interested in neuro/neurorads - rotation order?

[dunkindona]

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I'm on psych now and thought it might make more sense to front-load with neuro-related cores and electives rather than to leave them to right before/during the whole ERAS madness begins anew in july 2009. If you were me, would you choose schedule A or B?

A
Surgery
Family Medicine
Medicine sub-I
Neurology
Neuroradiology
Neurology/Neuroradiology away (August 2009)
OB/GYN
(vacation for November/December for residency interviews)
Pediatrics

OR

B
Neurology
Neuroradiology
Family
Medicine Sub-I
Surgery
Neurology/Neuroradiology away (August 2009)
OB/GYN
(vacation for November/December for residency interviews)
Pediatrics

 

[njbmd]

Order makes no difference. Do whatever you want because you have to do every one of your required rotations. I would avoid peds in August (too many school physicials) and avoid Surgery in July (too much trauma) but other than that, the order is pretty meaningless. I did Internal Medicine last (not my choice but my schools) and was able to take and ace Step II before fourth year started. After match, there was nothing between me and graduation except to show up.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Its more personal preference, but I always advise NOT to do your preferred choice first. There is a learning curve in 3rd year, so start with something you will probably hate.

 

[Law2Doc]

Its more personal preference, but I always advise NOT to do your preferred choice first. There is a learning curve in 3rd year, so start with something you will probably hate.

Agreed. While order won't matter a whole heck of a lot, it's always going to be easier to impress your target field if you know something about being in a clerkship. Everybody starts out horrible during third year. Expectations are usually low and most attendings give folks the benefit of the doubt at the beginning, and won't penalize you too bad, but it's still hard to "wow" them at this stage -- you often get comments suggesting that your knowledge base and skillset is "appropriate" for someone just starting rotations; it's harder to be outstanding when you don't know how to impress or what you are doing. So if you hope to go into neuro, some would suggest don't do it first. Do another rounding and note writing intensive rotation (IM or peds) first if possible. The flip side is, a lot of people who think they want a certain specialty change their mind. So in this respect, if you had neuro first, and hated it, it might save you a lot of time later. As for doing surgery first, some would argue that the attendings in that field are among the least patient and most likely to bite your head off if you are still learning the ropes, so it might pay not to do that one first. I probably would do peds first, rather than last, and otherwise keep either schedule in the same order.