Can't decide which elective to take--which one would you do and why?

[CTR]

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I have two potential rotations to choose from in my third year: allergy or urgent care. But I can't decide which to go with. Any suggestions? 😕

My plans are to go into either FM or IM.

 

[Depakote]

I have two potential rotations to choose from in my third year: allergy or urgent care. But I can't decide which to go with. Any suggestions? 😕

My plans are to go into either FM or IM.

Given your interests, I would do urgent care. It's nice and broad so I see it giving you a good feel for primary care and by the end you should have a better feel for whether it's what you want to do or not as opposed to a subspecialized field.

 

[CTR]

I should add, too, that these were the options presented to me to replace a dermatology rotation that fell through at the last minute. I wanted to do derm so I would feel comfortable whenever I saw some skin problem down the road, but unfortunately that's not going to work out.

I am sure that urgent care experience will likely be helpful, but I have been wondering what kinds of things I might learn from an allergy rotation, and if it would be helpful later on. And, who knows? If I liked allergy, I might even consider subspecializing in it. Plus, whenever I mention this story to classmates of mine, it seems like everyone responds by saying allergy sounds interesting. Choices, choices...

 

[C5toC9]

allergies sound pretty boring

 

[Doctor Bob]

allergies sound pretty boring

If it's not so bad, give benadryl
If it's sorta bad, give steroids
If it's really bad, give epi

Congrats, you're now a board certified allergist

I'd go with urgent care.

 

[CTR]

Thanks for the input! It's good to hear other points of view!

 

[MCQ]

I agree with the above poster... given you may go into FP, urgent care sounds like the better choice. It sounds more exciting anyway = time going faster.

 

[myhandsarecold]

urology

 

[Depakote]

Allergy might be useful if you go PCP given it's likely you will encounter an asthmatic patient who has never been previously diagnosed before (that sure happened to me a few months back).

However, I'd go for urgent care. Probably something you'll never do as a PCP unless you become a hospitalist but you will be able to see a huge variety of diseases and it could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to know how in the hell do you calculate the right PEEP values. I rotated it for 2 weeks but didn't really learn much. The first week there was only 1 patient who didn't even need ventilation and the second week a new intensivist just started working there and was just getting used to how things worked so he didn't have much time to teach me much.

you may be thinking of intensive care.

Urgent Care is more along the lines of medical problems that are not immediately life threatening (Emergency Medicine) but cannot wait until the Primary Care physician is available.