A good place to do an Anesthesia Elective?

[Dorian Gray]

---

Members do not see this ad.

This being my first post after reading for a while, I must say thanks for all of the great info from everyone concerning this field of medicine (and all of the extras 😉 )
I was wondering where a good place to do my second elective in Anesthesia would be. At this point, I'm looking to go to an Northeastern program (even though I'm not from there), have one good-great LOR from an atttending but not a director (he doesn't write them for ANY student b/c he wants us all to stay at his program), and am without any research experience. Was hoping someone knew of a good, non-malignant place to spend a month and get a good LOR (hopefully from a Director).

Thanks.

 

[jocwyo]

I'm an MSIV doing a month-long rotation at Texas Tech Univ in Lubbock. This has been a good place to learn the basics of anesthesiology. All of the residents are extremely friendly and make great efforts to teach both in and out of the operating room. The attendings that I have worked with have been very willing to teach also, especially if you take an active role in the case, asking questions, etc. The schedule is hardly malignant. As a student, you come in, check out the OR board, and decide which room you'd like to follow. You can either stay for the entire case (in which case a lot of quality teaching is passed along) or you may float from room to room practicing intubations, IV placements, etc. I've participated in complicated neuro cases, started pediatric IV's, and fine-tuned my intubation skills during the last month. The best asset of the place is the people. Residents are a terrific, top-notch bunch of people. The program director, Dr. Kaye, is very approachable and friendly. Apparently he is willing to write letters of recommendation if your performance and attitude are strong. I approached him at the beginning of the month about possible research opportunities. He set me up right away with a topic and guidelines for a research article. He's very active in research and didactics. Having an anesthesia publication can't hurt your CV. I'm happy that I came here. Lubbock is a nice place - small town living. good luck.

 

[BassDominator]

The program director at Penn is very approachable. He does mostly obstetric anesthesia. I can't say for sure he would write you a letter, but I would be surprised if he said no. Same goes for Mount Sinai.

 

[cajunflower]

I just recently matched, and I did two rotations out of town. By far, one of the best rotations of my entire third and fourth years was at MUSC in Charleston, SC. All of the faculty are very approachable. The residents are fantastic. They are a really fun, laid back, and welcome students. They want you to learn and have fun while doing so. The coordinator for the student rotation is very interactive and concerned that you benefit from your experience there. If you feel that you need more work in a certain specialty, or more intubations....eg. LMA, Peds...etc, just tell him, and he will make it happen. There are no fellows, tons of cases, you are assigned to a room and a resident each day. The intubation is yours, unless there is a significant reason for the resident to do it. The hospital and OR's are nice: new machines etc. The nurses are nice, CRNA's start to relieve at 3:00. I was rarely there past 5 or 6, most of the days I was leaving at 3:30-4:00. I could go on and on.....I had two other classmates do a rotation there, they loved it as well. Hope this helps.

 

[sean wilson]

Sinai's Adam Levine is a most enthusastic educator. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone better to rotate with than he.

 

[Dorian Gray]

Thank you guys all so much for your suggestions... I have all of the phone numbers ready to call for tomorrow. 🙂 I can only hope to get an elective at one of these great places so late in the game. (Partially due to the fact that I got married recently, but still should've gotten it done sooner)
With one good-great LOR from my hometown Gas Dept. (although not very reputable sadly), one great LOR from my Internal Medicine "Docent," and possibly another from my hometown Critical Care Dept. (very reputable... one of the only REALLY good depts around), and competitive board scores Step 1 & 2(from what others have mentioned for some of these programs), do you guys think that I would be at a major disadvantage trying to get into a top program in the northeast?.... also no research although honors in most all rotations.

 

[New2Midwest]

Don't go to Cleveland Clinic-I did a month there last year and it sucked as a MS-IV-just my opinion- 👎

 

[Dorian Gray]

Don't go to Cleveland Clinic-I did a month there last year and it sucked as a MS-IV-just my opinion- 👎

Thanks for the tip. I am still calling places to check on open spots and I was about to call there. Thanks for the heads-up. I've also called UofChicago, UofColorado, Duke, Northwestern in addition to the ones mentioned above. It seems very difficult to find the right people to talk to and to get returns on messages. Anyone else experience this? I'm guessing I'll just have to be very pro-active this late in the game. (Kind of an oxymoron in itself 😳 )

 

[omarsaleh66]

I'm an MSIV doing a month-long rotation at Texas Tech Univ in Lubbock. This has been a good place to learn the basics of anesthesiology. All of the residents are extremely friendly and make great efforts to teach both in and out of the operating room. The attendings that I have worked with have been very willing to teach also, especially if you take an active role in the case, asking questions, etc. The schedule is hardly malignant. As a student, you come in, check out the OR board, and decide which room you'd like to follow. You can either stay for the entire case (in which case a lot of quality teaching is passed along) or you may float from room to room practicing intubations, IV placements, etc. I've participated in complicated neuro cases, started pediatric IV's, and fine-tuned my intubation skills during the last month. The best asset of the place is the people. Residents are a terrific, top-notch bunch of people. The program director, Dr. Kaye, is very approachable and friendly. Apparently he is willing to write letters of recommendation if your performance and attitude are strong. I approached him at the beginning of the month about possible research opportunities. He set me up right away with a topic and guidelines for a research article. He's very active in research and didactics. Having an anesthesia publication can't hurt your CV. I'm happy that I came here. Lubbock is a nice place - small town living. good luck.

i just wanna say some things about dr. kaye. He is one of the best and coolest teachers Ive ever had. I was a first year, and he taught me so much just from shadowing him and he got me published as a first year!!, He truly cares about students and hooks them up like crazy. He offered a friend of mine to write a chapter in a pain managemnt book, and as a first year he told me that he'll make a phone call and get me in places. He's helped students get into some of the best programs, some, not even anesthesia, like he helped one guy get into plastic surgery at stanford.

anyways, sadly i had to transfer and leave tech and Im at mississippi now(personal reasons) but one of the hardest reasons to leave tech was cuz of Dr. Kaye. Im telling u this as a ms2 so i cant even imagine what 4th years and residents feel, but I just wanted to say that as an ms2, Im working on my 4th publication, Dr. kaye has helped me so much with these things, and offered me research over the summer and invites students to his house. I am certain that very few people are out there like Dr. Kaye. When he became chair of anesthesiogy a few years back, he really made the anesthesiology program at tech very good.

Even here in mississippi, I am still doing research, and working with dr. kaye, so that just shows u how he really cares about the students

later

Omar