Originally posted by Andy Kahn
I am at UTMB (Galveston, TX) which does not have an EM residency so I actually ended up doing my EM rotations in Dallas (June to July), Louisville (Aug to Sept), and Sacramento (Sept to Oct). I did an EM Ultrasound elective at UC-Irvine from Oct to Nov. It was nice that there was no limit on how many away rotations I did (but had to do Senior Surg, Neuro, and Derm/Rad in Galveston or Austin) just as long as the rotations were different. My Dallas rotation was my senior EM, Louisville was an elective, and Sacramento was my Acting Internship. Several faculty have suggested doing ophthalmology, cards, SICU, or something else since I would have my whole life to do EM. I thought those would all be helpful, but I am very happy with doing all the EM rotations because I really enjoyed each one and felt like I did know a whole lot more by my 2nd and 3rd rotation. I did lots of Histology, Biochem, and other medical courses in college which seemed to help for med school (and enjoyed them more than most non-science classes) so I feel the same way about doing lots of EM rotations if its fun and useful. ICU or anesthesia would have been great too, but I ended up "mixing in" the EM ultrasound month into my schedule (which was a little change but still nice to be in the good ole ED). I was able to stay with friends or family at Dallas, Louisville, and UC-Irvine, but Sacramento had a list of people who rented out a room in their house for the month and that worked out great. There are a few places that provide free housing so you might look into that also.
My first rotation was great. My first week or so was actually the last week of the year for the residents so I got to do lots of procedures (many of them were days from finishing their residency). The last few weeks actually were not too much different. The procedures were still there although there maybe was a little decline and things moved a little slower with brand new interns everywhere. Joaquin13, as far as your concern about doing your first choice after the other rotations, it makes sense but I knew that I would probably want to go to Dallas so I was worried about scheduling it as my first rotation of 4th year. I ended up doing fine and don't know if it would have made a huge difference if I scheduled it later b/c the residents and faculty understand that it is early in the year. If you work hard and apply the things that they teach you (as cg1155 mentioned), then you should be fine. I think they can tell if you are interested in EM field and/or their program and if you are doing your best. I would also add that if you get along well w/ the residents and faculty, then the word gets around and you will be a competitive applicant there. Whatever order you do your rotations in, just work hard, have fun, and make new friends. It has been nice keeping in touch with the other students I rotated with.
The SLORs are important so its definitely good to get them early and have them so that you can receive interviews as soon as possible (some programs may end up sending an interview before they get everything anyway). I ended up not getting letters from my last rotations, but then you might have the nice advantage of saving money by not having to return for interviews (Louisville let us interview while we were there and Sacramento said we did not have to interview if we rotated there. I was also able to do my UCLA-Harbor and MLK interviews while in the area doing the UC-Irvine rotation. Maybe the nicest thing for me was the chance to travel and really experience different places in the country for a month while getting to also see the different EDs and programs close up.
Good luck!
-Andy Kahn
