Short list: peds, psych, EM (maybe)
I actually kicked step’s butt in the psych section.
oh jeez with your step that is all attainable
EM is more of a stretch, but if you just do what steps anyone should do for peds and psych, and most important after realistic specialty choice, saavy match app choices, you will be fine
this score in no way puts psych or peds or even EM off the table
I get you're stressing because you just got this score, and just started MS3.
I was totally freaking out about how short that year seemed for doing all that needed to be done for a successful specialty selection, ERAS, and match.
You're facing a lot of uncertainties, so it's easy to mentally latch onto the one certainty, which is your score. To me, that score felt like one of the first and most important pieces of that app. It feels like a pigeonhole for most people, even those in the 220-230s range.
It is the first step (pardon the pun) but it's far from the last. You have an overwhelming amount of ground to cover between now and ERAS. But you can do it.
Longitudinal things to think about putting in motion:
-Advising, advising, advising.
-Research or case reports of some kind.
If you are not going for something very narrow, like ENT or derm, and you have named fields that are in the more "generalist" or primary care boat here, then your research doesn't have to be terribly focused in one area of medicine.
You could do something that was like, how to reduce COPD admissions to the hospital, and it's going to be a fine research topic for most apps even if not directly applicable. Part of a project's value is just what you learn about doing the research, not just the particular topic.
Quite a few projects can be chart review that can be done at home after rotation days. SDN can give more info, and you can contact your school, advisors, and leaders of the departments of the specialties that interest you for more info on opportunities. The research is usually there if you look for it (school dependent, obvs).
-Any sort of meaningful EC's you can manage.
I think my prior posts list some of the "app-fillers" that were low time commitment, helped me AND were meaningful.
I was involved in things related to the underserved, minorities, transgender, mental health, etc. You can see how those can be spun to support an interest in any of FM, IM, EM, peds, and psych, and be good interview fodder?
-I signed up for various specialty groups and associations online.
For example, EMRA, EMSA, ACP, etc. Most are free/cheap for students and gave useful resources. They are app filler in addition to being useful. Be broad with it, you only have to list the ones that go with the specialty you eventually choose.
Short term and arguably most important, but not exclusionary to the above:
-Think about how to do your best on your rotation day, today.
-Think about how to improve for tomorrow.
-That is part of your preparation for tomorrow, as is studying for tomorrow.
-Know your patients. Studying what you need to for them, and keeping a list of anything that comes up that you need to look up, will help you do better for the subjective part of your rotation grade. It will help you with the shelf too.
-Come up with a plan for the rotation-related non-eval didactic aspects of your grade. A plan to study for the shelf, any write-ups or such you must do, presentations, etc. For example, get some sort of multiple choice or review material, and calculate how much you need to average per day to get through it at least once if possible, be it qbank, anki, book, whatever.
-I guess I split up my studying into two focuses each day: what I needed to for the rotation, ie things the attendings told me, pimp questions I failed, things I needed to delve into for my patients/those on the service, things I didn't know that came up that day that I wrote down (good habit is to keep such a list each day). Practical as it comes up stuff.
-Then the more general things I needed to study for the field and for the shelf, that might not be directly related to what I was doing daily. Then obvs the other didactic stuff.
-The short term study stuff, and the longitudinal study stuff above, describes basically what all docs do for all the rest of their careers daily.
-Most of this was knowledge focused. Also plan for how you can help your team carry out patient care tasks - obtaining patient records, sending faxes, looking up phone numbers, calling pharmacy, getting telemetry results, etc etc.
Basically practical skills that aren't really going to help with any test, but help the team, your subjective score, and honestly, helps you prepare for subI and intern year.
-Think about how you can improve the more "people skills" type things.
Bettering building rapport with patients, taking H&Ps, asking questions that show interest and not just ignorance, biting your tongue, being liked by your team, that sort of thing.
It sounds like a lot, and it is, but the key thing is to just take it one step at a time, and triage each bullet point, and address it as best you can, and move on.
It is true each day is a new day. Learn from the mistakes of yesterday, but don't dwell, just try to improve.
