3rd Year Elective - Interest in EM

[Asclepius293]

Hey all,

In the luck of the draw, I'll be starting third year on elective. I'm limited on what I can choose from due to not having completed core rotations. To add to that, the emergency medicine elective is not available for my elective month. Any advice on what might be beneficial at this stage for someone interested in emergency medicine?

I was thinking:
Critical Care - Beneficial to see critical patients for all specialties, might be difficult without any prior experience and stressful right after STEP studying nonstop
Diagnostic or Interventional Radiology - Experience reading scans, more chill
Forensic Pathology - Probably not very beneficial, but interesting and fun, get to go to autopsies, crime scenes, and court cases in Detroit
Dermatology or Plastic Surgery - maybe helpful to learn proper stitching technique?
Try to set up an away elective in EM somewhere - helpful to see EM when it's acceptable to not know anything as a third year. Might be difficult to find as a third year.

Thanks for any insight or thoughts!

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[Tenk]

IR would be good. You would get procedures and US/CT experience. No real rounding. Most of those guys are chill. Ophthalmology is also good if available. I would avoid crit care so early in the game. You’ll look pretty inept. The rest are meh.

 

[Asclepius293]

IR would be good. You would get procedures and US/CT experience. No real rounding. Most of those guys are chill. Ophthalmology is also good if available. I would avoid crit care so early in the game. You’ll look pretty inept. The rest are meh.

Thanks for the reply! Any thoughts on anesthesia? I was thinking that might be helpful to learn about putting in lines and seeing more ultrasound etc.

 

[Bwilu]

I did Cardiology, Ortho and EM for my electives in 3rd year and while on Ortho, on OR days, I asked the anesthiologists to teach/allow me to do intubations/extubations...kinda killed two birds with a stone if you will...

 

[Tenk]

Thanks for the reply! Any thoughts on anesthesia? I was thinking that might be helpful to learn about putting in lines and seeing more ultrasound etc.

Also good. Probably a bit more intense than the other two for your first rotation though. You want to be pretty confident when you do anesthesia so you get the most tubes.

 

[Asclepius293]

Also good. Probably a bit more intense than the other two for your first rotation though. You want to be pretty confident when you do anesthesia so you get the most tubes.

Gotcha! Appreciate the insight. Last question. Would you say IR over Diagnostic Radiology for sure? Wasn't sure if DR would be more helpful in terms of skill building in reading scans.

 

[Tenk]

IR is way cooler than DR.