Anesthesia rotation at different institutions? Yes/No?

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snowpea28

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I'm an MS3 applying for Anesthesia next year. I'm at a program where I could potentially rotate at a sister institution without having to really do an "away."

Do you think this would considerably help my application? Or- could I just do 2 anesthesia rotations at my home institution?

I would prefer to do 2 rotations at my home institution due to longer time of working with residents/attendings and also the distance it is from my home. In addition, I feel like the other institution has a less intuitive EMR and I'm not sure if it would really help my own learning. I just wanted to know how common it was to do aways/rotate at sister institutions and whether anyone felt like it really helped their application?

Thank you guys so much :)

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Aways are optional and based on what you said, I would stay at your home institution. Many applicants interview and match at great programs with no aways. I did two aways and enjoyed them greatly, but they did not make or break my list. They can be expensive and complicated to set up, so only go if you have strong reasons. Since it sounds like you are debating, I would say keep your life simple and save some money for interview travel expenses. But that's just my two cents.
 
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Aways are optional and based on what you said, I would stay at your home institution. Many applicants interview and match at great programs with no aways. I did two aways and enjoyed them greatly, but they did not make or break my list. They can be expensive and complicated to set up, so only go if you have strong reasons. Since it sounds like you are debating, I would say keep your life simple and save some money for interview travel expenses. But that's just my two cents.

+1 to the bolded portion.
 
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Awesome- thanks so much guys.

I was just worried that I'd get asked somewhere along the way "Why did you do two anesthesia rotations at your home institution" but it sounds like this is totally okay :)
 
Might be worth it to do an anesthesia rotation at another site just to get a feel for how places are different.
 
@partydoc

I did think about this personal benefit for sure. However- the increased time/money I feel like I'd have to spend to go to another site doesn't feel worth it to me, personally.

That said, I would definitely do it if it would for sure if two home rotations would decrease my app in a substantial way or cause "bad" questions to be asked.
 
How important is it to do 2 rotations instead of just one? Does it show that we're not interested otherwise?

You can do zero and no one will hold it against you. Some med schools don't even have an anesthesiology rotation so residency programs realize that some applicants may have very limited prior exposure. Do not do aways to try and game the system or check off some imaginary box. Unless you have strong personal reasons, save your money and energy.
 
@partydoc

I did think about this personal benefit for sure. However- the increased time/money I feel like I'd have to spend to go to another site doesn't feel worth it to me, personally.

That said, I would definitely do it if it would for sure if two home rotations would decrease my app in a substantial way or cause "bad" questions to be asked.

Yeah, I wouldn't waste too much time/money doing an away unless you really wanted to check out that program.

I don't think you need to do 2 anes rotations. I also don't think it would be a big deal if you decided to do 2 at your home institution. It might be worthwhile to do something like 1 anes and 1 critical care, especially if the ICUs at your program are run by anes guys.
I did 2 rotations my 4th year, 1 at my home program, and 1 at a program that I thought I wanted to go to- it was in the same city as my home program so it really didn't take too much effort to get it set up

@rakotomazoto it will definitely raise eyebrows if you have not done an anes rotation (even if your med school doesn't have a residency affiliated with it), PDs want to know you have exposure to the field
 
@partydoc

I did think about this personal benefit for sure. However- the increased time/money I feel like I'd have to spend to go to another site doesn't feel worth it to me, personally.

That said, I would definitely do it if it would for sure if two home rotations would decrease my app in a substantial way or cause "bad" questions to be asked.


I don't think it would cause them to raise too many questions if you did 2 different anesthesia rotations at your home institution... I mean, I wouldn't do 2 general OR anesthesia ones unless there's something significantly different that can be said about them, since people could ask about that. I did one on pain and one in the OR and also did a sub-i in the SICU later on in the year. Great experiences and all very different. And I did get asked on a couple of my interviews why I didn't do away rotations, but explained that this was because of money concerns and that our school's Fall schedule didn't line up with others' and I wasn't able to off-set an away start. I'm guessing you did other rotations at affiliate sites though? Meaning you've probably had some exposure to how other systems function, which is part of the point...
 
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