FLECOM is the term LECOM-Erie students use to refer to LECOM-Bradenton when they are scraping the ice off the car in late Feb and thinking about us sunbathing on the beach
we may have been scraping ice off our cars, and no one will argue with the weather being better in fla than in erie, pa. but there are a definitely a couple of reasons (which you yourself may not be aware of), that someone might be better off choosing lecom-erie.
a) Pre-clinical education.
"This is ULTRA high yield, must know information peoples" -WAK
WAK was our PBL director the year before he moved to florida. he always made us feel better about any problems we had, and made us feel like we had a golden pass because we were PBL. unfortunately, this is not really the case. i think his "don't worry, you will pass" attitude, although it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, ends up making many students complacent. when he left, our new director made things much more challenging for us, and many students couldn't keep up. those of us who did, were rewarded with excellent board scores (COMLEX and USMLE). those who didn't, were either not allowed to take boards, or failed.
Data shows a high correlation between PBL performance and Step I scores, which suggests to me that something is being done right.
perhaps you didn't know that 26/120 students in this past year from your school failed boards? the "data" you speak of is not all due to PBL; the self-motivation of the students, and high standards set by faculty have a lot to do with it, which might be better in erie (specifically PBL). in this area, the beautiful weather and beach might be a cause for decreased personal motivation.
i'm not trying to bash the LECOM-B pre-clinical experience, i'm just letting you know that if you rely on motivation to succeed (as most of us do), you may not get the right type of encouragement to do well, and might be distracted a little more.
b) Clinical experience
Our clinical exam course is also extremely rigourous, which should be good preparation for Step II.
step II has nothing to do with your clinical exam course during the first two years. you learn everything you need to learn about step II (both COMLEX and USMLE) from your third year rotations/shelf exams. once you start studying for step II and/or take it, then you can talk about it. which leads me to...
we share rotations with Erie, so you will have the same 3rd and 4th year options open to you regardless of which campus you choose.
up until now at least, this is a fictional statement. numerous LECOM-B third years have told me that when it comes to setting up rotations in PA/MI/etc., they have met resistance. it is not impossible, just difficult. generally in those sites, LECOM-E gets preference, and although there have been efforts to set up rotations jointly, the truth of the matter is that LECOM-E sets up rotations well before LECOM-B.
well, one would argue, why not just set them up in fla? the answer is the quality of the clinical education. the current third years were allowed to set up their core rotations (IM, peds, surg, OB, etc.) with anyone they wanted to. the students now have to do these rotations with clinical affiliates, which just are not of the highest quality in fla. the majority of these rotations are in a preceptor format (just attending/student, no residents), and while this may appear beneficial, you will learn very little about true inpatient care of anyone in a hospital, and generally your education will be hampered because you are not in a true teaching institution. the best clinical sites are Mercy and West Penn Hospital in pittsburgh, which LECOM-E currently still has preference for. sure, there are some hospital based rotations in fla (suncoast, northside, wellington, fla hospital), but there are nowhere near the standard of care as Mercy/West Penn, both tertiary care centers with 600 beds, and 70-80 residents in varying fields (even cards/gi fellowships).
also, the little known fact about both LECOM sites is that certain hospitals have a contract with LECOM that ensures that a student will be there every month (Millcreek/Clarion in PA - there is even one in indianapolis now). so you may be forced to travel to the north anyway, even if you go to LECOM-B!
finally, i have heard through the grapevine that the clinical education director at LECOM-B is not always the easiest person to deal with, and this can often make setting up desired rotations more challenging.
c) atmosphere
this is one area that i'm sure LECOM-B is better.
The other factors to consider are less tangible. LECOM-B seems to be a kinder, gentler LECOM in some ways. Faculty and staff are extremely supportive of students here, and, since it is Florida, we have an amazing range of semi-retired expert physicians in the area to draw on. Our geriatrics lecturer last week literally wrote the recommended text. There is also a lot of comraderie between the students and everyone helps each other out. I'm sure there are people who are displeased with the school; most people I talk to seem very happy, as I am, with the learning environment here.
i can't personally speak to this stuff, because i didn't go to LECOM-B. but i did do a rotation at manatee back in may (mostly because i knew i would be able to hang out on the beach all day, and i didn't really care about peds), and the students/faculty do all seem genuinely happy. just don't equate happiness with a better education.
