Core surgery rotation away from home school?

[BoolaBoola]

I heard that some residency programs look down upon doing third year core rotations away from one's home school. However, I could not find any that specifically say so on their websites at least. Nonetheless, I'd like to hear what you guys would do in this situation...

I'm a US citizen IMG in a European 4-yr MD program just finishing 2nd year. I was recently offered an opportunity to do my 3rd year core surgery rotation in an independent US hospital (meaning they have their own core curriculum offered to students from any medical school and are not affiliated w/ any school in particular). This core rotation is significantly better than the one offered by my home school in terms of teaching/experience according to students in previous years who have done this. Moreover, my home school focuses on teaching surgery the way they do it here, which is in many ways different than in the US, where I want to practice.

Now given the above positives, it almost seems like a no-brainer and that my mind should be made up...not so fast... The rumormill has it that many residency programs are not fond of people who take their core rotations away from their home school. I am ultimately interested in the surgical subspecialties back in the US, hence the draw to learn surgery back home. However, what I am not sure of is whether this benefit outweighs the potential cost of raising residency directors' eyebrows...is this something I should be concerned about?

I am leaning towards this rotation for now, but I'd like to ask anyone with more experience in the match process if there is anything I need to know or should think about before going through with this...??? I'm inclined to say that there are others who are/have been faced with a similar dilemma at some point...

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[Law2Doc]

I heard that some residency programs look down upon doing third year core rotations away from one's home school. However, I could not find any that specifically say so on their websites at least. Nonetheless, I'd like to hear what you guys would do in this situation...

It's not so much that they look down upon it. It's that few, if any, US schools ALLOW you to do a core rotation away. Since you are an IMG, I would think any addition of US credentials would be of help.

 

[njbmd]

Moving to the surgical residency forum for comment by people who may know more about this situation than US medical students.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Agree with Law2Doc; its not that they "look down" on doing Core rotations away from your home but that most US schools won't accept outside students for those rotations.

But you say you have such a school that will. This is problematic for two reasons:

1) it used to be that ECFMG used to require all your Core rotations be completed at your home school or in formal rotations set up by the school (ie, for some osteopathic programs and Caribbean schools); I could not find mention of such on their web site

2) if the program you are interested in is not affiliated with an ACGME residency program (ie, its not a teaching hospital) then there are some states that will not accept the rotation toward licensing.

If you are interested in learning about "surgical subspecialties" in the US, then you can do subspecialty rotations in the US as final year electives.
Your surgical Core will not necessarily provide experience in the subspecialties.

Since other students from your school have previously done this rotation, I would check with them and make sure they had no problems getting ECFMG certification or state licensed because of it. I am not sure why residency directors would look down on doing your Core rotations in the US; its done all the time for Caribbean students. But please check with the licensing boards in states you might think about applying to for residency and make sure they do not require your rotations to be done at your home program (if such rotations are available) and in an ACGME hospital with a surgical residency.