Good electives for a medical student?

[CBG23]

Hello all,

I am starting my OB rotation in another week. In addition to the 6 weeks of typical inpatient OB and GYN, my school requires 4 weeks of elective time in one of the following areas: Gyn onc, MFM, REI, and ambulatory gyn.

As someone who is still pretty early on in their clinical years (and who hasn't crossed off OB/GYN from my list of specialties I definitely don't want to pursue for residency), does anyone have any recommendations for what electives may be good to see?

Any input would be great. Thanks in advance!

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[Requiem4Souless]

Hello all,

I am starting my OB rotation in another week. In addition to the 6 weeks of typical inpatient OB and GYN, my school requires 4 weeks of elective time in one of the following areas: Gyn onc, MFM, REI, and ambulatory gyn.

As someone who is still pretty early on in their clinical years (and who hasn't crossed off OB/GYN from my list of specialties I definitely don't want to pursue for residency), does anyone have any recommendations for what electives may be good to see?

Any input would be great. Thanks in advance!

MFM - It's kind of like the internal medicine of the OB world. There will be few, if any surgeries. There may or may not be deliveries or C-sections depending on MFMs. It's a pretty good rotation for learning more about prenatal care.

REI - This rotation was kind of boring at my school. An extremely high number of patients didn't want to have a student in the room. When they did, it was strictly a shadowing experience. It may be different in your school, but ask around first.

Gyn Onc - I didn't do a rotation in this subspecialty. I'm told that it was a lot of secretarial work for the 4th year sub-I's at my school. The surgeries can be pretty cool but long. At our school, the MS3s get priority in scrubbing in for surgeries.

Ambulatory OB/GYN - I found this to be a useful rotation and you really learn how a basic OB visit goes. It's useful for getting a grasp on prenatal testing.

Urogynecology - The surgeries generally don't take too long. It's relatively easy to get a decent grasp on the limited amount of material. The hours are generally pretty decent since there's no such thing as emergency incontinence. I'm a little biased here because I had a great attending and am considering it for fellowship (and I haven't even started residency yet!)

Family Planning/Reproductive Health - This was a thoroughly enjoyable rotation for me. It helps to be pro-choice here, but there's still plenty of room to learn even if you're ardently pro-life. No one will make you take part in an abortion or even be in the room. If you're politically-minded, this rotation can have some extra added attraction beyond the medical stuff. You'll also learn a lot about contraception.

 

[Global Disrobal]

Ambulatory GYN will afford you skills you'll use if you were to end up in Internal Medicine, Family Practice, or Emergency Medicine. It is also useful for Step 2 and 3. The others are subspecialty rotations and likely better for OBGYN applicants who are trying to secure letters of recommendation.

Good luck!

 

[CBG23]

Thanks for the input all! I selected Ambulatory gyn as my first choice - hopefully, I'll be lucky and get it