How are LECOM-B's clinical rotation sites?

[Pigglyjuff]

LECOM-B is a school I think I have a legitimate shot at getting in, but of course I want to take into account the reviews of the rotations. Can any students comment on this? Is there good patient contact/experiences?

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[cabinbuilder]

We had quite a bit of LECOM-B students at our residency in Corpus Christi, TX at bay area hospital (I loved that place as a resident). Many of the residents each year are from LECOM

 

[iheartsharks]

It really depends on a lot of things. First off LECOM-B doesn't have one big teaching hospital where any group of students go. LECOM-B has lots of little teaching hospitals where students go. Some students get year long spots at relatively large Osteopathic Teaching institutes, some students go north to spend a year at LECOM-E's teaching institutes, some students create their own rotations at larger teaching institutes. I can only speak for my own experience, which is staying in the area around LECOM-B which probably a quarter to half of the students do, all of your rotations will be within an hour drive, most will be at different places, some places you work with residents, some not, some places you work hard long days like 12 hours 6 days a week others you work half days for 3 days a week. So you have to be really motivated to read on your own and what not, overall I have been satisfied with my rotations and feel I have learned a lot but am keenly aware of the large deficits many of my rotations had. So bottom line they are acceptable and you make them what you want but that "making them" is a long and stressful process during the 6 months before you take step 1.

 

[illegallysmooth]

LECOM-B is a school I think I have a legitimate shot at getting in, but of course I want to take into account the reviews of the rotations. Can any students comment on this? Is there good patient contact/experiences?

It's tough to answer that. There are a few places/doctors within an hour drive that have pretty good reviews and offer more challenging rotations - Northside Hospital and St. Pete General, Manatee Memorial for a couple things, some of the IM doctors at Healthcare America or Blake Hospital, Dr. Hradek for OB/Gyn, etc. However, personally I feel that several areas are lacking. OB/Gyn is difficult... there aren't enough core affiliates for everyone who wants to stay in the area. One of them does NO obstetrics. I ended up having to scramble and find an OB doc in Tampa... and he did NO labor and delivery. My pediatrics rotation involved NO inpatient. While the OB and pediatrician were great doctors and I gained a lot from one-on-one interaction, I don't really feel those were sufficient educational experiences for third year. On the bright side, they were probably easier rotations, which isn't so bad if you aren't looking to enter OB or peds. And if you ARE going to enter those specialities, I guess they provide a good look into the more typical private practice experience, which is where most people end up anyway, and then you can schedule more challenging rotations in your specialty elsewhere.

To sum up - there are good rotations and bad rotations. I personally feel the Clin Ed office needs to do a better job of securing quality rotations. OB/gyn is one area that is particularly lacking. I can't comment on the rotations located elsewhere, and there are MANY students who end up going up north somewhere, or out west.

 

[HeelHookin]

In my experience the rotations from Bradenton (LECOM-B is a stupid name), at least up North, are the overflow spots from Erie, NYCOM, and PCOM. We technically have all the same affiliates as Erie, but we get the leftovers Northern sites after Erie and Seton Hill pick. At some of my rotations I definitely felt like the red headed step child.

On the bright side you are given the option to stay in one place, or travel to different cities. My class was also able to setup our own core rotations, as long as the doctor agreed to be an affiliate. I am not sure how it is going to work now that the class sized is increased.

I did one rotation in Florida to date, which was psych. It was at an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Bradenton called Manatee Glens, the rotation was pretty good and I learned a lot. They do not have a residency program currently, but stated during orientation that they are in the process of opening one up by next year. The good thing is that they accommodate as many as 7 Bradenton students a month. I am heading back down to Florida in a few months (the winter) to do some rotations.

As one of my classmates stated the Clin Ed department at Bradenton needs to get their act together. Being dropped from a rotation is a normal occurrence. There are definitely not enough OB and Peds rotations for every student. Which is a problem because they are core rotations and you have to do them at an affiliate or have a physician become an affiliate.

To date I am unimpressed with rotations, but more disappointed in how Clin Ed works (or doesn't work). Things may get better in the upcoming years, but who knows. But my pre-clinical years in Bradenton were awesome, and I was extremely happy with my board scores.

 

[angldrps]

bumping this for more input.

 

[DallasCowboys22]

This is something I am very interested in as i decide between Erie or Bradenton. Overall, does Erie have first choice so better rotation sites than Bradenton? Do Erie students also have to set up a lot of rotations on their own?

 

[DrOB13]

I am also curious from current LECOM med students about the rotations. I've been searching the web for LECOM's affiliate hospitals and locations where students rotate, but I'm having no luck. I understand you can basically set up your own rotations wherever you want if a doctor agrees to accept, but I'm just wondering how difficult that is. I'm from Chicago and went to Penn State so I would not mind doing my rotations up in Chicago or up north in PA and NYC. I was also wondering if Fort Lauderdale and Miami is a common area for students to do their rotations. Right now I am really stuck choosing between Nova vs. LECOM Bradenton vs. CCOM, only because CCOM and Nova have really good rotation sites, however I loved the most things about LECOM. If someone has a list or can tell me where to find this list it would be much appreciated. Thanks!!!

 

[angldrps]

bump

 

[scpod]

It's very difficult to tell you about the rotations because so many people get a different experience. I can tell you that if you are involved in the selection of your spots you can have a great experience. If you wait for the clined department to help you you may get something good or bad. Since I stayed in the same place for thrid and fourth year I knew all of the docs there and I was able to plan a lot in advance. I would ask them if they would be ok with a student four months from now, and if thye said yes then I went to clin ed and asked them to put me on that particular attendingss service for the month and they were pretty good about doing it. You really have to be proactive sometimes to make sure you get a great experience. OTOH, if you want a slack month to study for something, for example, you could arrange that too in most cases. The thing about the rotations is they are what YOU make them.

We have a lot of Lecom-B students rotate through our hospital, but even more from the local MD school. There are a lot of people from across the country doing audition rotations too. There are good and bad ones from every school. The ones who show they are willing to work hard get the extra treatment and they get a lot better experience in the end.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Currently class size has increased by ~60 students but the rotations haven't. Currently I'm going through this process and it is frustrating. I won't comment on the quality because I have no clue, but the process of setting these up leaves much to be desired

 

[buccsmf1]

Currently class size has increased by ~60 students but the rotations haven't. Currently I'm going through this process and it is frustrating. I won't comment on the quality because I have no clue, but the process of setting these up leaves much to be desired

As a current 3rd year that made it in before the class size increase, I'm curious to how things are going for you guys. I'm assuming that more of you are going to be forced to move up north for rotations?

I wanted to stay in the Tampa/st Pete/Bradenton area and I was able to, but peds and obgyn were a little difficult to set up. I can't imagine there's enough spots down here in those two specialties now that 60 people have been added.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

As a current 3rd year that made it in before the class size increase, I'm curious to how things are going for you guys. I'm assuming that more of you are going to be forced to move up north for rotations?

I wanted to stay in the Tampa/st Pete/Bradenton area and I was able to, but peds and obgyn were a little difficult to set up. I can't imagine there's enough spots down here in those two specialties now that 60 people have been added.

Only have my own story, I've been dropped by two "affiliates" one was peds so I had to switch around my peds and vacation month, but at least I got to stick around the area.

St. Pete opened up a nice handful of year longs so that helped with the loss of some rotations. Also I think our class filled all except 2 of the northern year longs. A lot of people ended up going north. Losing UPMC hurt a good chunk of kids too.

For me, at least, it is working out but not without a lot of headache and distraction while trying to study for Step 1.

 

[UTKpremed]

How common is it for a school to not pay their rotation sites? I want to know where our tuition dollars go 3rd and 4th year! I'm about to be a second year and I'm getting anxious about setting up rotations.

 

[BobaBoba]

I recently received an interview for February at LECOM-SH. Obviously I am being a bit premature, but I had a question about clinical rotations for 3rd and 4th year. I have seen many people say you can do your own paperwork and make calls to set up your own clinical sites. I happen to be from the Midwest and would love to come back here if possible after two years if I was to be accepted. Would it be possible to do all of my rotations closer to home? If so, is there a place on the AOA's website or another place where I can find information about possible clinical sites just to check it out? Thank you in advance for your responses and good luck to you all!