I gotta pick a rotation spot for third year soon and have no clue which factors are important!

[Pen_Man]

---

Members don't see this ad.

So basically, my school has sites all over the Midwest and parts of the South. We can submit a list of preferred sites and the school matches us similar to how residencies would after fourth year, except that every student at my school is guaranteed a spot.

We have access to information about all the hospitals and it’s honestly a bit overwhelming. I’m not sure which factors I want to emphasize in importance over others. All I really care about is picking the site that will most set me up to get into the best residency I can get into!

With the bolder stuff above in mind, here are some of the factors whose importance I am unsure of:

1. Size of hospital, number of beds and admissions
2. Presence of a residency program
3. Presence of a residency program in the specialty I think I may be most interested in
4. Preceptor vs. Ward based (whatever that means?)
5. Prestige of certain features of the hospital (for instance, one hospital has a nationally recognized cardiology center)
6. Level of trauma center (some are Level 1 and others are Level 2 and 3)

There are more I’m sure, but this is just off the top of my head.

Should I be trying to get into an enormous hospital that will expose me to all sorts of things, or do I want a small hospital that is a more intimate setting (for lack of a better word). I think the flip side of this is that hospitals that are tiny, are more likely to let you do things than huge ones with a big name that are always hustling and bustling.

Again, I just want to figure out what sort of hospital is gonna best set me up for the future. I don’t care about the state or town I’m in, and I’d rather suck it up for two years (really just one since I can do aways in fourth year) and then land the residency of my dreams.

To put this question a different way “how would you describe the features of a theoretically perfect clerkship site that best sets up students who rotate there provided they put in the work?

Thank you all for your advice!

 

[21Rush12]

What school is this? I can’t imagine it matters that much as long as your grade is good at the end of the day. Do you need a letter from it?

 

[nimbus]

Big public hospital with a long tradition of teaching medical students. Examples would be Cook County(Chicago), Bellevue(NYC), Charity(NO), LA County/USC(LA), Grady(Atlanta). Busy, tons of pathology, experienced teaching staff, tons of scut. And yes a residency program is important.

 

[Rekt]

So basically, my school has sites all over the Midwest and parts of the South. We can submit a list of preferred sites and the school matches us similar to how residencies would after fourth year, except that every student at my school is guaranteed a spot.

We have access to information about all the hospitals and it’s honestly a bit overwhelming. I’m not sure which factors I want to emphasize in importance over others. All I really care about is picking the site that will most set me up to get into the best residency I can get into!

With the bolder stuff above in mind, here are some of the factors whose importance I am unsure of:

1. Size of hospital, number of beds and admissions
2. Presence of a residency program
3. Presence of a residency program in the specialty I think I may be most interested in
4. Preceptor vs. Ward based (whatever that means?)
5. Prestige of certain features of the hospital (for instance, one hospital has a nationally recognized cardiology center)
6. Level of trauma center (some are Level 1 and others are Level 2 and 3)

There are more I’m sure, but this is just off the top of my head.

Should I be trying to get into an enormous hospital that will expose me to all sorts of things, or do I want a small hospital that is a more intimate setting (for lack of a better word). I think the flip side of this is that hospitals that are tiny, are more likely to let you do things than huge ones with a big name that are always hustling and bustling.

Again, I just want to figure out what sort of hospital is gonna best set me up for the future. I don’t care about the state or town I’m in, and I’d rather suck it up for two years (really just one since I can do aways in fourth year) and then land the residency of my dreams.

To put this question a different way “how would you describe the features of a theoretically perfect clerkship site that best sets up students who rotate there provided they put in the work?

Thank you all for your advice!

I'm assuming you're a DO student. You're blowing this way out of proportion and it sounds like you only put a in a preference for where you go, so you don't even actually get to pick. The answer to your question is list them in the order of the number of residencies they have. It'll pretty much answer every other question on the list since they all correlate.

 

[raiderette]

I was imagining this is Rosalind Franklin. If so, take advice from Nimbus. Bigger is better, public is better. It won't be pretty, the hours will be long, but you will be exposed to a larger patient population and interesting cases. You might also get to do more, since a busy place needs all hands on deck.

 

[dangEras]

1) having a residency in your field
2) having other residencies in the hospital
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
3) level 1 trauma, 500+ bed hospital w/o residencies
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
4) everything else

 

[kraskadva]

I was imagining this is Rosalind Franklin. If so, take advice from Nimbus. Bigger is better, public is better. It won't be pretty, the hours will be long, but you will be exposed to a larger patient population and interesting cases. You might also get to do more, since a busy place needs all hands on deck.

It's not RFU. We get pretty good info/advice on rotation sites from previous classes and they're 99% in the Chicagoland area.

 

[getdown]

Choose the ones that don't work you to death. Unless you think you want to enter that particular field, you're better served choosing a relatively easy one and study for the shelfs instead. Getting your ass handed in a busy service day in and out does let you learn a lot but in terms of grades (and if you're going into a competitive specialty) mean a little more than the experience you'll likely forget or never use.

 

[evilbooyaa]

1) having a residency in your field
2) having other residencies in the hospital
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
3) level 1 trauma, 500+ bed hospital w/o residencies
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
4) everything else

This.

Having a residency in your projected field is by far the most important thing.

Everything else is secondary.