Clerkship Order: Subspecialty Interest?

[greenpenguin65]

I've perused all the forums extensively, but I haven't been able to find anything that I'm looking for. Basically, we're in the middle of planning our 3rd year clerkship order, and I'm not too sure what order will work the best. At this point in time (with my very limited experience), I'm interested in ENT as well as OB/GYN; I mostly have realized through shadowing/minor experiences that I want to do something that has a good mix of clinic/surgery and I've really enjoyed these.

Since I'm not set (and will likely change my mind), I'm not sure where to place these clerkships. My school has a limited number of lanes to work with and these are essentially what they are:

1. Psych/Neuro ---> IM ---> OB/Peds [Winter Break] --> 8 weeks of Elective Time (hopefully 2 weeks of ENT here) --> Surgery (ending mid-April, another 2 weeks of ENT at the end here)

2. Surgery (2 weeks of ENT at the end here) ---> Elective ---> Neuro/Psych ---> IM ---> OB/Peds

3. Peds/OB ---> Surgery --> Elective ---> Neuro/Psych ---> IM

Basically, no clue what's the best since I have somewhat varied interests. Any perspective is greatly appreciated; I mostly just don't want to box myself in to something without getting to really try it all out.

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[mvenus929]

In the end, it probably doesn't matter, but if you want to learn how to be a third year student so you can do better on the rotations you're interested in, start with Neuro/Psych. If you want to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for surgery, do that first.

 

[Hangry]

I've perused all the forums extensively, but I haven't been able to find anything that I'm looking for. Basically, we're in the middle of planning our 3rd year clerkship order, and I'm not too sure what order will work the best. At this point in time (with my very limited experience), I'm interested in ENT as well as OB/GYN; I mostly have realized through shadowing/minor experiences that I want to do something that has a good mix of clinic/surgery and I've really enjoyed these.

Since I'm not set (and will likely change my mind), I'm not sure where to place these clerkships. My school has a limited number of lanes to work with and these are essentially what they are:

1. Psych/Neuro ---> IM ---> OB/Peds [Winter Break] --> 8 weeks of Elective Time (hopefully 2 weeks of ENT here) --> Surgery (ending mid-April, another 2 weeks of ENT at the end here)

2. Surgery (2 weeks of ENT at the end here) ---> Elective ---> Neuro/Psych ---> IM ---> OB/Peds

3. Peds/OB ---> Surgery --> Elective ---> Neuro/Psych ---> IM

Basically, no clue what's the best since I have somewhat varied interests. Any perspective is greatly appreciated; I mostly just don't want to box myself in to something without getting to really try it all out.

As others have said, order truly doesn't matter that much. Try to get a bit of exposure to something like ENT early so you can start research, etc if you are dead set on the field but don't stress if you are unable to do this. I would also recommend you not double up on any elective if you aren't wedded to one specific field, branch out and try more fields that you might be interested in (in your case perhaps urology, ophtho, etc).

 

[Doctor-S]

I've perused all the forums extensively, but I haven't been able to find anything that I'm looking for. Basically, we're in the middle of planning our 3rd year clerkship order, and I'm not too sure what order will work the best. At this point in time (with my very limited experience), I'm interested in ENT as well as OB/GYN; I mostly have realized through shadowing/minor experiences that I want to do something that has a good mix of clinic/surgery and I've really enjoyed these.

Since I'm not set (and will likely change my mind), I'm not sure where to place these clerkships. My school has a limited number of lanes to work with and these are essentially what they are:

1. Psych/Neuro ---> IM ---> OB/Peds [Winter Break] --> 8 weeks of Elective Time (hopefully 2 weeks of ENT here) --> Surgery (ending mid-April, another 2 weeks of ENT at the end here)

2. Surgery (2 weeks of ENT at the end here) ---> Elective ---> Neuro/Psych ---> IM ---> OB/Peds

3. Peds/OB ---> Surgery --> Elective ---> Neuro/Psych ---> IM

Basically, no clue what's the best since I have somewhat varied interests. Any perspective is greatly appreciated; I mostly just don't want to box myself in to something without getting to really try it all out.

The order of your clerkship rotations probably won't make a big difference. Just saying.

Do you want a front-heavy track or a back-heavy track?

Some general thoughts:

More of your attention and time will be required in specialties that require a lot of work with inpatients (IM, Peds, OB/Gyn, Surgery). Since internal medicine provides you with a basic framework upon which to expand your medical knowledge, it is useful to complete your IM rotation early in your 3rd year (and before surgery). Since you're interested in surgery, you might consider OB/Gyn before general surgery. In OB/Gyn you'll become more familiar with basic surgical skills (e.g., suturing, knot-tying). Expect weekends and long hours in general surgery. Most of the time, Psych is less time-intensive. You don't want to burn-out (think Step 2 exam) - so keep that in mind when submitting your clerkship track preferences.

 

[dpmd]

There are pluses and minuses to doing the thing you are interested early and late. Don't worry too much about which option you pick. You have the chance to make good decisions for which specialty to pick and successfully match regardless of which you end up in.

 

[operaman]

What I did in a similar situation was to frontload all the big ones. My thinking was that if I changed my mind, I wanted to change it early. I started with surgery, then did IM, then electives, then the rest. If I found I hated surgery, I wanted that to happen in august rather than march.

For you, doing ent earlier is probably best so you have time to start doing research before the summer of subi.

 

[doyouhaveaflag]

Do you have to do aways for ENT? If you do, I would try to do surgery before March or so.

During my surgery rotation, I changed my mind from general surgery to a competitive surgical subspecialty that requires aways. I'm really thankful I was able to rotate on surgery before winter break so I could change my mind in time to do research in this specialty and apply early for aways.

 

[Jabbed]

OP the most important question: when do you set your 4th year schedule?

You want to have completed your ENT/OBGYN rotations long before then or you won't have any idea how to set up your 4th year, which in turn will in all likelihood determine your specialty.

 

[Redpancreas]

I've perused all the forums extensively, but I haven't been able to find anything that I'm looking for. Basically, we're in the middle of planning our 3rd year clerkship order, and I'm not too sure what order will work the best. At this point in time (with my very limited experience), I'm interested in ENT as well as OB/GYN; I mostly have realized through shadowing/minor experiences that I want to do something that has a good mix of clinic/surgery and I've really enjoyed these.

Since I'm not set (and will likely change my mind), I'm not sure where to place these clerkships. My school has a limited number of lanes to work with and these are essentially what they are:

1. Psych/Neuro ---> IM ---> OB/Peds [Winter Break] --> 8 weeks of Elective Time (hopefully 2 weeks of ENT here) --> Surgery (ending mid-April, another 2 weeks of ENT at the end here)

2. Surgery (2 weeks of ENT at the end here) ---> Elective ---> Neuro/Psych ---> IM ---> OB/Peds

3. Peds/OB ---> Surgery --> Elective ---> Neuro/Psych ---> IM

Basically, no clue what's the best since I have somewhat varied interests. Any perspective is greatly appreciated; I mostly just don't want to box myself in to something without getting to really try it all out.

2/3...I'd prefer two. Everyone says not to do what you want last, but I don't really see why it would batter if you were dead set on it.



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