Best Short Electives

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docdionne

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Hey all -
Fourth year here looking for ideas for good elective rotations. I have to fill a three week spot and a two week spot. I want to get the most out of these last weeks of zero responsibility.
I'm going into internal med, interested in cards. Have done lots of medicine months and all cores, just finishing cardiovascular surgery and doing radiology after.
Thinking nephro, neuro, urgent care or pain clinic, but please if you have better recs - let me have 'em!

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A week or two of anesthesia will get you comfortable with IVs and intubation if you aren't already. The drugs they use in anesthesia are also super-cool. Derm is always a good one to get comfortable with rashes. You'll be doing nephro as an IM resident, and get a lot of neuro even if it's not a mandatory rotation. Don't bother with pain clinic, because with the explosion of overdose deaths the field won't look the same even a few years from now.
 
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Ophtho- learn to use a slit lamp and actually do a fundoscopic exam
Derm- so much of this
Body imaging- cxr and cardiac CT reading for the future cardiologist
GI- so you can correctly reevaluate your subspecialty goals

Hell no to renal and neuro. That pain awaits you.
 
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Vacation.
 
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second optho. I feel like I can actually confidently look into someone's eyes and determine SOMETHING. Prior to my rotation, yeah I was looking into someone's eyes, but it wasn't a competent look and I sure as hell wasn't making any real conclusions
 
A week or two of anesthesia will get you comfortable with IVs and intubation if you aren't already. The drugs they use in anesthesia are also super-cool. Derm is always a good one to get comfortable with rashes. You'll be doing nephro as an IM resident, and get a lot of neuro even if it's not a mandatory rotation. Don't bother with pain clinic, because with the explosion of overdose deaths the field won't look the same even a few years from now.

Agree with OR anesthesia. I'm also going into internal medicine and I feel much better having gotten some exposure to intubation and starting peripheral IVs. I respectfully disagree that pain clinic is a waste of time. I'm on that rotation right now, and I'm learning a ton! I've improved both my MSK and neuro exam skills tremendously, learned about the use of antidepressants in treatment of chronic pain (which is something general IM can definitely do), and getting a much better idea about the non-surgical management of spine issues. There's enough patients who are still on opioids from before the major shift against them that I learn about opioids, but also more than enough patients who are off opioids completely and managed with multi-modal therapies that I get to see the direction pain management is headed.
 
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I found derm, anesthesia, and rheumatology to be helpful. I also considered endo and radiology.


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Agree with anesthesia and dermatology being good choices. The former is usually pretty relaxed and gives good skills experience (IVs, a-lines, intubations, possibly central lines). The latter is very relevant in internal medicine and on Step 3, as there are a lot of rashes that are indicative of various medical diseases, which are often tested on exams.
 
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