Arrowhead Regional Medical Center

This is just a rough estimate... but about 3.5 million times these past few months people have asked me what the heck is going on.

Is Ross getting paid now?

What is Ross's specialty?

How does Ross like residency?

When are you going to move next? How long will you be in the area?

Are you going back to Grenada? When does he start? What is his first rotation?

And the list goes on. I thought I would give a quick run down of where we are currently.

Quick Break Down:

Medical school = 4 years (August 2012 - Spring 2016)
      - 2 years "book work" aka Basic Sciences....................................Finished! Grenada years.
      - 2 years in-hospital work aka Rotations/Clerkship/Clinicals.........Current. Redlands, CA years.
After that -and let's not get ahead of ourselves- comes residency and then a fellowship in a specialty.

No, he does not know what kind of doctor he wants to be.

But he has time too!

Ross is starting his 3rd year of medical school at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, CA. The third year consists of "core" or mandated rotations. That means he spends anywhere from 6-12 weeks doing hands-on work and study in a specific study of medicine. The core rotations for the 3rd year are:

Internal Medicine

Family Medicine

OB/GYN

Pediatrics

Psychiatry

Surgery

There can be specific study within each rotation, but that is the general overview. 

Next Spring/ Summer Ross will take the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge exam. Remember the younger sister Step 1 which he took Summer 2014?

After that he will begin the 4th and final year of medical school. You can check back in at that time.

Going back to the present. Ross wanted to check out the hospital before his first day. We also needed to return our rental truck, so we headed west on the I-10.



You can tell I haven't been back in the U.S. very long because I was shocked to see that you had to get through a metal detector just to step foot in the doors. You have to have a reason to go in, with a specific department destination. You can imagine security's confusion when we explained that we just wanted to see the hospital.



The next Monday morning Ross was there, in much less casual clothes, ready to begin his adventures in a REAL meal deal hospital.

Monday August 18th, 2-14

I was really curious to see if it would be a short or long day. We both knew this isn't a "read over the syllabus and get on your way" type of 1st day of school. And indeed it wasn't. Ross texted me later in the day to let me know he was assigned to be on 24 hour call.
Me: Umm.... like you get to come home and if they "page" you, you have to go back?

Wrong. 24 hour call means you get to sit at the hospital and work for 24 hours. Maybe sleeping for an hour or two if they let you. You can definitely say he started his 3rd year off with a bang!



When he came home the next morning he was tired but definitely happy! So it begins!

And for your final and pressing questions... No he is not making money. Yes we are still giving them A LOT of money (at 9% interest thank you very much). No we are not moving anytime soon, at least not for a couple years.