting any work for the summers and being off for 8 weeks over three summers, you're talking about not far off €5,000 income that you weren't counting on yesterday!
BobbyOLGrinds wrote: » I'm in a bit of a rush today with errands, but I'll try my best to give a quick once over here from a UCD point of view. I've just finished the course, and have received my job offer for the coming year. Year 3 and 4 are busy years. Much busier and much harder than 1 and 2. You'll be stressed out in first and second year but you'll look back and realise it was all your own doing and that you should have relaxed more. C'est la vie, and I understand that it's easy for me to say that now, given my position. Year 3 is known as Res year in UCD, and I assume elsewhere too. You're completely integrated with the undergraduates, with the whole year being known as Res year. I went to SVUH, so I won't be able to give you the Mater perspective. You're placed in hospital for 12 weeks, split into 6 week blocks of medicine and surgery. Depending on the team you're on, and how strict they are about students coming to rounds, you'll be in from anywhere from 6:30am to 9am. Typically you'll go on rounds, be ignored, and then filter back to the res room for tea. On surgery you change week to week, medicine every 3 weeks. They've removed gynaecology and replaced it with ENT as far as I know this year, but don't quote me on that. This is probably better, you learn more than enough gynae on your specific rotations. After the 12 weeks you have the surgery short paper, the medicine 1 MCQ and the medicine OSCEs. The surgery paper is fine, as is the med MCQ. The OSCE can be a pain in the neck but if you practice, you'll be fine. Forensic and legal medicine is 3 weeks off before Christmas. The gradescale is ridiculous, something like 97% is an A+. I don't think the medal was awarded in our year as none of us did well enough. It's simple enough to do fine on though, and with everyone getting a C or C+, it doesn't affect your centile mark too badly. Back to hospital in January you do Medicine II and continue surgery. Medicine II is based more around data interpretation and emergency management. In my opinion it's simpler than Medicine I, but your mileage may vary. The exams at the end are medicine written paper, surgical MCQ, and surgical OSCE. The surgical paper was hilarious, I did quite well but for the life of me I can't figure out how. After this you go onto either Obs/Paeds or GP/Psych. You get to put a preference down but you get whatever the college say. I got Obs/Paeds. They're six weeks long each and are very intensive. You'll have thought that Med/Surg was tough, but when you're presenting your first ante-natal history you'll know what I mean. The exam format has changed since I did it, I think now all the exams are at the end of the 12 week block, instead of at six weeks. I'm on the fence as to which is easier, though with both these modules you are so well prepared, you'll do fine. Obs has a 96% pass rate in UCD, or at least it did when I was there. This compares to 60-70% elsewhere. This isn't to say UCD has an easy course, quite the opposite really, but you are very well taught with Obstetrics being renown as the best organised course in the entire medical school. That's all I've got for now. I apologise for the rambling nature of it! I'll come back later and format it into something a bit more legible. Best of luck folks with the offers.
pc11 wrote: » Also, it might in fact be 4 summers as we will have a gap of a couple of months from finishing 4th year to finding an intern job, so even better!
pc11 wrote: » If I choose UCD with 15 week summers, finding work is quite viable. But, if I'm in RCSI with only 7-8 weeks off, it's almost impossible to find work, or at least any decent paying work, so this could be a real help. In fact, it pretty much fills my budget gap. It also relieves the emotional pressure of HAVING to find work.
pc11 wrote: » Yeah, you're probably right. One thing is if you had thoughts of spending a summer abroad, presumably the dole is out for that summer. Absolutely. I have a pretty detailed spreadsheet with various budget scenarios for 4 years, and this will make quite a difference. If I choose UCD with 15 week summers, finding work is quite viable. But, if I'm in RCSI with only 7-8 weeks off, it's almost impossible to find work, or at least any decent paying work, so this could be a real help. In fact, it pretty much fills my budget gap. It also relieves the emotional pressure of HAVING to find work. Also, it might in fact be 4 summers as we will have a gap of a couple of months from finishing 4th year to finding an intern job, so even better!
etymon wrote: » Re dole - don't see why any summer would be excluded - you just need to be available and seeking fulltime work. No fraud involved if you're over 23 and in fulltime education. There aren't any lies to tell or any dodginess - you are entitled to it. Maybe not if you were cohabiting with someone with a fulltime job but that's just to satisfy means test all JSA applicants need to satisfy anyway. Mine consisted of AIB loan as means which was no problem. It's not a matter of any department 'cracking down' on anything because you are entitled to it.
WoolahUrma wrote: » Is the intern job not a dead cert? I was under the impression that you'll have an internship nailed down once you don't finish in the bottom few places in your group?
letsdothis wrote: » Not alone is it 15 weeks in UCD to work, considering this is the only real form of government assistance available to mature graduate entrants (I'm sure this covers the vast majority of graduate entrants too), you could just count it as 15 weeks x €180-odd. If the difference in summer breaks is this much between UCD and RCSI, you really are talking about adding an extra €1,000 minimum onto the cost of the RCSI education per year.
letsdothis wrote: » All of this is purely academic for me, unfortunately, as I would be classed as dependent on my partner. The most I could get is Job Seekers Benefit for the 1st and possibly the 2nd summer.
pc11 wrote: » Do you know how they work it with with being dependent? Why do you say only 1st and 2nd summer, why not 3rd?
letsdothis wrote: » Job Seekers Benefit is a non-means tested payment and so dependancy doesn't come into it. For eligibility, you need 39 (I think) PRSI contributions in the relevant tax year, which is usually two years ago (so, currently 2011 is the relevant year). Therefore, if you have 39 PRSI contributions in 2012, you will be eligible for JB next summer. However, in the summer of 2015, you are unlikely to have made 39 contributions in the relevant tax year (2013) because of starting college in late Aug/early Sept. Therefore, the relevant payment is Jobseekers Allowance, which is means tested. Dependency is usually classed as your parents if you are under 23 or somebody that you are cohabitating with i.e. boyfriend, girlfriend, parent or spouse or your parents if you live with them. In this case, your JA payment would be means tested against their income.
pc11 wrote: » Ah, thanks. This is all new to me. So, I need to try to work 39 weeks this year to give myself eligibility in Summer 2015, which could be a problem as week 39 this year seems to be the week ending Sept 27th. I am hoping to have some holidays when I leave work so it may just get me to that. Actually, hold on. I just read this: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/unemployed_people/jobseekers_benefit.html#l1f4da It seems like there are other ways to make up the eligibility via several different years?
WoolahUrma wrote: » Thanks for the info,
One big difference between rcsi and ucd seems to be that a lot of work is front ended in rcsi, so the first year in particular is tough going but when you hit year three, youll be well conditioned to it.
How exactly does it work with the hospital placement? Is it the case that you're told what you need to know, then you're given a team to work with and then it's your responsibility to figure out what's up?
