Medic School Woes

[SarahB94]

Hey guys,

Looking for advice on how to balance medic school with regular life. I'm in a pretty heavy workload 18 month program, 3 days a week. In addition to this I have to work about 50-60 hours a week to keep my head above water financially. I also TA an emt program part time. Plus I have to maintain my home life with my boyfriend, family, pets, etc. While studying or doing homework just about daily. I already feel in over my head, overwhelmed and ready to drop out. And I'm only a week in. I had a panic attack on my way home just thinking about it. I just feel like theres no way to pay the bills, pass classes and not have my home life fall apart around me. How does everyone do it?

 

[NPO]

I found an employer to sponsor my schooling and paid me full time to go to school. It still wasn't easy, but it wasn't as hard.

You need to cut some things out. Tell your BF he will need to help you share the bills, or your parents.

Good luck

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[SarahB94]

I found an employer to sponsor my schooling and paid me full time to go to school. It still wasn't easy, but it wasn't as hard.

You need to cut some things out. Tell your BF he will need to help you share the bills, or your parents.

Good luck

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My parents are paying for my schooling already and won't want to pay for more. The bills I am referring to are car payments, phone bills, insurance, pet care, rent, credit card payments etc. Which my parents have previously told me I am primarily responsible for. However they have already waived rent for me and pay for my phone.

BF and I at this point are serious enough that I don't want to leave him, however we do not and probably will not share finances unless we get married which won't be anytime soon. My main concern as far as the BF goes is that with the schoolwork and needing OT (financially) I won't have much time to spend with him. He's also in classes and working full time. But at this point my weekends will consist of mostly homework and chores and I feel its unfair that I'm not going to be able to give him my full attention when we do get to spend time together. I can foresee this becoming a future issue when he starts to feel neglected.

Financially I'm okay as of now. But I have no savings and fear something happening that will be a major cost in the future. Such as my car breaking down or unexpected vet bills. Or an injury that prevents me from working full time.

 

[NPO]

Take it one day at a time. When I started medic school I was fortunate enough to have sponsorship, but my GF had just lost her job. I was paying all bills by myself and I couldn't work any over time. It sucks. I maxed out every credit card and 2 years later, finally got them paid off. It is what it is. One day at a time.

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[Tigger]

If you don't already, make sure you have a long term calendar. Plan out as many clinicals as you can, waiting to schedule them means they'll bunch up. You might find you have more room in your schedule than you think. Leave yourself a day when you can, and fill it with time for you.

 

[StCEMT]

What Tigger said. No matter how busy I got, I always had Sundays off. That was my day to rest, hang out with friends, go fishing in the afternoon, or whatever I wanted to do. It was my day specifically set aside. Not that I never studied or anything, but work/clinicals/class/heavy study session didn't really happen. Otherwise, plan your schedule well in advance. That will allow you to evenly space things out.

Your clinical hour load increases later on, but your time required in a book gets smaller the further you get since you have a better foundational knowledge to work with. At least that was the case for me. That will help you be more productive with your time.

Meal prep. Saves you time and money, both of which are tight in medic school. Also gives you something to do with your boyfriend.

As far as your boyfriend (and family) goes, you have time. 30 minutes set aside to have a dinner, watch a short TV show, play scrabble, or whatever is very doable. You have the time, you just have to manage it and he has to know upfront that there are times you need to be focused on work. It's only temporary afterall.

 

[DrParasite]

Medic school sucks, and has cause the destruction of many relationships. But so has working in EMS.

1) pay off as much of your credit card debt as you can. the interest will bury you otherwise.
2) budget your time. school comes first, everything else is secondary. do the work that you need to do, but if it isn't mandatory, it goes to the back burner. are you paid for EMT class? if not, or if you can afford to skip it, do it.
3) make time for your BF. schedule a date. budget out 3 hours. put it in your calendar.
4) cut your expenses. I know it's tough, but the next 18 months are going to suck for you. can you eliminate some of your expenses? if your working 60 hours just to pay your bills, and that doesn't include rent, than I am surmising your expenses are exceeding your income, and EMT isn't known for it's amazing salaries.

Many years ago, I had a girlfriend who got pissed at me because I hadn't called her in several weeks. and then one day I texted her, and she went off on me for about 10 minutes about how this isn't how a relationship is supposed to me. At this time I was working 36 hours a week at one job, 24 at my part time job, and taking college classes. It wasn't until she called my BFF who explained to her that's just how it is with me, especially when doing so many hours being worked much of life goes by the wayside.

It's rough, but it shouldn't last forever. Yes, your social life will take a hit, yes, you might not get lucky as often as you would like, but it is only for 18 months; but during those 18 months, school needs to be a priority for you, or else you won't succeed. After you finish and pass everything, it gets a little better. If it didn't, there wouldn't be any married paramedics in the US

 

[NUEMT]

I did it . Same thing. Cut time out for yourself. Have a talk with the BF. they need to be on-board.. and it is gonna suck for a while. One day at a time.

Make sure you make use of every resource available to you so test days are not so stressful.

sleep. You have to sleep. even special forces medics set aside time to sleep on extended missions. Lack of sleep will compund and make it like going to class drunk.

 

[hometownmedic5]

It's a delicate balance that you and you alone control. Things are going to suffer, its the name of the game. Your family life, your social life, hell your health will suffer. There's no way around it. It's like a military deployment, the peace corps, whatever else is in the same vein. You're making a sacrifice today for an improved tomorrow. Anybody in your life that cant handle that, well maybe they aren't as valuable a part of your life as you think...

It's going to be a rough 18 months, theres no doubt about that. You either have the constitution to suffer a bit in pursuit of a goal or you dont. If you do, you'll be rewarded at the end. If you dont, then you'll be heaped in the pile with the rest of this generation that wants everything handed to them for free while collecting an honest weeks pay for an honest days work.

 

[RocketMedic]

I'd strongly recommend you cut your costs where you can, dump the TA job (trust me, they'll get by) and learn how to study what matters. A lot of students work themselves up studying in ways that are ineffective at best and burn themselves out for it. How do you learn best?