Field for Sub-I rotation?

[DeadCactus]

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Can choose from a few options for Sub-I, but EM isn't one of them. What would be the best route to go? Options are basically IM, Peds, Surgery, or one of the many flavors of ICU. I'm guessing IM or the medical ICU would be the best choice?

Edit:

On a similar topic and to avoid making a new thread, can you achieve a benefit similar to an audition rotation by rotating through a related field at the hospital/university you're interested in? i.e. Rotating through Trauma/CC, Anesthesiology, etc. I would guess not unless you can find a way to get significant exposure to the EM faculty during the rotation.

What about EM sub-specialties like Tox, Ultrasound, or Wilderness?

 

[Rendar5]

IM or an ICU would be best. The type of ICU likely doesn't matter. Ask the EM residents at your place which ICU they learned the most from. For me PICU and SICU easily beat out MICU and CCU, but I suspect that's not universal.

 

[deleted109597]

I did tox in medical school as an away. It didn't count for anything at my school, but since the tox guy was in the department, I frequently worked with the rest of the department quite a bit. I don't know if it helped or not, but then again, I'm a special case.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

Far and away I learned the most from my SICU sub-internship. However, this stems in part from the strength of that particular elective at my school. You want to have patients who are YOURS, with a resident who will at least let you put forth your own ideas and take the first crack at writing orders (even if you always end up doing what the attending wants, as is appropriate), rather than spend your time chasing consults and writing transfer/step-down notes. I would check out your options and go with the one that lets you function the most independently, and if all options are equal, I would do an ICU. Good luck!

 

[Tornadoman84]

SICU was high yield for me, because I got to focus on vent management and lines/procedures.

 

[jbar]

Depends on what the IM sub I is like at your school. At my school they took an intern off the team and replaced them with 2 sub Is. So I had up to 5 of my own patients, who weren't being followed by an intern at all. At night I could be covering up to 20 patients. It was my first experience where the nurse was paging me at 2am saying "this guy has chest pain, what do you want to do?"

If your rotation is like that it may be very useful. If it's just like another 3rd year rotation forget it. Also if you already know what kind of program you are looking into that may be a factor. If you think you are going to end up at a big academic place where you are going to do 5 months in the ICU during residency, maybe you don't need an extra month as a med student. Or if you are going somewhere with 2 months of ICU time maybe you want the extra exposure.

Like others have said, it is more about the strength of the ICU/SICU v IM rotation at YOUR school, rather than which is better in general.