PGY-II Curriculum

Happy Monday, and welcome to Medical Mondays! I’m back to share with you…my second-year schedule (aka PGY-II Curriculum) for residency! I’ve been all sorts of excited for this year because it builds in rotations for practically everything I’m interested in. :]!!!

PGY-II Curriculum

PGY II Curriculum

I’m officially considered a “senior resident,” which is both exciting and terrifying. I’m definitely overjoyed though that it will no longer take me 15 extra clicks to put an order into the computer.

As with my PGY-I schedule, I’ll be updating this one throughout the year too! :]Ā If you ever feel the need to stalk my schedule for any reason, this would be a great post to refer back to, haha.

PGY II Curriculum

I actually just finished my first rotation of the year in outpatient pediatrics at an FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center), so you’ll probably be hearing about that rotation on a Medical Mondays post somewhere in the next couple weeks!

I haven’t yet decided what the hecks I want to do for my 2-week elective yet. We’re only allowed 1 away elective for 2 weeks so I’m thinking of saving that for 3rd year (future fellowship or job prospects!). I would’ve gone for sports med, but my elective time is in June when all the sports seasons are pretty much over, so I’m currently mulling between…

  • Community Medicine
  • Medical Spanish (I need to learn Spanish ._.)
  • Medical Mandarin
  • Women’s Health

There are a ton of other options and I could technically develop my own elective if I felt inspired enough, but these are the ones I think I’d be most interested in right now! We shall see, I guess! I’m excited for what this year holds!

PGY II Curriculum


  • What’s your weekly/monthly schedule like?
  • Got any questions for me about what residency is like?
  • What elective should I pick?!

I came up with this design ages ago for our class t-shirt contest! :]

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24 comments

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  1. HOLY SMOKES! I am very impressed! You are so inspiring, good luck on the new set of curriculum!
    Liz recently posted…Comment on Sā€™mores Icebox Cake with Halo Top Creamery by Elizabeth ShawMy Profile

    1. Thanks! I’m really excited about it! :]
      Farrah recently posted…PGY-II CurriculumMy Profile

  2. WOW what a schedule! I knew being a doc was a lot of work, it takes a special group of people to be this dedicated.AND YOU STILL BLOG!? Thank you.

    1. hahaha, I’ve been trying to still but I’ve definitely had to cut back a lot recently!

    • Linda on July 31, 2017 at 3:31 pm
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    Medical Mandarin!

    1. I’ll talk with my advisor about that! :P

  3. I don’t really know how the electives work, but medical Spanish or Mandarin sound like they would be useful almost anywhere!
    Hannah recently posted…Adventure-mobile and angry cats: week in reviewMy Profile

    1. Agreed! It’d be pretty awesome to be quadrilingual! ;P
      Farrah recently posted…PGY-II CurriculumMy Profile

  4. What does PGY stand for? What are your thoughts on med schools doing away with lectures?
    Coco recently posted…Counting Down To The Farm To Fork FondoMy Profile

    1. PGY stands for “Post-Graduate Year,” so since I’m 2 years out from med school, I’m considered a PGY2! :]!

      I hadn’t heard of that–which med schools are doing away with lectures? My thoughts on that would really depend on what they plan to replace that with. I learned best by doing, so rotations were a lot more helpful, but having that foundation of knowledge in the first two years was also really vital. (That being said, I didn’t go to class and would just self-study the lectures on my own and run through them again later with friends.)
      Farrah recently posted…PGY-II CurriculumMy Profile

    • VR on July 31, 2017 at 11:41 pm
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    Love this! I am SOoooo excited for you :D I think all those electives are pretty awesome, but if you take the medical spanish/mandarin you will have so many more patients you can communicate with too :) Keep us posted!

    1. Aww, thank you! :] I’m super excited as well–I guess you’ll find out what I end up choosing for my elective somewhere next year! ;P

      Definitely agreed on the languages–I want to improve my Mandarin and I feel like I reallyyy need to learn Spanish, especially if I want to practice in California. I wonder how much I can get down in 2 weeks!?
      Farrah recently posted…PGY-II CurriculumMy Profile

  5. Wow you never cease to amazing me Farrah!
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    1. Aww, thanks, Mary! <3!
      Farrah recently posted…PGY-II CurriculumMy Profile

  6. Have fun this year! There is more responsibility, but so much more freedom, as well. It is a tough year, but so rewarding!
    Susie @ Suzlyfe recently posted…Subchorionic Hemorrhage/Hematoma/Bleeding aka SCH (My Pregnancy Scare)My Profile

    1. Definitely agreed! I’m for-sure having a whole lot more fun this year! :P
      Farrah recently posted…PGY-II CurriculumMy Profile

    • A.K. on August 1, 2017 at 5:44 pm
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    My schedule is usually quite predictable(and up until recently) would include waking up at unholy hours to either study, exercise, do mock MCAT review material or a combination. This couldn’t have been more well timed since A) Summer is nearing an end which means I needed a reminder to start picking courses for the next semesters plus revising the work schedule, doing these shifts will probably continue until undergrad finally wraps up & B)Waiting to hear on lab placement(not to mention those essays for final year have been ignored for too long) :P

    @Coco: Which schools are eliminating lectures, when is this proposed to start?

    Go for community medicine, definitely different from the other electives. Who knows, you might just enjoy it ;)

    As for residency does one have much time for sleep or is such not considered a necessity? How did you prevent living on low quality crappy cafeteria food during this time? Has physical activity remained consistent since the first year of residency?What potential preventative measures have been implemented to reduce the chance of developing burn out?

    1. hehehe, once med school/residency start, say goodbye to that predictable schedule (for the most part)! I do better with a routine, so it took a little getting used to, but I like to think I’ve figured that part out now! :P Good luck on those essays!

      I’m fairly certain I’m going to love community medicine, haha. My advisor is in charge of it and knows of all kinds of awesome community outreach programs I can take part in, so it’s one of the rotations I’ve been looking forward to most! :P I’m just having trouble deciding if I should do that vs. ones that aren’t already built into the curriculum, hehe.

      I’ve been sleeping ~5 hrs/night for the past decade or so, so I’m not sure. Depends on how much sleep you’re used to, I guess? And also on what residency program you’re trying to get into. I have a friend who works over 100 hours a week and is just now getting down to the 80’s (he’s in surgery), so it very much varies per specialty. FM does tend to give you more of a life though.

      I cook and meal prep a lot, and I’m also pretty fortunate in that the food at our hospital is actually pretty tasty, with a lot of healthy options…but during some rotations, there isn’t really even time to eat (I refer to this as the unintentional inpatient diet, haha). I’m definitely getting more of a chance to work out regularly now that I’m in my second year, but even throughout intern year, I was still able to make time to work out–maybe not as consistently as I would’ve liked, but it was definitely still possible. You can reduce your chances of burnout by still including things that you enjoy in your life–if you have any hobbies/interests you can still pursue, I’d recommend making time to delve into that at least a couple times a week if possible. That definitely helped me out, and it gives you something to look forward to on the less-fun rotations! :]
      Farrah recently posted…PGY-II CurriculumMy Profile

  7. Ooh it looks like you have some great rotations coming up, and go you for being a senior resident! I think women’s health could be an interesting elective!
    ShootingStarsMag recently posted…We Now Return to Regular Life + Are You SleepingMy Profile

    1. Agreed! I’m really excited for them! :D And yeah, there are so many interesting-sounding electives–I’m honestly kinda torn! Maybe I’ll have a better idea after I do a couple of them!
      Farrah recently posted…PGY-II CurriculumMy Profile

  8. When I was back in college (eeesh, 10+ years ago) medical Spanish was starting to be offered around here and I’m kicking myself for not taking it back then. Learning a new language is so HARD! If only I’d taken a real language in high school instead of Latin (prepping for my ACT/SAT, etc).

    1. I’m still kicking myself for not paying attention more in high school (I took Mandarin). I really want to learn Spanish too–it would be so helpful! That’s cool that your school had Latin though!
      Farrah recently posted…PGY-II CurriculumMy Profile

  9. Aye aye aye! I am exhausted just looking at your schedule! How do you keep up?!?!
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    1. I’m not really sure, haha. I’ve been more tired lately–does that count :P
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