EM elective before or after Acting Internship

[donniebaseball]

Quick question as I must decide soon.
Is it better to do your EM elective before or after your 4th year acting internship in medicine or surgery? I want to have the best opportunity to impress and thus think doing it after might be best yet I also don't want to leave it till late august early sept if that might be late in the game to get application and LOR going. For me, its between doing my EM elective first off or third during 4th year. Any thoughts? Thanks
DB

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[pinbor1]

Quick question as I must decide soon.
Is it better to do your EM elective before or after your 4th year acting internship in medicine or surgery? I want to have the best opportunity to impress and thus think doing it after might be best yet I also don't want to leave it till late august early sept if that might be late in the game to get application and LOR going. For me, its between doing my EM elective first off or third during 4th year. Any thoughts? Thanks
DB

I think that doing your EM elective right off the bat would be fine. The EM approach to medicine is different from the way you will think when on the floors. It is more focused on ruling out life threats than just making a diagnosis fits. As long as you have your core electives done you should be fine. If you really want to impress your EM colleagues, random trivia knowledge seems to work... Other than that be complete with your workups, read up on your patients, follow up on your orders/results, and be enthusiastic.

Good luck

pinbor1

 

[Mary Jane Watson]

Here at UAB, we have to do 4 sub-Is. One in medicine, one surgery, one ambulatory and one other inpatient. This puts a cramp on those of us who don't want to do medicine or surgery. I am doing peds EM in July, because I love it, and I'm hoping it will give me some experience with injuries and procedures and getting my speed up. I am doing my adult ED in August and an away in September. I waited to schedule my surgery and medicine AIs until later, because people who want to do medicine and surgery deserve the spots so they can get their letters (these are pretty sought after slots here). Also, I'm coming off my 3rd year surgery rotation last, so it worked out. I think what was most surprised about my EM selective was that even if I had done medicine just before, I still saw the psych, ob/gyn, surgical patient too. I think being well rounded in your knowledge is most important and being complete. Also, looking at the comments from my selective, enthusiasm goes a long, long way. I have so much to learn, and I think that the fact that I actually realized that and tried to improve helped me do well as a 3rd year. I will have to raise the bar even higher next year. Good luck!