Can someone enlighten me on the realities of clinical rotations for DO students?

[Blunt Dissection]

Can someone please explain to me how clinical rotations are assigned? I've read it's by class rank at some schools. Do DO schools vary in terms of how they assign the "top" clinical rotation sites to their 3rd years?

Depends on the school. It's based on a lottery at mine.

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[Roxas]

Can someone please explain to me how clinical rotations are assigned? I've read it's by class rank at some schools. Do DO schools vary in terms of how they assign the "top" clinical rotation sites to their 3rd years?

Personal statement > lottery

They used to weigh the lottery by class rank but they abandoned that this year

 

[Rekt]

Can someone please explain to me how clinical rotations are assigned? I've read it's by class rank at some schools. Do DO schools vary in terms of how they assign the "top" clinical rotation sites to their 3rd years?

Also lottery here. People thought it was ranked based, but they definitely sent quite a few questionable students to our best sites.

 

[jrlob91]

You're school is screwing you. I've only ever heard of this happening at SOMA. I actually don't know how you get through a surgery rotation without going into a hospital.

Can you give me an example of which SOMA site this happens at? I find it hard to believe

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Can you give me an example of which SOMA site this happens at? I find it hard to believe

No idea, it's just what a 4th year told me he went through.

 

[hallowmann]

If you haven't set foot in a hospital in 3rd year, then something is wrong. I have heard of people in my school not being on resident teams in 3rd year (you almost have to actively try to make that happen though), but I've never heard of someone not being in a hospital at all. In all honestly, you should have complained to your school long ago.

I'm also not sure what "top osteopathic school" you attend (not even sure what that means honestly), but if this is the norm for your school, you need to out it and the rotation site selection process. No medical student should be in this situation, and applicants deserve to more what they're getting into. I'm sorry that your school has done such a disservice to you.

Stories like this are why we need improved standards for clinical rotations, and exemplifies just how variable experiences are across DO schools. I've said it many times, but I had surprisingly good rotation experiences. All cores were in hospitals and all but 2 were wards based with resident teams.

Every school (at least I believe) has good and bad rotation sites and unfortunately on many occasions its up to the students to make sure they get the education they want.

Now that all said, I still think it's what you put in and where you do your residency that has the biggest impact on you as a clinician. Across the board, med students even in MD schools are given such varying responsibilities and experiences as a student that you end up repeating anything important in the beginning of intern year anyway, so at best the learning curve is a bit steeper for those with subpar experiences.

For that 3rd year student, don't worry, 1-2 solid inpatient wards based aways would practically catch you up.

 

[W19]

I hereby declare that the DO degree is equivalent to a DNP ... How the heck someone can go thru 3rd year without setting foot in a hospital.

You better do some good subI in 4th year!

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

I hereby declare that the DO degree is equivalent to a DNP

No. And you've made this declaration about 10 times.

 

[Higherprimate]

If you haven't set foot in a hospital in 3rd year, then something is wrong. I have heard of people in my school not being on resident teams in 3rd year (you almost have to actively try to make that happen though), but I've never heard of someone not being in a hospital at all. In all honestly, you should have complained to your school long ago.

I'm also not sure what "top osteopathic school" you attend (not even sure what that means honestly), but if this is the norm for your school, you need to out it and the rotation site selection process. No medical student should be in this situation, and applicants deserve to more what they're getting into. I'm sorry that your school has done such a disservice to you.

Stories like this are why we need improved standards for clinical rotations, and exemplifies just how variable experiences are across DO schools. I've said it many times, but I had surprisingly good rotation experiences. All cores were in hospitals and all but 2 were wards based with resident teams.

Every school (at least I believe) has good and bad rotation sites and unfortunately on many occasions its up to the students to make sure they get the education they want.

Now that all said, I still think it's what you put in and where you do your residency that has the biggest impact on you as a clinician. Across the board, med students even in MD schools are given such varying responsibilities and experiences as a student that you end up repeating anything important in the beginning of intern year anyway, so at best the learning curve is a bit steeper for those with subpar experiences.

For that 3rd year student, don't worry, 1-2 solid inpatient wards based aways would practically catch you up.

You are correct about me needing to address this issue long ago. Unfortunately, when I looked at my schedule I did not look deep enough into each preceptor and where they practiced. I did make the mistake of assuming that one of my two IM rotations would be inpatient. Instead both are outpatient and one of them is in rural Kansas. Once the schedule is established then it cannot be changed unless it is an elective rotation. I don't think this is routine for my school, I think most of my classmates get some opportunity in a hospital. At this point I just need to learn as much as I can, plan my fourth year better, and keep moving forward.


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[Roxas]

You are correct about me needing to address this issue long ago. Unfortunately, when I looked at my schedule I did not look deep enough into each preceptor and where they practiced. I did make the mistake of assuming that one of my two IM rotations would be inpatient. Instead both are outpatient and one of them is in rural Kansas. Once the schedule is established then it cannot be changed unless it is an elective rotation. I don't think this is routine for my school, I think most of my classmates get some opportunity in a hospital. At this point I just need to learn as much as I can, plan my fourth year better, and keep moving forward.


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God speed man, but with some work I hope you'll be alright. I was talking to some of the residents at my hospital who are alumni from my school about this issue, as some of my friends in my class have the same issue as you. They said that it's all about going through the growing pains, and you either get it out of the way in 3rd year or you have to play catch up during 4th year with a little extra effort. Then there's a whole new set of growing pains as interns, which you'll ideally be prepared for.

 

[meliora27]

I'm pretty sure the AOA is pretty hellbent on equating DO with primary care docs, so in reality, they probably see nothing wrong with core medicine clerkships taking place in a rural family practitioner's officer, because after all, that seems to be their mission.

 

[hallowmann]

You are correct about me needing to address this issue long ago. Unfortunately, when I looked at my schedule I did not look deep enough into each preceptor and where they practiced. I did make the mistake of assuming that one of my two IM rotations would be inpatient. Instead both are outpatient and one of them is in rural Kansas. Once the schedule is established then it cannot be changed unless it is an elective rotation. I don't think this is routine for my school, I think most of my classmates get some opportunity in a hospital. At this point I just need to learn as much as I can, plan my fourth year better, and keep moving forward.


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Don't worry, you'll be ok, a couple rotations in busy resident teams should catch you up with most med students.

 

[Mbeas]

some of the people on this site baffle me.

medical education and clinical training wherever you go isn't that good. there is too much overhead and liability in medicine these days. as someone has said before, if you have decent clinical education in years 3 and 4, you're fine. i've seen plenty of terrible MD medical students and terrible DO students. I've also seen good ones on both sides. At the end of the day, if you had decent rotations, you will basically be starting off on the same foot as everyone else on day 1 of intern year. Completely clueless.

And for the people commenting on the diversity of pathology blah blah blah. Nobody cares. I'm glad you once saw some rare brain tumor in medical school. You have no idea how to manage it and if you see it in your family med practice in 10 years, you will still refer it to a specialist because you have no clue how to treat it. Or are you an expert because you saw it on day 4 of 3rd year? No doubt, it is an interesting case to see which is cool, but don't act like you got a better experience necessarily because you got lucky and saw it once.

If you are a medical student (MD or DO), work hard and it will pay off.