^congrats!
So, still interested in EM/IM. 4th year is coming up fast, VSAS just opened up.
Quick Q for the 1 or 2 people that can actually answer this question (EM/IM is not too popular it seems!):
The institution I want to match at offers EM, IM, and an EM/IM elective. Any thoughts of which one to do?? It's an EM-driven program I've heard so I'm mostly between EM and EM/IM.
If I go for the EM elective I have more dedicated time with an attending (I assume), maybe get a letter out of it?
But if they offer the EM/IM elective, wouldn't it make sense to go for that? It's two weeks EM and two weeks IM. But my concern is it might be harder to get a LOR when my time with each attending is cut in half. Or do I try to get two letters @_@ ?
Thoughts? Hopefully I'll get a response before match day, this board is slow 😛
You might as well just have said the name of 'the institution'. Haha. First there are only 12 EM/IM programs total and second there are only 2 EM/IM elective rotations right now that I am aware of.
From the way you worded your description of the rotation it sounds like you are referring to the Maryland EM/IM rotation. That rotation is brand new. Dr. Winters said he was planning on getting an EM/IM rotation set up for the next application season when I was there for an interview.
Although I can't comment on the rotation at Maryland specifically I can comment on the EM/IM rotation at Christiana because I did it last year.
Long story short, it was a great experience. The highlights being: (1) I got to know the leadership of the EM/IM program really well (2) I got to know the EM/IM residents really well (3) Helped to reaffirmed my decision in choosing to apply EM/IM (4) Showed programs I had seriously thought about and was committed to the idea of pursuing EM/IM training.
At least for the EM/IM rotation at Christiana getting a letter was not an issue at all. The letter would most likely come from the EM/IM leadership (PD or assistant PD) not specially from a certain attending on the EM or IM side although I'm sure that could be a possibility.
You may want to think about what type of letter you want to get (EM vs IM, SLOE vs individual letter) and where you intend to send it. For example, if you are applying EM/IM and EM then are you going to send this letter to both the EM/IM programs and the EM programs or just to the EM/IM programs?
It is expected that you send EM SLOEs to the EM/IM programs but I am not sure how a SLOE after a EM/IM rotation would look to just a straight EM program. I'm not saying that is necessarily a bad idea I just don't know how programs without an EM/IM residency would look at it.
In my case, the EM/IM rotation I did was just supplemental to my year. Meaning I already had all my letters by the time I did it. Just some things to think about.
