4th Year Scheduling Question

[Lucylu123]

Hello all - I am a 3rd year osteopathic student planning on applying ACGME Anesthesiology. I did take USMLE and scored a 245 on step 1, and plan on taking USMLE step 2 in July. I am planning on applying to some competitive east coast programs, so I really want to get my 4th schedule year right and I have a few questions that I could not find the answers to through searching.

I am planning on doing 2 audition anesthesiology rotations, but am unsure as to when they should be done. I will be doing an Anesthesiology rotation at my home institution in August to prepare for the aways. Should I follow this up with the 2 aways, or would it be helpful to add a critical care rotation in before the aways? If I were to do this, it would push my 2nd away rotation into the month of November which I realize could cause some conflict with interviews. Would it be a better idea to get the audition rotations done in Sept and Oct and save the critical care rotation for after interview season?

Thanks so much!

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[Per4mer8]

The quick answer to your post is yes. Do your local warm up anesthesia month followed by 2 aways. The crit care month can wait, although I did get asked on 1 interview if I'd done my crit care yet it shouldn't matter, they know it's required and you will do one. You're going to want nov/dec pretty free or atleast be on rotations you can miss a ton of days on. This year earliest interviews were late Oct thru late Jan.

As far as the aways, get your apps in the day they accept them, spots fill fast. Use them for programs you either REALLY want to explore in depth or are "stretch programs". Your score is obviously good and you shouldn't have any problem going virtually anywhere.

 

[Josh1]

Agree with the above, also remember that some anesthesia programs rotation for visiting students may be different than what your home institution's rotation is like. E.g. some programs put visiting students in their pain clinic or in the ICU so you may want the extra experience.

 

[givesmegas]

Would also recommend doing your home anesthesia rotation followed up by the 2 away rotations for similar reasons as the others have stated. Also, the knowledge utilized from perioperative anesthesia vs critical care have some differences. Thus, what you learn on your home rotation can pretty easily be applied to your away rotations. Doing the rotations back to back makes it easier to retain. My 2 cents fwiw.

 

[Lucylu123]

Thanks everyone - your input is much appreciated!