randomusername said:
If I'm following your second question...yeah, the bulk of your 88 weeks of rotations will be preceptor-based (that's just the nature of DO clinical education). You'll have one mandatory ward-IM rotation and the possibility of a few additional ward-rotations (I forget the other ward rotations the school offers, I just know one of them is surgery and another is FP) but the bulk of your rotations will be you tagging along with a single physician, a group, or a single department.
Note: this is really long, so there is a tl;dr at the bottom and some general advice.
As a current third year, I can chime in on this. This is correct for the most part, with ward based OPTIONS for peds, family, psych and I believe surgery. Now when I say option, I mean you have to apply for them separately and fairly early (mid 2nd year). Unfortunately, how it is chosen is based on part grades and part how well you know the faculty. If you're the type who does well the first two years but only shows up for exams and rarely talks to anyone, it may be very difficult to land a spot.
That said, the rotations are a massive hit or miss. I've heard reports coming in from the front of where students did literally nothing or simply assisted with the mundane everyday issues to a private practice. Some preceptors will treat students like a fly on the wall simply because they'd rather control the pace and at the end of it, you'll get nothing from it and probably never look back.
Ward based doesn't always equal better either. I'm in Tucson for 3rd year and my next door neighbor is a 3rd year UofA student and he is also on OB/GYN for 6 wks (as opposed to our 4 wk stints). He has yet to deliver a baby and it's been a month for him already, which means he probably never will. I'm two weeks in and have delivered 2 and will likely have to deliver 2 more. Our preceptor is insanely busy so we're on call often and I guess you could say the down side is there is very little time to study for the shelf, but I'm a little glad I got to at least do some stuff.
Thus the nature of the beast: if you are in a busy ward based rotation with residents, fellows and auditioning 4th years, as a 3rd year, you're at the bottom stuck with scut work and observation 95% of the time. That said, it can give you a 1st hand experience into what life will be like should you enter it, but honestly, 4th year auditions are more important for actually learning things and impressing people.
Still, some residencies do want to see some ward based experience and 1 required month may not be enough. Even with auditions, this can be a problem in an interview, as noted by scpod during his IM residency interviews.
Wow, this is a lot longer than it meant to be, but I just want to leave it with this.
tl;dr - Rotations are hit and miss since preceptors vary wildly in what they will let you do. There is 1 required ward based IM but optional ward based psych, surg, peds, and family that must be applied for in 2nd year.
Advice: actively shape your 3rd year. Don't accept the schedule they give you and change things like seeking out "underserved" areas to replace your rural rotation. It is your education and bend their strict rules to get what you want.