3rd year Clerkships and EM

[tegs15]

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At my program there is a lottery for which clerkship track you will get. All the tracks have; Surg, FP, IM, OBG, PED & Psych, but each of the 6 tracks begins with a different specialty and then rotates, so if your track begins with OBG it is followed by Peds and you end with IM and so on. For EM do you think one track would be better and if so which one. Personally I didn't think it would matter but the local EM res PD is supposed to be speaking to my EMIG in February and that is one of the topics she is speaking on. Sadly the lottery is in two weeks. I appreciate your responses in advance.

 

[EdEmEr]

I had Surgery/IM/OBGYN back to back and while it was painful, the rest of my 3rd year was cake. You have the advantage of knowing you want to do EM before the clerkships so you can view these specialties through that lens.

My advice, get the hard stuff out of the way early and get into your EM clerkship ASAP. Work hard and get great SLOR's.

 

[alphaholic06]

At my program there is a lottery for which clerkship track you will get. All the tracks have; Surg, FP, IM, OBG, PED & Psych, but each of the 6 tracks begins with a different specialty and then rotates, so if your track begins with OBG it is followed by Peds and you end with IM and so on. For EM do you think one track would be better and if so which one. Personally I didn't think it would matter but the local EM res PD is supposed to be speaking to my EMIG in February and that is one of the topics she is speaking on. Sadly the lottery is in two weeks. I appreciate your responses in advance.

Why don't you email the PD for her opinion?

 

[tegs15]

About emailing PD, I certainly might, although I assume her response is "don't worry about it I'll explain everything when I come and speak to you in 3wks." I'm sure she is very busy.

Additionally I really value the opinions of those long time contributors here in the EM forum. With that said does anybody have suggestions or personal experience that I should be aware of when selecting my 3rd year clerkship track?🙂

 

[UDbiochem]

It really doesn't matter I think. (I'm in the middle of 3rd year now, so take this with a grain of salt.) Surgery first might do wonders for your procedural skills for the rest of the year but the shelf exam is a little difficult. Medicine first has been said to help people with shelf exams for the rest of the year. Medicine late might prepare you well for step 2 if you plan to take it early.

 

[EM_Rebuilder]

The order of third year clerkships does not matter at all as far as wanting to do EM.


The only advantages are as already stated. Preference to get the hard stuff out of the way (IM, Surg) as those typically are the most time intensive....however, on the flip side, doing IM last helps tie the year together and is good CK 2 reviews.

For every way that you arrange a schedule, there are positives and negatives to the end result. Just go for the lottery and take what you get.

Fourth year is probably more important as far as layout. Explore your fields early. You already know what you want to do, so I would do your SubI in IM or FP in July, followed by 2 months of EM (prefer one at your place, the second at somewhere else with an EM residency as well). After that, pick easy stuff and cruise through interviews and on into graduation...