Importance of Clinical Site

[SangriaSalsa]

How important is the "quality" of your 3rd/4th year clinical site in your medical training? If you intend to go for a highly competitive residency, is it best to train at a large urban hospital? Does it limit your residency options if you rotate at a small rural hospital?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

How important is the "quality" of your 3rd/4th year clinical site in your medical training? If you intend to go for a highly competitive residency, is it best to train at a large urban hospital? Does it limit your residency options if you rotate at a small rural hospital?

Clinical years are very important as they build the foundation for residency. It won’t necessarily limit your residency options but for some fields it’s important to do away rotations (ie competitive ones generally) and if you don’t know how to work on a residency team then it can make you behind your peers in that sense on those rotations until you catch up. But no I wouldn’t say rotations sites directly affect your residency options. There are too many other factors involved.

 

[SangriaSalsa]

Thanks for the info!

 

[WedgeDawg]

Your clinical years prepare you for your 4th year Sub-Is and electives which prepare you for internship. Each subsequent step will refine your technique in a more important and focused way than the previous one. So a strong 3rd year will set you up well, but you'll learn everything eventually, though if you go into internship without a solid grasp on the basic skills you should come out of 3rd year with, intern year will be a lot harder than it needs to be.

 

[mimelim]

How important is the "quality" of your 3rd/4th year clinical site in your medical training? If you intend to go for a highly competitive residency, is it best to train at a large urban hospital? Does it limit your residency options if you rotate at a small rural hospital?

Large urban does not equate to "better". There are plenty of community hospitals that offer good clinical rotations, some much better than their university counterparts. At the end of the day, what matters are the people that are going to be leading your education and mentoring you. Since you can't select those people individually, you depend on the medical school to do it for you. They are never going to be perfect, but there are definitely some that are better than others at getting rid of ****ty faculty.