Evaluating Clinical Rotation Sites

[MedSchoolAdvice20]

Hi everyone! I am trying to decide between a couple of schools and was curious how people go about evaluating clinical rotation sites at individual schools. Naturally, each school's brochure talks up their sites and their rotations, but I am assuming that there are some better than others, of course. This probably depends on an individual's specific area of interest, which for me is still fairly generalized (if nailed down, I would probably lean toward a surgical specialty).

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[absie107]

What schools are you looking at? It kind of depends on where the schools are located and how long they've been established.

 

[MedSchoolAdvice20]

Couple of different schools - DMU, CCOM, COMP-NW, PNWU, AZCOM. Seems to me that while the curriculum does differ in small ways, the first two years are pretty similar at most schools, leaving the rotations as the real variable factor for matching later on (apart from board scores).

 

[absie107]

Yep. It really depends on environment. PNWU is rural and it has regional rotation sites in Idaho, Washington State, even Alaska. CCOM has many rotations in downtown Chicago at major teaching hospitals, as well as some in the Western suburbs. You can find a decent amount of info on the websites if you dig a little, also ask people on the individual school threads since current students are usually lurking and might be able to answer those questions better.

 

[DrUlnarParodox]

If you're truly concerned about clinical rotation education, I would suggest to apply at OSU-COM. Very strong clinical education with their own teaching hospital.

 

[cliquesh]

Each school should provide you a list of their affiliated sites. You could look up each site, see how many beds they are, and what residencies they offer. Basically, the more beds and the more residencies the better. If you are interested in surgery, I do think it's beneficial to attend an osteopathic school with affiliated surgical residencies. You can use http://opportunities.osteopathic.org to see if the school has an associated residency in a particular field.