How do electvie rotations work?

[TexasTriathlete]

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Okay, so let's say that I decide I want to do surgery. Can I just load up on surgery rotations for my electives? Or do they get more specific? Would I be able to do, say, a colorectal surgery rotation, or a CT surgery rotation? How does all this work?

 

[JonnyG]

its whatever you elect to do and can find.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

But what is typically available to the average student? Is this not very structured? Like, could I find some willing CT surgeon in the area and just go help him split sternums for 4 weeks?

 

[scpod]

Can I just load up on surgery rotations for my electives? ...

I have heard that some schools won't allow yo to do that. They may have a maximum number of rotations in one area. Our school allows you to do anything you want to in electives, but they also have acore selective in the 3rd year (in which you may select surgery, since it's a core) and a surgical selective in the 4th year where you have to do either general surgery or a surgical subspecialty. Ours go like this:

We have 12 four week rotations and 4 weeks of vacation each year. You have two required surgery rotations in 3rd year, two electives and a core selective. You could do 5 rotations of surgery in the 3rd year if you really wanted to. In the fourth year we have a surgical selective and four electives where you can do sugery if you choose. So, you could conceivably do 10 of your 24 rotations in sugery if you really wanted to.

Keep in mind, though, that our school will allow you to work with any surgeon you want to, but you will also have to make sure that the hospital where s/he has priveledges will take you. Our school won't allow you to do a count a surgical rotation unless you are actually allowed in the surgeries. In other words, you can't just work at the surgeon's office.

 

[IgE]

You'll want to find electives in hospitals and programs you want to do for residency, so if this means a bunch of different surgery rotations in row, that's fine. Most residency programs let undergrads rotate with them for 2-8 weeks depending on your needs. You just have to get in contact with the program and set it up yourself in most cases. You will probably want to rotate with potential residency programs early in the 4th year, so you definitely need to set it up during the 3rd year. Hopefully this helps.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.

So if I wanted to do a surgery rotation at UT-Houston (their surgery residency is badass, will prep you for trauma, and has been known to take DO's from time to time), I just call them up and get an application or something?

 

[Krazykritter]

Most places have some kind of application you have to fill out & some a fee.

In addition, some schools, such as DMU, have a limit to the elective time you can do in any one field (i.e. DMU limits you to 12 weeks). It is, however, fairly easy to get around this limitation. Let's say that you want to do orthopaedics...Many orthos are dual certified in sports med so when you set up the rotation, you call it sports med while the whole month you are doing Ortho. It works very similarly for IM subspecialties.

 

[Tanner82]

Ok I was going to create a thread asking this question but its kind of related to this....

Is it true that when you do a rotation at some hospitals (other school's rotations) they require you pay them $$. I heard a med school student at ccom talking about it but I wasn't really paying attention. I heard $1,000-$1,500 thrown around. Is that incorporated into the tuition or do some places actually require students to dish out the fee?

 

[PT2MD]

Dang that is a good question. I had a similar question about residencies, but I figure I've got a few years before that comes up.

 

[scpod]

Ok I was going to create a thread asking this question but its kind of related to this....

Is it true that when you do a rotation at some hospitals (other school's rotations) they require you pay them $$. I heard a med school student at ccom talking about it but I wasn't really paying attention. I heard $1,000-$1,500 thrown around. Is that incorporated into the tuition or do some places actually require students to dish out the fee?

There are some hospitals in the past who have required osteopathic students to pay a fee (out of their own pocket) to rotate there. Your school probably pays some hospitals, like the ones they have affiliations with maybe, but not others. Some schools don't pay any of the hospitals. Most of the teaching hospitals don't really need a fee. They like to have students rotate through because these students may eventually become residents. The hospitals are paid by the government (over $100,000/yr) to train residents and it is a part of their income. They want you there. Non-teaching hospitals don't really care all that much whether or not they have those students. In some case students can just be a burden-- unless they stand to gain monetarily from it. Hence, the payments from your school or out of your pocket.

 

[JonnyG]

There are some hospitals in the past who have required osteopathic students to pay a fee (out of their own pocket) to rotate there. Your school probably pays some hospitals, like the ones they have affiliations with maybe, but not others. Some schools don't pay any of the hospitals. Most of the teaching hospitals don't really need a fee. They like to have students rotate through because these students may eventually become residents. The hospitals are paid by the government (over $100,000/yr) to train residents and it is a part of their income. They want you there. Non-teaching hospitals don't really care all that much whether or not they have those students. In some case students can just be a burden-- unless they stand to gain monetarily from it. Hence, the payments from your school or out of your pocket.

sometimes allopathic students have to pay the fee too. PCOM pays a fee to people who take students for electives. It isn't much but its a payment none the less

 

[Tanner82]

sometimes allopathic students have to pay the fee too. PCOM pays a fee to people who take students for electives. It isn't much but its a payment none the less

It really isn't that big of a deal if your school pays for you, although I'm sure that your school probably limits the number of students attempting to do this.

 

[scpod]

It really isn't that big of a deal if your school pays for you, although I'm sure that your school probably limits the number of students attempting to do this.

In the end YOU really are the one paying for it with increased tuition.

 

[Tanner82]

In the end YOU really are the one paying for it with increased tuition.

Very true.