Easy Question

[praying4MD]

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How late is too late to schedule an away rotation for EM if you are considering going into EM?

Is September too late?

Thanks.

 

[Scrubbs]

September will be on the cuff for getting a CORD letter, but can still be helpful for getting an interview (at that place). You should decide early in the rotation who you want to write the letter, and let them know you will be asking... that way you can get it soon after the rotation is over.

 

[DrQuinn]

Definately not too late! I did an EM elective at a place i wanted to go to in November, didn't get a LOR for ERAS, but I did have them place a LOR from one of the academic attendings to put in my application at that program. It also helped to show my face around the whole month during the interview season!
Q

 

[praying4MD]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I have been asking around and getting the same mix of advice as well: some say it's definitely not too late and others say that I would be pushing it for getting a LOR for ERAS if want my application in early... we'll see I guess. The place I'm thinking about would be at a place where I'm not familiar with the faculty or administration so I'm leaning towards doing it earlier so that I can really get the LORs in earlier and get a feel for the program earlier (It's hard to walk into a completely new program and ask for a LOR from faculty that I don't know, whereas at my home institution, I could swing the whole "please keep me in mind for a LOR" a little better because people are familiar with my work ethic.) Anyway... I'm open for any suggestions.

Thanks again SDNers. 🙂

 

[DrQuinn]

Bro-
Remember that almost all students who aren't rotating at their home institution walk into an ED with a fresh face and without knowing anybody. That's what you have to do to get LORs, so might as well jump in! I did it at two programs, and there are people that even rotate at three (which I personally think is overkill).
Q

 

[roja]

I concur with Quinn. 🙂

 

[praying4MD]

Bro-
Remember that almost all students who aren't rotating at their home institution walk into an ED with a fresh face and without knowing anybody. That's what you have to do to get LORs, so might as well jump in! I did it at two programs, and there are people that even rotate at three (which I personally think is overkill).
Q

That's an excellent point! I was particularly worried about this considering that my home institution does not have an EM program because our trauma surgery program is way too strong [so EM is not allowed to have its own domain.]

The next thing is this: to get a good LOR you would have to rotate at a place where the attending will end up knowing you well by the end, as opposed to a place where you have a different attending every night... which kind of makes researching where to do my aways a pain in my ass. 🙂

 

[Scrubbs]

to get a good LOR you would have to rotate at a place where the attending will end up knowing you well by the end, as opposed to a place where you have a different attending every night... which kind of makes researching where to do my aways a pain in my ass.

Now, I could be wrong (happens on occasion 😉), but I don't think any programs really intentionally schedule students so that they work with a particular attending repeatedly. What usually happens is that either the student will find themselves working 4-5 shifts with one person and ask them for a SLOR, or that the program does compiled evals. Our program (and the one at my med school) has you give an attending an eval card at the end of every shift. At the end of your rotation, the attending who coordinates the student rotations (or maybe its our program director - not sure) goes through all the evals and writes SLOR's for everyone. Students also sometimes ask another attending for a second eval.

When I went through the process, I had a few single attending evals and my PD's composite. I had only worked 1 shift with him, so I was concerned he really didn't know me and couldn't write a good letter... however, as it turned out, his comments were VERY positive and were repeatedly read to me on interviews. Don't stress 😀