How to find a core rads rotation - room ran out in-system

[dozitgetchahi]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hey all.

It turns out that my school doesn't have adequate space in-system for 3rd year rads rotations. Guess who drew the short straw and needs to find one?

I hadn't anticipated how complicated this would get and I'm really struggling - I've tried calling the school's list of rads facilities that took students in the past without success. I've also started just cold calling additional rads offices and departments from the Yellow Pages and Google searches without real success either - I've left a multitude of messages and talked to a lot of office managers etc and hardly ever hear a peep back.

Either way, I figured I'd throw it out here on SDN and see if anyone could lend a helping hand to a fellow DO student. Does anyone have any other ideas about how I could go about doing this? Would anyone happen to be able to PM me with the contact info of a radiologist in the South Jersey/Philly area that would be willing to take on a 3rd year for a 2 week rotation?

Thanks in advance.

 

[bleeker10]

I'm doing a rads rotation at Pinnacle in Harrisburg. I don't know if you can do 2 weeks or if they have spots but I figured I'd throw it out there for you even though it's not in the Philly area.

 

[DwightSchruteDO]

idk about South Jersey but in North Jersey you can try Englewood Hospital first and if that fails then Holy Name Medical center. They are in Englewood, NJ and Teaneck, NJ respectively. Also, have you tried Mercy Catholic Medical Center's 2 hospitals around Philly?

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Not yet but thanks indeed for the suggestions sir!

 

[st2205]

It's easy to blow someone off on the phone -- go to the offices physically.

Don't stress yourself out too much; I'm sure there are a number of chiropractors that will teach you radiology. Surely your school, in light of not helping you with a required rotation, would be willing to let something like that slide.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

It's easy to blow someone off on the phone -- go to the offices physically.

Don't stress yourself out too much; I'm sure there are a number of chiropractors that will teach you radiology. Surely your school, in light of not helping you with a required rotation, would be willing to let something like that slide.

I like the idea of going to these places physically - the one issue is that I'm currently on a rotation that essentially goes 8-5 and thus makes it very hard for me to try to go to any rads facilities in person. I may try crashing a few of the more receptive places during my lunches, however.

I also like the idea of utilizing a chiropractor (clever thinking there, honestly). I'm not sure how far I'd get with that because the "rotation requirements" indicate that you have to have a preceptor that is able to teach you certain things about MRIs, CTs, etc, but if all else fails I may just try to dig up some chiros and see what they have to say.

By the way, does anyone have an idea of who I need to talk to when I call these smaller community hospitals about a rotation? Many of these hospitals don't seem to have a discrete radiology department, and finding contact info for individual radiologists seems to be difficult. If I call a main hospital switchboard, it seems like more often than not they have no idea who to transfer me to and I just end up talking to HR people that don't get back to me.

 

[st2205]

I like the idea of going to these places physically - the one issue is that I'm currently on a rotation that essentially goes 8-5 and thus makes it very hard for me to try to go to any rads facilities in person. I may try crashing a few of the more receptive places during my lunches, however.

I also like the idea of utilizing a chiropractor (clever thinking there, honestly). I'm not sure how far I'd get with that because the "rotation requirements" indicate that you have to have a preceptor that is able to teach you certain things about MRIs, CTs, etc, but if all else fails I may just try to dig up some chiros and see what they have to say.

I was just joking about the chiropractor, but I suppose if you wanted to you could.

By the way, does anyone have an idea of who I need to talk to when I call these smaller community hospitals about a rotation? Many of these hospitals don't seem to have a discrete radiology department, and finding contact info for individual radiologists seems to be difficult. If I call a main hospital switchboard, it seems like more often than not they have no idea who to transfer me to and I just end up talking to HR people that don't get back to me.

A lot of (most?) of hospitals, even the small ones, will have some kind of coordinator of student education. Even though they may not have a lot of medical students, there are a ton of nursing students and MA students so someone typically holds this position. That's a good place to start. I'd just ask the switchboard operator for the director/coordinator of student education and/or the medical staff coordinator.

What city are you in? Have you looked into neighboring medical schools' electives?

 

[DtotheIzzo]

What are the requirements for the rotation? More specifically, does it have to be with a DO radiologist, or at a hospital with osteopathic residency programs? Also, would you be willing to travel to northern New Jersey

 

[DrWBD]

Does PCOM still offer their classroom radiology rotation?

Rather than do the traditional "shadow a hospital radiologist" rotation, I did this as a fourth year student. The course was, in my opinion, outstanding.