Gap year 4th year - residency

[yake63]

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Due to rolling admissions of my school (caribbean), I finish rotations this upcoming July and apply for 2018 with essentially a full year off. I read similar posts of people asking if they should do research with some responses suggesting it. I have no significant background in research that a post-doc research fellow position would be perfect for. My biggest concern is trying to stay medically relevant and stay on top of my clinical skills/information so I don't show up next July having forgot everything. Has anyone become an MA during their year off, or something similar not requiring a lot of training time that still has close patient contact. I am applying for pediatrics and was looking for positions related to peds. I'm not adverse to the idea of research, but I also need money for my year off as well. If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them. Thanks in advance.

 

[EM2Be2017]

The biggest thing that comes to my mind is that this gap between graduation and starting residency will most likely be seen as a negative. This combined with you coming from a Caribbean school means you are going to have to be very diligent about being productive in the year off. Honestly I don't know what would "look" the best, but my guess would be some type of meaningful peds research with the goal of publishing at least once and mixing in some type of clinical activity. Can you do an Externship or observership? I feel like working as an MA is useless in the eyes of a PD. You are literally an MD at that point. Taking superficial histories, vitals and blood draws doesn't really add anything substantial in my opinion. But I could be wrong. It's probably better than nothing. I would also say the most important thing you should do is gain connections in the peds world. You need someone to go to bat for you.