Is hospital rotation location important for residency?

[pucciola]

I'm not sure how other schools work, but at my school we are given a choice to choose which hospital we can do our 2 year rotation at. I was just wondering if anyone knew how important it is in whether choosing a hospital with a residency program you want, as opposed to a hospital that didn't.

For example one hospital is very urban and would have the most diverse patient population and definitely would see the most pathology, but does not have a residency program I want. The other hospital would have the residency I want, however is much more suburban and would nowhere see the amount of pathology as I would if I were at the first hospital.

I know I could always do elective rotations at other hospitals to get seen.

Any opinions on this? Should I choose the safe hospital with the residency program I want and would have the most exposure to doctors that increases my chances of landing a residency position at that hospital? Or the urban hospital that is busier, higher diversity and more pathology, but does not have a residency program I want? Thanks.

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[HooliganSnail]

Ahh the great question....

If you do a great job then it would be a bonus to do your rotations at the hospital that has the residency program you want to do, undoubtedly.

However, third year is a lot about finding out what kind of doctor you want to be. You may think you know, what you want to specialize in (if anything). But in my experience, until you get into the hospital and see what its actually like to be a surgeon or an Ob or a cardiologist, etc.... then you can't know for sure.

Another conundrum. Even if you absolutely know what kind of doc you want to be, you should see yourself as interviewing programs just as much as they are interviewing you. A program could look great on paper, but you get there and the program director is weird, or they have messed up schedules, or the other residents are really really lame, or they just treat their residents like crap (those places really do exist). A residency program is about the right fit just as much as anything else. You don't want to do three to five years with people who you can't stand, right?

So i guess i'm just complicating the situation, but i just wanted to give you things to think about that no one told me when I was in your position. My answer is that you have to decide for yourself. You are about to enter a period in your career where the decisions you make have a big impact on the life you will have twenty years from now. I know its not easy, but hey just like that one movie "Of course its hard, if it was easy then everybody would be doing it!!!"

Good luck

P.S. Don't work yourself up too much, things tend to work out in the end

 

[cabinbuilder]

Wow, I cannot imagine being at one hospital for a 2 year rotation schedule. How are you going to decide where you will do residency if you can't go on audition rotations elsewhere? I probably rotated at 20 different sites over 2 years.

If you already know you want to do residency there, then cool. But like the other person said, what if you totally hate the place and you've never rotated anywhere else in the 2 year time? How would you choose a site unseen? Plus, what if you don't get along with the folks there in the residency program you want? That is another problem. You need to be happy in your residency otherwise it's pure misery.

 

[SO2B]

Do not forget that it is also 2 years of your life. For some people it is just a matter of taste as well. Some like the slow rural and some the busy urban!

 

[peppy]

I'd probably go with the hospital that you think will be a better learning experience, and then just do an elective at the other hospital if you ended up deciding that you wanted to apply there for residency. The only circumstance where I might reconsider this would be if the specialty you want is something super-competitive where it's possible that being a base hospital student there might give you more of a chance to get to know the key people there over a longer period of time. In those kind of circumstances you need every leg up you can get.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Do not forget that it is also 2 years of your life. For some people it is just a matter of taste as well. Some like the slow rural and some the busy urban!

Trust me that rural is NOT SLOW.

 

[Rollo]

Go with the urban site. I'm assuming the urban location is more academic of the two since the academic places generally tend to be in urban locations. You are a student right now, not a resident. Therefore you need to be at an academic place where medical students are treated like medical students and not unpaid interns which is what usually happens at suburban non-academic community places.

You can always do an elective at the other place if you need to or go audition somewhere else.