Do you usually apply for residency where you rotated?

[hckyplyr]

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Hi everyone,
Long story short, I'm a PA student considering the Lecom PA --> DO bridge, but I have a question. If I did the bridge, I only do 3 years of med school, opposed to the traditional 4 yrs. (first 2yrs are the same, but I only do 1 year of rotations). Will this actually hurt my chances of getting the residency I want, by not doing a 4th year of rotations? I'm assuming many of the rotations I will be missing (4th yr), will be electives. Do students typically do rotations at locations where they plan on applying for residency? I guess my biggest and most important question is, will I still be a strong candidate for my residency of choice, even if I didn't do any rotations at that specific residency?
I'm not sure how the whole process works. I'm assuming students get most of their recommendations from their rotations during 3rd year. However, if the 4th year rotations are critical for exposure to programs (so they can get to know you), I think I will be at a huge disadvantage. All thoughts are welcome. Thank you

 

[costales]

It is neither necessary nor typical for students to rotate where they want to match, unless you're talking about certain competitive AOA programs like ortho.

 

[Bacchus]

I liked rotating where I applied. It made my ROL much easier to construct.

 

[hckyplyr]

I'm assuming I will be applying for residency early in my 3rd year. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) traditional students apply for residencies at the end of their 3rd year. So, do you think this will matter, or hurt my chances? I'm not sure when I'll have time to go interview if I'm supposedly on rotations all 3rd year.

 

[group_theory]

Your biggest challenge is that you will be applying for residency at the beginning of your 3rd year. AOA programs tend to interview earlier than ACGME (which opens in September) because the rank list deadline and match are earlier than the ACGME/NRMP. There will be no clinical evaluations available when you apply for residency. And there won't be any recent LORs from your 3rd year rotations available. Any LORs will be a few years old (from when you were a PA student, or from when you were practicing as a PA). And depend on timing, you may not have COMLEX or USMLE scores available when you apply. And yes, you will be missing a lot of days in the Fall for residency interviews. For 4th year students, not normally a problem because they're doing electives (can be a bit tricky with AI/SubIs). But for 3rd year students on core rotations - that can be a bit tricky - especially if you want to do a rotation audition at a place outside LECOM's clinical sites.

And I'm not sure how ACGME programs will react to students without clinical grades, or recent LORs. Right now, I think the LECOM PA-DO bridge program is too new to see how their graduates do ... are they limited to just LECOM OPTI's program? Or maybe only AOA programs? Or perhaps ACGME community programs? Or perhaps no limits, with a plethora of options, including ACGME university programs? It's too new to say - and all the above are speculations/questions that are awaiting answers.

 

[cabinbuilder]

ACCELERATED PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT PATHWAY (APAP)
LECOM now offers an opportunity for Certified Physician Assistants (PA-C) to earn the osteopathic medical degree in three years.

The Accelerated Physician Assistant Pathway (APAP) is a fast-tracked, three-year medical school curriculum leading to the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree. Students accepted for APAP who interested in pursuing a primary care specialty, such as family practice and general internal medicine, must make a commitment to completing an osteopathic internship and residency upon graduation.

Physician Assistants undergo rigorous didactic medical curriculum, as well as at least one year of clinical rotations to obtain the entry-level masters degree for the profession. Some PAs express a desire to return to medical school, citing the desire to practice independently, the need for professional growth and development, the need for increased medical knowledge and the ability to do more for their patients as reasons to do so. Cost and time away from clinical practice are identified as major barriers. By accelerating the medical school curriculum to three years instead of four years, LECOM reduces the cost and time away from clinical practice for PA-Cs within this pathway by one quarter.

APAP currently has 12 slots for this pathway. Six slots will be designated as primary care (family practice, general internal medicine, pediatrics or OB/GYN). Participants will be required to complete osteopathic primary care internship and residency upon graduation. The APAP pathway is available at the Erie and Greensburg campuses.

Application Requirements

Applicants to the program must:

1. Be Certified Physician Assistants.
2. Have obtained a minimum of 23 on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).
3. Have a minimal GPA of 2.7.
4. Complete an osteopathic residency

So according to this from the website you would not be applying to MD residencies anyway. 6 slots are designated as primary care. You generally don't need to rotate at those residencies, you apply and are interviewed. Of course you could make your life easy and just choose to stay in Erie - there are 3 hospitals there with residency programs.