How Does Your School Run Rotations Lottery?

[Green Doc]

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I'm interested to know how your school runs its lottery process. My school currently employs a system that manages to satisfy about 85-90% of the class. Exceptions for students with kids, married students, etc. can be made by class or committee vote, but as I understand it, this has essentially rarely, if ever, happened. (As a background, our students basically spend the entire third year at one location, so we only do one lottery.)

As it's worked in recent years: Round 1- Go stand by the rotation site you are interested in. If there are less students than spots, the extra spots go are transferred to Round 2. If there are as many students as spots, the site is filled and closes. If there are more students than spots, students draw straws for x-2 the total number of spots at this site. The remaining two spots are transferred to Round 3. Round 2- Students draw straws for extra spots left over from Round 1 (not including those that were transferred to Round 3). Round 3- Students draw numbers out of a hat. That is the order in which they can select from amongst spots left, which now includes unfilled spots from Round 2, and the 2 spots that were transferred from a very desirable site in Round 1 straight to Round 3.

Anyway, as I've said, this system has produced fairly good results, but no system is ever perfect; so, I'm interested to know, how does your school do it?

 

[Waysensei]

I am a OMS2 and my school just assigns us rotations. There is room for input from the student, but ultimately, we are given rotations by an administrator. As a result, I am dissatisfied with my rotations. My school is known for doing it differently than everyone else, so I am very interested in hearing how a "typical" school does things.

Are you assigned to the same rotation site for the whole year? Could you provide some of the examples of the rotation sites available? Are they teaching hospitals?

With my school, we have mandatory 3rd year rotations in primary care and each one is a month long. They have us moving about to different sites for many of these rotations, although all of the sites are in the same general area.

 

[Grey Wind]

I am a OMS2 and my school just assigns us rotations. There is room for input from the student, but ultimately, we are given rotations by an administrator. As a result, I am dissatisfied with my rotations. My school is notorious for doing it differently than everyone else, so I am very interested in hearing how a "typical" school does things.

Are you assigned to the same rotation site for the whole year? Could you provide some of the examples of the rotation sites available? Are they teaching hospitals?

With my school, we have mandatory 3rd year rotations in primary care and each one is a month long. They have us moving about to different sites for many of these rotations, although all of the sites are in the same general area.

What school do you go to? I'd appreciate it if you'd PM me if you don't want to post it in the thread.

 

[PunkmedGirl]

what school do you go to? I'd appreciate it if you'd pm me if you don't want to post it in the thread.

soma.

 

[countthestars]

NYCOM:

You have two options:
1- Apply for a regional. Which means you do all your 3rd year rotations at one major teaching hospital. If you choose to go this route, you have an application to fill out and the hospitals interview all the students who applied. They then choose who they want to rotate with them.

2- You can opt out of a regional and pick and choose what rotations you want to do at what hospitals. Some of these are University teaching hospitals and some are smaller community places. There is an online system in place where you rank all 35 or so hospitals one by one for IM, Surgery, Peds, Pysch, FM and OB/GYN. You can rank different hospitals for diff rotations. You then have an option of choosing your #1 choice for either schedule (the order of rotations) or for your #1 hospital choice for your #1 rotation. You can only choose one #1. Once you have done all that, a computer trys to assign everyone spots based on their rank list and #1 choice list.

I hear that the system tries to match you with at least you top 3-5 choices. Some students, however haven't been so lucky. SO, what you can then do after everyone has gotten their assignments is switch with someone if you can find people to switch with. You can only switch with people that are doing the same rotation but at a different hospital. I donno how many people actually find another classmate to switch with though. I haven't gone through the process so I donno how its gonna work our for me.

4th year is a whole different story. You can go anywhere for many electives, SUB-Is and whatnot. Oh you also have one spot during 3rd year for a 4 week elective where you can schedule it anywhere in any specialty.

 

[Bacchus]

soma.

You know, probably shouldn't post identifying information in a thread.

 

[PunkmedGirl]

You know, probably shouldn't post identifying information in a thread.

Gotcha.

 

[Just Joshin]

Can someone comment on KCUMB? That's my top choice and I'd like to know how they determine who goes where for 3rd year. I like what the OP's school does.

 

[Green Doc]

I am a OMS2 and my school just assigns us rotations. There is room for input from the student, but ultimately, we are given rotations by an administrator. As a result, I am dissatisfied with my rotations. My school is notorious for doing it differently than everyone else, so I am very interested in hearing how a "typical" school does things.

Are you assigned to the same rotation site for the whole year? Could you provide some of the examples of the rotation sites available? Are they teaching hospitals?

With my school, we have mandatory 3rd year rotations in primary care and each one is a month long. They have us moving about to different sites for many of these rotations, although all of the sites are in the same general area.

Wow, sorry to hear about the system your school uses! I would be dissatisfied with that, too. Not every one of our sites has the full range of core rotations, so some require that one of the cores be filled elsewhere, but usually these are fairly close. Maine Medical Center in Portland, ME, for example, is a teaching hospital that fills all of the cores but peds, which is filled at an outpatient practice across town. Berkshire Medical Center in Western Massachusetts is a teaching hospital that is able to provide all of the cores. There are a couple of sites that are not "teaching hospitals" (no residency programs therein), but this is the minority of our available sites. Although this may sound ideal in comparison to a system that takes choice out of the equation and requires that you jump around a bit, every system has its drawbacks- ours is that there are a limited number of spots at each site and the necessity of a major relocation is a real possibility. I'm not sure how localized the hospitals are that you might rotate through, but based on this lottery system, students might end up being sent some 8 hours away to our farthest site- an obvious issue for those with spouses/sig. others with jobs, kids, etc.

 

[DiverDoc]

Can someone comment on KCUMB? That's my top choice and I'd like to know how they determine who goes where for 3rd year. I like what the OP's school does.

From the sites that the school is affiliated with you list your top 3 choices. First we have a "fake match" where the class goes through the process and we see the results of how popular site A, B, C etc..... is.

For example, say site X has 6 spots for the next year, and in the fake match, 11 students picked it as their # 1 choice. Then you are left with a choice, take your chances by random chance that youll get the spot in the real match, or re assign your #1 choice at a site that wasnt full. Sorry if my explanation is confusing ! Generally 90% of the class gets their #1 choice. If you dont, then most likely youll get your #2 spot. Make sense?

 

[NontradICUdoc]

for UMDNJ:

The class meets in the auditorium and the choices are on the stage. The clinical director pulls out a name and that person goes up and puts it next to the schedule they want. The person also decides in which order they want Surgery, IM, OB and peds. The schedule is sent to you about a month before.

Then the person who went up, pulls a name out of the hat and so on and so on. Usually the class has a donation bucket where the last one who gets picked and has to take whatever schedule is left gets the money. Last year the person got $95.

Once the schedule is done, you have 1 month to barter with your classmates to see if someone will trade. If you both agree just fill out the right document and if it is approved then you are switched.

 

[Vita]

Does anyone from VCOM know exactly how they assign core 3rd year rotations?

As far as I have heard, we submit a list with our top whatever choices ranked first to last. Someone last year told me that if you had a very compelling reason for wanting a specific site (kids in the school district, family nearby, etc) that there was a place to explain why you wanted that site. Other than that, I don't know how it is determined who gets which spot (I am guessing someone just goes through the submissions and places people where they can).

 

[brucecanbeatyou]

I am a OMS2 and my school just assigns us rotations. There is room for input from the student, but ultimately, we are given rotations by an administrator. As a result, I am dissatisfied with my rotations. My school is notorious for doing it differently than everyone else, so I am very interested in hearing how a "typical" school does things.

Are you assigned to the same rotation site for the whole year? Could you provide some of the examples of the rotation sites available? Are they teaching hospitals?

With my school, we have mandatory 3rd year rotations in primary care and each one is a month long. They have us moving about to different sites for many of these rotations, although all of the sites are in the same general area.

Sorry that you're not happy, Sensei. SOMA is doing it differently this year - we were not given an acceptance to a CHC with our school acceptance, like the first two years. We are doing more of a lottery like KCOM uses. For the more popular spots, we're writing essays to explain our connections to the spots, why we want to go there, etc. This was a compromise reached between the admin. and the students - they were actually very open and willing to work with us to decide on how to do it the most fairly.

A lot of people in the class of 2013 would have liked it the old way, so that we could have decided where to attend school based on the rotation site assigned. That said, obviously many of us chose to come anyway, and hopefully they should work out in the end. KCOM students seem to be pretty satisfied.