Current DO Intern/Resident .. Ask me (almost) Anything

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GuitarFreak

GuitarFreak

Private Practice
10+ Year Member
Hey everyone,

I do one of these every few months & find that I'm able to give back and answer questions for a lot of you aspiring physicians.

So now that its another application season, and I have some time to kill, I figured why not try to help once again.

Let me know if you guys have questions about anything, from getting into medical school to picking a specialty to getting into residency, and everything in between. 🙂

Best,
GuitarFreak
 
Do you believe the medical school one attends has absolutely any impact on their ability to match into competitive fields or is it truly 100% the individual?

Did you know what specialty you were interested in early on or how did you decide?

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule for us!
 
GuitarFreak said:
Hey everyone,

I do one of these every few months & find that I'm able to give back and answer questions for a lot of you aspiring physicians.

So now that its another application season, and I have some time to kill, I figured why not try to help once again.

Let me know if you guys have questions about anything, from getting into medical school to picking a specialty to getting into residency, and everything in between. 🙂

Best,
GuitarFreak
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Hey thanks

So I was just recently accepted to med school and now that I have been accepted, I cant help but think more heavily about possible specialties in the future. While I am completely aware that 3rd year will pretty much reveal what I want to do, I guess I cant help but wonder about all of those other specialties and sub-specialties that are not part of the core rotation block? Honestly I have no clue even on surgery vs medicine... the only fields I think I would NOT want to do is EM and OB/GYN (just from shadowing). Otherwise everything else is fair game - which leaves a ton of fields to explore haha...

I guess I am just wondering how you even go about really finding a specialty when there are so many out there and you wont necessarily experience them all in med school? Some people who are gunning for competitive specialties start super early, even into M-1. Maybe I would want one of those competitive specialties? Maybe not? Heck a DO ortho surgeon that I shadowed said he knew from day 1 he was doing ortho, and then went and did it. That just seems wild to me...

I guess I am blessed with a certain optimism which is great but at the same time, pretty much every field I have shadowed in I have loved and could see myself doing. How in the world do people do it haha???
 
anon01 said:
Do you believe the medical school one attends has absolutely any impact on their ability to match into competitive fields or is it truly 100% the individual?

Did you know what specialty you were interested in early on or how did you decide?

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule for us!
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I, personally, do not believe that the medical school one attends has a significant impact on one's ability to match into competitive fields. The ability to match the field is 90% individual & 10% school (quality of teaching etc). I believe where you match, may be more influenced by the school you go to.

My story is a bit different. I was interested in my field way before I even started college so I geared my academic career towards the field (experience, research, conferences etc) & was fortunate enough to match as well.

Of course! Its important to pay it forward 🙂
 
Hey, thank you for taking the time to start this thread!

My question is, looking back at your journey, what are the most important things (curriculum, rotation, tuition...etc) about a school that we should be looking into to help us determine which school to attend? Because frankly, DO schools can vary by a lot. We got some big name state schools, small town private schools, school in big cities, small rural areas.. etc.

Thanks in advance!
 
Awesome Sauceome said:
Hey thanks

So I was just recently accepted to med school and now that I have been accepted, I cant help but think more heavily about possible specialties in the future. While I am completely aware that 3rd year will pretty much reveal what I want to do, I guess I cant help but wonder about all of those other specialties and sub-specialties that are not part of the core rotation block? Honestly I have no clue even on surgery vs medicine... the only fields I think I would NOT want to do is EM and OB/GYN (just from shadowing). Otherwise everything else is fair game - which leaves a ton of fields to explore haha...

I guess I am just wondering how you even go about really finding a specialty when there are so many out there and you wont necessarily experience them all in med school? Some people who are gunning for competitive specialties start super early, even into M-1. Maybe I would want one of those competitive specialties? Maybe not? Heck a DO ortho surgeon that I shadowed said he knew from day 1 he was doing ortho, and then went and did it. That just seems wild to me...

I guess I am blessed with a certain optimism which is great but at the same time, pretty much every field I have shadowed in I have loved and could see myself doing. How in the world do people do it haha???
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I hear ya! Its not an easy task to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life, especially in a career as taxing as medicine. I'm one of those lucky people you mentioned who figured out what they wanted to do really early & stuck by it.

Although, I agree with the advice that everyone gives you about not worrying about specialties till later, I'm not one to shut people down completely when it comes to that train of thought.

What I will say, however, is that you're already ahead of the curve by knowing what you do not want to do. As you progress through MS1, you'll learn more about certain fields & you'll immediately realize that you like / dislike them more than others. That is bound to happen. Those experiences, coupled with the knowledge of what you do not want to do, will guide you throughout the rest.

Congrats on getting accepted! Good Luck!
 
GuitarFreak said:
I, personally, do not believe that the medical school one attends has a significant impact on one's ability to match into competitive fields. The ability to match the field is 90% individual & 10% school (quality of teaching etc). I believe where you match, may be more influenced by the school you go to.

My story is a bit different. I was interested in my field way before I even started college so I geared my academic career towards the field (experience, research, conferences etc) & was fortunate enough to match as well.

Of course! Its important to pay it forward 🙂
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Did you match ACGME or AOA, and was it your #1?
 
Fargofargo said:
Hey, thank you for taking the time to start this thread!

My question is, looking back at your journey, what are the most important things (curriculum, rotation, tuition...etc) about a school that we should be looking into to help us determine which school to attend? Because frankly, DO schools can vary by a lot. We got some big name state schools, small town private schools, school in big cities, small rural areas.. etc.

Thanks in advance!
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Great question! Really, you hit the top 3 factors fairly accurately. All medical schools, DO or MD, will provide you with a decent medical education as long as you apply yourself. The top factor, IMO, would be tuition. If you're accepted at multiple places, see which one you can afford more. A close second would be location. You need to be able to see yourself completely immersed in that location for a few years. The quality of rotations are also to be considered. Keep in mind, just because a hospital is 'affiliated' with a multitude of hospitals, doesn't mean that all of them will provide a quality learning experience.
 
GuitarFreak said:
I hear ya! Its not an easy task to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life, especially in a career as taxing as medicine. I'm one of those lucky people you mentioned who figured out what they wanted to do really early & stuck by it.

Although, I agree with the advice that everyone gives you about not worrying about specialties till later, I'm not one to shut people down completely when it comes to that train of thought.

What I will say, however, is that you're already ahead of the curve by knowing what you do not want to do. As you progress through MS1, you'll learn more about certain fields & you'll immediately realize that you like / dislike them more than others. That is bound to happen. Those experiences, coupled with the knowledge of what you do not want to do, will guide you throughout the rest.

Congrats on getting accepted! Good Luck!
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But so what do you say about those other specialties that are not a part of normal rotations. So for instance ENT or Urology... should I just try and spend some of my free time shadowing in those fields or will I essentially pick up on some stuff on those fields secondarily via my normal rotations?

Or like for instance radiology and pathology. I recently realized that I have no clue what either of those types of doctors actually do. I mean I know that radiologists "look at scans" and pathologists "look at slides and/or forensics," but I mean there obviously is more to those jobs than that, and at least at KCUMB neither of those fields are part of their normal core clerkship schedule. Should I spend this gap year shadowing some fields? Or would I be best off just waiting and getting exposure to those fields (again secondarily) in my 3rd year? I should note that my boss is a stickler and its really hard for me to get the time to take off and shadow, especially during the week.
 
Thanks for doing this!

Recently accepted and I'm stoked. In terms of 4th (also 3rd?) year electives, if I wanted to explore nephrology, gastro, cardiology, etc. would it be harder to find a good elective rotation depending on the school I'm at? Also could you explain a little on how the 4th year electives work - is it as simple as you choose an elective and boom you're there?
 
D4C said:
OK, so the inevitable followup to that: do you think doing an AOA residency will not give you quite as broad exposure to various pathology? It's pretty rhetorical, but I'd like your take anyway 🙂.
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I don't necessarily agree with that. Though there are a lot of AOA programs (IMO) that are located within small hospitals, there are also many AOA programs located in Level I trauma centers. To generalize isn't fair. But yes, a lot of AOA programs tend to be in smaller community hospitals which, depending on the specialty, could be a good or a bad thing.
 
Awesome Sauceome said:
But so what do you say about those other specialties that are not a part of normal rotations. So for instance ENT or Urology... should I just try and spend some of my free time shadowing in those fields or will I essentially pick up on some stuff on those fields secondarily via my normal rotations?

Or like for instance radiology and pathology. I recently realized that I have no clue what either of those types of doctors actually do. I mean I know that radiologists "look at scans" and pathologists "look at slides and/or forensics," but I mean there obviously is more to those jobs than that, and at least at KCUMB neither of those fields are part of their normal core clerkship schedule. Should I spend this gap year shadowing some fields? Or would I be best off just waiting and getting exposure to those fields (again secondarily) in my 3rd year? I should note that my boss is a stickler and its really hard for me to get the time to take off and shadow, especially during the week.
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Right now, you should try to enjoy your time as much as possible, with non-medical activities. The system is frustrating, I agree. Like I said, when you cover GU or Neuro during your pre-clinical years, you will have an inclination towards or away from them. What I would do is to spend a summer doing some light shadowing in the fields you're considering and don't know much about. Keep in mind, that the summer between MS1 & MS2 is really the only one you will get so I wouldn't go crazy doing 10-12 hrs a day for the couple months. Just enough to give you an idea of what physicians in those fields do.
 
MaduNotSoff said:
Thanks for doing this!

Recently accepted and I'm stoked. In terms of 4th (also 3rd?) year electives, if I wanted to explore nephrology, gastro, cardiology, etc. would it be harder to find a good elective rotation depending on the school I'm at? Also could you explain a little on how the 4th year electives work - is it as simple as you choose an elective and boom you're there?
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Congrats!

There are two types of electives you can do. Firstly, there will be electives you can pick within your school's OPTI (affiliated hospitals), which should be fairly seamless to get into since your school should hook you up. The second type is actual electives, wherever you choose them. These are really up in the air. For most of them, you apply through a common system called VSAS, where you upload documents etc & then its upto them to approve you. If you reach out to the institutions you want to rotate at (if they don't participate in VSAS, or even if they do) early enough, there shouldn't be any issues. I did not apply to any of my electives through VSAS but I know many people who weren't able to get the rotations they desired. I did all of mine outside the VSAS system and was not rejected from any of my desired electives.
 
GuitarFreak said:
Right now, you should try to enjoy your time as much as possible, with non-medical activities. The system is frustrating, I agree. Like I said, when you cover GU or Neuro during your pre-clinical years, you will have an inclination towards or away from them. What I would do is to spend a summer doing some light shadowing in the fields you're considering and don't know much about. Keep in mind, that the summer between MS1 & MS2 is really the only one you will get so I wouldn't go crazy doing 10-12 hrs a day for the couple months. Just enough to give you an idea of what physicians in those fields do.
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Gotcha, thanks a bunch, will do.
 
GuitarFreak said:
Hey everyone,

I do one of these every few months & find that I'm able to give back and answer questions for a lot of you aspiring physicians.

So now that its another application season, and I have some time to kill, I figured why not try to help once again.

Let me know if you guys have questions about anything, from getting into medical school to picking a specialty to getting into residency, and everything in between. 🙂

Best,
GuitarFreak
Click to expand...


Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this!! I am an applicant this cycle, and I had two questions for you. First, what has been you favorite part about being a medical student (aside from, you know, doing what you've always probably wanted to do!)? And second, if you could give any advice to those of us currently in the application cycle, what would it be? Not necessarily the traditional questions that have been asked, but would love insight from someone who has gone through med school. Thanks once again!!
 
AlteredScale said:
Thank you for doing this!

I am wondering: how different is intern/residency to clerkship a and sub-i's? Also can you give a run down of the application process?

Favorite guitar and/or guitarist?
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Depending on where you do your Sub-I's, its very similar, except the responsibility of making clinical decisions lies on your shoulders. You also have more overall responsibilities like call etc.

The application process is fairly straight forward. You apply to each program through a common application system called ERAS. You upload all of your documents on there & the programs you apply to download them from there. At the same time you sign up for the match & rank your programs (based on how you felt post interview) & the programs do the same. A computer algorithm then matches applicants with programs based on how they ranked each other. You find the results out on Match Day 🙂

Favorite Guitarist: Joe Satriani.
 
Just realized you are a radiology resident... can you give me a brief run down of an average day or average couple of days? As I eluded to previously, I have no idea what radiologists actually spend most of their day doing haha. But I definitely want to learn more about the field.
 
DreamMed said:
Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this!! I am an applicant this cycle, and I had two questions for you. First, what has been you favorite part about being a medical student (aside from, you know, doing what you've always probably wanted to do!)? And second, if you could give any advice to those of us currently in the application cycle, what would it be? Not necessarily the traditional questions that have been asked, but would love insight from someone who has gone through med school. Thanks once again!!
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My favorite part has been learning about the para-clinical world. I've actively gone out of the comfort zones of medical school & explored the worlds of consulting, pharma industries, VCs etc & learning about how medicine applies outside & behind the scenes of a hospital.

My foremost advice would be to be realistic. Cast a net within your means. Nothing is impossible, but plenty is improbable. For instance, if you barely passed your boards, its not likely that you will match into crazy competitive field. Over my years as a med student, I saw too many people deal with terrible disappointment only because they weren't realistic with their decisions.
 
Awesome Sauceome said:
Just realized you are a radiology resident... can you give me a brief run down of an average day or average couple of days? As I eluded to previously, I have no idea what radiologists actually spend most of their day doing haha. But I definitely want to learn more about the field.
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Sure!

The bulk of the day involves reading & dictating studies. The modality will mostly depend on what rotation you're on. For instance, if you're on your Ultrasound rotation, you'll be reading & dictating more ultrasounds than say, CT scans. There's the occasional lecture every other day or during academic days. When you're not reading & dictating, you spend your time doing procedures like barium swallows, enemas, and other procedures that require some sort of Rads (Fluoroscopy, CT etc). If you're on your IR rotation, you'll spend most of the day in the OR, assisting in cases like paracentesis', image guided biopsies, abscess drainage, vascular procedures etc.
 
Your favorite/least favorite course in med school (preclinical years)?

How much did you study during the first two years? When did you start prepping for boards?

When did you find out that you wanted to Radiology?

Thanks,
 
GuitarFreak said:
Sure!

The bulk of the day involves reading & dictating studies. The modality will mostly depend on what rotation you're on. For instance, if you're on your Ultrasound rotation, you'll be reading & dictating more ultrasounds than say, CT scans. There's the occasional lecture every other day or during academic days. When you're not reading & dictating, you spend your time doing procedures like barium swallows, enemas, and other procedures that require some sort of Rads (Fluoroscopy, CT etc). If you're on your IR rotation, you'll spend most of the day in the OR, assisting in cases like paracentesis', image guided biopsies, abscess drainage, vascular procedures etc.
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Do the days where you are mostly reading and dictating feel boring or is it a nice balance that rads has between more "desk work" and hands on work?
 
Postictal Raiden said:
Your favorite/least favorite course in med school (preclinical years)?

How much did you study during the first two years? When did you start prepping for boards?

When did you find out that you wanted to Radiology?

Thanks,
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My favorite system was Neuro. Least favorite was GI.

I studied everyday for a few hours so I wasn't lagging behind. Its very tedious to catchup if you fall behind so my goal was just to avoid that. I started prepping for boards end of Feb/early March .. Took COMLEX I in June.

I wanted to do Radiology since way before college, haha. So I'm very fortunate that it worked out.

PS. Ibn Alnafis was a badass.
 
Awesome Sauceome said:
Do the days where you are mostly reading and dictating feel boring or is it a nice balance that rads has between more "desk work" and hands on work?
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IMO, nothing about Radiology is boring. I could never get bored of reading/dictating all day.

Obviously it isn't for everyone as some of my close physician friends can't stand more than 5 mins of Rads, haha
 
GuitarFreak said:
My favorite system was Neuro. Least favorite was GI.

I studied everyday for a few hours so I wasn't lagging behind. Its very tedious to catchup if you fall behind so my goal was just to avoid that. I started prepping for boards end of Feb/early March .. Took COMLEX I in June.

I wanted to do Radiology since way before college, haha. So I'm very fortunate that it worked out.

PS. Ibn Alnafis was a badass.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your response.
 
GuitarFreak said:
Depending on where you do your Sub-I's, its very similar, except the responsibility of making clinical decisions lies on your shoulders. You also have more overall responsibilities like call etc.

The application process is fairly straight forward. You apply to each program through a common application system called ERAS. You upload all of your documents on there & the programs you apply to download them from there. At the same time you sign up for the match & rank your programs (based on how you felt post interview) & the programs do the same. A computer algorithm then matches applicants with programs based on how they ranked each other. You find the results out on Match Day 🙂

Favorite Guitarist: Joe Satriani.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I also am interested in the day to day life of radiology. Do you ever use the app Figure1? There are a lot of radiologist on there!
 
GuitarFreak said:
My favorite system was Neuro. Least favorite was GI.

I studied everyday for a few hours so I wasn't lagging behind. Its very tedious to catchup if you fall behind so my goal was just to avoid that. I started prepping for boards end of Feb/early March .. Took COMLEX I in June.

I wanted to do Radiology since way before college, haha. So I'm very fortunate that it worked out.

PS. Ibn Alnafis was a badass.
Click to expand...
So, is it fair to assume that you only took the COMLEX or did you take the USMLE as well? Also, which prep material did you use to study for LEVEL/STEP 1?

Thank you in advance, doc!
 
Besides studying 3 or so months before the COMLEX, what is the most effective way for a student starting med school to prepare for the COMLEX??? Basically, I mean studying the course work the first 2 years, what study methods do you think will make studying for the boards easier? Sorry I realize this is worded bad.....I'm tired
 
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During your clinical years and now (as an intern) - have you ever felt a stigma toward you as a DO from patients? Have you ever felt it from professionals?
 
how have senior residents/fellows in your program been doing as far as finding jobs? (given the supposedly poor radiology job market)
 
67552931811 said:
So, is it fair to assume that you only took the COMLEX or did you take the USMLE as well? Also, which prep material did you use to study for LEVEL/STEP 1?

Thank you in advance, doc!
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Yes! I only took COMLEX I. I used First Aid, supplemented with DIT, BRS Physio & Pathoma.
Used USMLE World & COMBANK Q-banks
 
Awesome Sauceome said:
Is this about accurate:
http://baystatehealth.org/AcademicAffairs/Main Nav/Education/Residencies/Radiology/Residents/Day in the Life

It seems so chill and cushy, especially coming from reading about ortho residency all last week haha.
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Once again, depends on the hospital / program you're at & what rotation you're on. It definitely seems chill, for sure. But what you have to realize, reading cases can be extremely stressful because the repercussions of what you say/do (much like most other fields in medicine) can be very very serious. So yes, on paper it looks chill & its definitely not physically taxing but mentally, Radiology can be very exhausting.
 
OsteopathicHopeful said:
Besides studying 3 or so months before the COMLEX, what is the most effective way for a student starting med school to prepare for the COMLEX??? Basically, I mean studying the course work the first 2 years, what study methods do you think will make studying for the boards easier? Sorry I realize this is worded bad.....I'm tired
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If I could do it over again, I'd supplement my MS1 & MS2 coursework with BRS Physio & Pathoma (especially). I feel like that would be tremendously beneficial. At least it would've been, for me.
 
DrBowtie said:
Whyd you choose an AOA rads residency?
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I'd taken COMLEX I only & wasn't aware of how widely accepted COMLEX I scores were in lieu of USMLE.

That & I really felt happy at my current program, when I did a couple rotations, as a med student.
 
user3 said:
how have senior residents/fellows in your program been doing as far as finding jobs? (given the supposedly poor radiology job market)
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If people are willing to move around, there are definitely jobs out there. I'm glad you said 'supposedly' because IMO the decline of the job market is widely exaggerated. Keep in mind that I'm just an intern so my opinions may be completely incorrect, as I'm not actually looking for work currently. But from what I understand, is that the quality of jobs out there is lower than it used to be. But there are still jobs available in somewhat less desirable locations as well as telerads companies.

I personally know a number of DO's who graduated from AOA Rads programs, got a fellowship & were able to find jobs in desirable areas (Big city metros).
 
Is there a good metric for judging and comparing the quality of each schools' rotation sites? At my interviews, thus far, there have mainly been first and second year students to answer questions. Some people try to judge quality of a site based upon the size of the rotation site, but, as someone who has spent 12 years in the healthcare field already, I have seen the size does not necessarily correlate to a good quality experience. To put things in perspective, I see myself practicing in the realm of rural primary care, but with that being said I also want to make sure my rotations provide me with sufficient exposure to be successful.
 
AM508 said:
Is there a good metric for judging and comparing the quality of each schools' rotation sites? At my interviews, thus far, there have mainly been first and second year students to answer questions. Some people try to judge quality of a site based upon the size of the rotation site, but, as someone who has spent 12 years in the healthcare field already, I have seen the size does not necessarily correlate to a good quality experience. To put things in perspective, I see myself practicing in the realm of rural primary care, but with that being said I also want to make sure my rotations provide me with sufficient exposure to be successful.
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Unfortunately, the only way to really find out is through MS3's & MS4's / graduates. Only they'll be able to verify a rotation site's learning opportunities, despite its size =\
 
Do you feel DO's are hipsters? Are MDs to mainstream? Do you only have hipster patients? Do I need a hipster beard on interview day? (Like the original hipster my boy AT)


OK OK jokes are over.

GuitarFreak said:
Great question! Really, you hit the top 3 factors fairly accurately. All medical schools, DO or MD, will provide you with a decent medical education as long as you apply yourself. The top factor, IMO, would be tuition. If you're accepted at multiple places, see which one you can afford more. A close second would be location. You need to be able to see yourself completely immersed in that location for a few years. The quality of rotations are also to be considered. Keep in mind, just because a hospital is 'affiliated' with a multitude of hospitals, doesn't mean that all of them will provide a quality learning experience.
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How do we determine if a school has good rotations or not? Should we just use as a rule that older schools have better rotations?
 
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