4th year electives

[zoso375]

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Hi everyone. I'm just wondering what 4th year electives you guys recommend for someone who is interested in going into anesthesia. Obviously I'm thinking about doing pain, SICU, and MICU. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[OB1🤙]

ICU rotations will help you adapt in your intern year, but honestly, once you've done your major anesthesia rotation(s) and sub-i, the goal of fourth year should be to do whatever allows you the most time away from the hospital, because it'll be the last time in your life until retirement that you'll have this chance. So go spend a month in the unit (doesn't really matter which), and after that, don't worry about things translating to anesthesia. Do worry about getting outside and enjoying life while you can.

 

[Mista Suprane]

Hi everyone. I'm just wondering what 4th year electives you guys recommend for someone who is interested in going into anesthesia. Obviously I'm thinking about doing pain, SICU, and MICU. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

i'm assuming you mean early on in your 4th year for letters and such. i would add surgery sub-i to your list.

make sure you schedule light rotations and/or vacation during interview months (nov-jan) so it's not difficult to get out for interviews.

otherwise, for the second half of the year, slack off as much as you can. take an international elective if you are so inclined. maybe radiology (you can kill two birds with one stone - get some CXR/AXR basics, and come in late and leave early). ask current 4th years what the really easy electives are -- ones where you can leave early, or not come in at all -- and schedule as many of those as possible. trust me, you won't regret it. once you are an intern, you will long for those days. 🙂

my 4th year, i scheduled an FP elective where the attending had office hours for three days a week (mon, tues, thurs) from 1pm-5pm. that sounds great, right? it gets better. there was no limit on how many students he would take, and he only wanted four students a day. he usually averaged 15-20 students per 4-week block, so you would average 2-3 four hours shifts. per month. such a good deal that several of us commuted 2 hours each way for this rotation (including driving, only an 8 hour commitment). i did this rotation for 2 blocks during my fourth year. i doubt you will find something this easy at your med school (my school was a complete joke overall, all around) but you get the point.

 

[fakin' the funk]

Hi everyone. I'm just wondering what 4th year electives you guys recommend for someone who is interested in going into anesthesia. Obviously I'm thinking about doing pain, SICU, and MICU. Any thoughts?

4th year:
1. Real Stuff
1-2 months of OR anesthesia
1-2 months of ICU depending on your taste for MICU vs. SICU or both
1 month either surgery or medicine sub-I if your school requires it

Now you have your letters, your experience, etc etc., now...

2. Joke Stuff
Rads, path, ophtho, radonc, derm, FP, etc. Things you don't have to prepare for or show up for. Any rotation after your interviews are done you'll probably get sent home every day early anyway or told not to even show up. Brilliant.

 

[Raydeus]

Sort of related topic. I'm setting up my 4th year schedule as well. Not sure if I'll get both Dec and Jan off with our lottery system. So if you had to choose, which month would you say is the more important month to have off where you got the bulk of your interviews? Also, did you go on a lot of weekend interviews? I should have weekends off even if I have a required class then. Thanks

-Ray

 

[RxBoy]

Sort of related topic. I'm setting up my 4th year schedule as well. Not sure if I'll get both Dec and Jan off with our lottery system. So if you had to choose, which month would you say is the more important month to have off where you got the bulk of your interviews? Also, did you go on a lot of weekend interviews? I should have weekends off even if I have a required class then. Thanks

-Ray

Its hard to say... I had a pretty equal bulk between the two, and I fortunately had both months off. Every program is different, but if I had to I guess I would take January off because there is a whole week in December no one really interviews (Dec 24 to Jan 1). A lot of programs only do Saturday interviews as well. They usually do this because they can tour the OR/hospital without it running at max capacity.

But remember you pick the dates if you respond to interview email soon enough. Plus you can organize dates by location, so you don't have to travel back and forth. Get the emails forwarded to your phone, that really helps.

As for the original OP... Ditto to above. Very solid advice. 2nd half of 4th year is the time to relax.

 

[proman]

You'll learn a lot on nephrology, pulmonology, cards (I had a month of reading EKGs with an attending: 2 studens, 1 FP resident, 1 IM resident). Highly recommend transfusion medicine too.

 

[bigdan]

I'm not working all that hard, and I chose to do what proman said (in fact, almost exactly that schedule)...I'm doing two weeks of cards consult, then two of pulm consult, then two of renal, then four weeks of EKG reading.

As far as interview scheduling, my personal experience was that you could cram more interviews into January, since a lot of the programs I interviewed with were not offering much that last week of December. Additionally, of 13 anesthesia programs, only one offered Saturday interviews.

dc

 

[stargirl50]

I had December off. You may not have any interviews the last week of Dec. but it sure was nice to have Christmas and New Years off! (Our Jan rotations started after the New Years holiday.)

I would take either Dec or Jan off, then schedule a weekends-off type rotation the other month. I had a decent number of weekend interviews.

A fourth year last year told me this and I didn't believe it, but trust me when I say-- this is the only fourth year scheduling issue that matters. Take whatever sounds interesting and whatever will get ya home early!

 

[beavis]

I got all of my required stuff out of the way in the first couple of months (ICU month, AI in medicine, and an outpatient month). I cannot stress enough how great it is to go ahead and get stuff out of the way.

I took December off and had a flexible elective month in Jan. This worked out really well for interviews.

Now I am on the home stretch...By the time you get done with interviews, you are just ready for the match. Try to avoid any kind of time intensive rotation.

I am all for working hard....but intern year is looming, so make 4th year your last hurah.

A wise friend once told me......"Don't let the senior slump start too late."

BEAV

 

[zoso375]

Thanks for all of your responses. I really appreciate it. I'm only an M2 so I have lot of time to figure this out but the thought popped into my head and I figured I might as well ask. Thanks again.

E

 

[DO4lifer]

maybe im in the minority here, but i'm using 4th year like its senior year of high school. Once intern year starts, so does real responsibility. More patients, more call, and less people double checking your work.

Sure I did a couple tough rotations this year...but I kept it limited. I worked my tail off for 3 years during med school, so I can get to this point. Learn to snowboard or play golf. 👍

in my case..trying to get into shape.