Away rotations

[Elysium]

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How do away rotations work? Do you find housing for just 6 weeks or do you have to go where you already know people you can stay with? Do hospitals have any kind of housing? This is a mystery to me and I just thought I'd ask.

Thanks

 

[Amy]

Also, how expensive is an away rotation? Do they charge tuition?

 

[stomper627]

These are good qs....but cannot answer them. They answers vary depending on the School you attend and the hospitals which you will be rotation. Some will have housing for you free, others for a fee, and others yet will have not and you are left to fend for yourself. They may give you guidance in finding shortterm housing.
As far as tuition goes? You are still a student attending your school, so yes tuition is charged....as an MSIII you should know that.
stomper

 

[Jalby]

I think she meant does the away school charge.

 

[Amy]

Yes, I meant does the school/ hospital you're rotating at generally charge an instructional fee? I know I still have to pay tuition at MY school!

 

[Da Vinci2]

Many of the institutions don't, at least for internal medicine. They charge a processing fee and may require letter(s) of rec. A popular way is to rent a room from a medical student over there for like ~$300 a month and possibly rent a car while there. Doing an away rotation is not required for IM but needed for small programs like surg, ent,...etc. Doing an away rotation in IM doesn't mean you will automatically get an invite either.

 

[dudefop]

I'm going to make my Feb. rotation away from my school,
and this is my first away rotation.

Am I allowed to wear my gown which has my school symbol printed on its
pocket in away hosptals?

For example,
can I wear my Havard medical school gown while rotating
at Mayo hospital?

Or do away hospitals usually offer one?

 

[Weil-Felix]

I am doing three away rotations this year. None of them charged me anything, although one of them made me jump through the most ridiculous hoops in order to apply (extra immunizations on top of the ones required by my school, pages and pages of BS paperwork). One of them even paid me a very generous stipend for my month there. It covered my housing, and then some.

Occasionally you can stay with residents or other med students for very little or free, but you should contact the school early to make arrangements for housing, as sometimes you will have to fend for yourself, as someone mentioned earlier. On one rotation, I even managed to get paid to house-sit for one of the residents.

As far as your white coat with your school's name....it has been my experience that students are encouraged to wear their own coats complete with school name and/or nametag. That way, people can easily identify you as a visiting student. But then, I have been doing pathology rotations, and after awhile I realized that most places didn't care if I wore my coat at all!

 

[mpp]

If you are going to Mayo, you can wear your Harvard 'gown' (by which I assume you mean some sort of white coat) if you are on in-patient services. For outpatient services you must wear a suit. Mayo will provide you with a Mayo nametag that proudly displays you as a visiting medical student that you will be required to wear...

 

[EJS]

where was the paid away rotation? could always use that! 😉

 

[Weil-Felix]

It was in Colorado Springs, at Penrose-St. Francis. Nice place, lovely program if you are interested in path.

 

[secretwave101]

Any suggestions on how to find out about MSIV clerkships in general? I'm FROM Colorado Springs and I had no idea there were any clerkships at any of their hospitals.

I'd love to be able to scroll through some list of available clerkships in things like ICU, EM, Surg, etc and to be able to click on the headline and get contact info, requirements and all that. Bet that's a pipe-dream.

 

[dsm-sb]

hey wave, check out this link

http://services.aamc.org/eec/student.cfm

it's the aamc's On-Line Extramural Electives Compendium. you can search for programs that offer clerkships for visiting students by region/state, etc...

 

[Idiopathic]

How do you deal with programs that do not take non-LCME students (i.e. osteopaths) for visiting clerkships. Do these programs make exceptions on a case-by-case basis? Or should one just write off any attempt to rotate through there.

 

[DireWolf]

Originally posted by Idiopathic
How do you deal with programs that do not take non-LCME students (i.e. osteopaths) for visiting clerkships. Do these programs make exceptions on a case-by-case basis? Or should one just write off any attempt to rotate through there.

Of the programs I've researched, there are a few that will not accept D.O. students for rotations- no matter what kind of connections you have. The irony is that these programs all have D.O.s in their residency programs. The best way to find out is to call them. But the rule seems to be "no means no."