Lor

[chemist157]

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Our school does not have an EM rotation until well into our 4th year. My first rotations would be externships. Is it acceptable to submit LOR's from other fields (IM, Surg, FM, etc)? I don't see how I can possibly get more than one LOR from an EM physician.

Thanks for your help!

 

[tybalt]

Our school does not have an EM rotation until well into our 4th year. My first rotations would be externships. Is it acceptable to submit LOR's from other fields (IM, Surg, FM, etc)? I don't see how I can possibly get more than one LOR from an EM physician.

Thanks for your help!

You can submit letters from other fields, but keep in mind that some programs require 2 letters (not sure how common this is, but some of the midwest programs I applied to required 2 EM SLORs). My other 2 letters were IM letters. Even if a program does not require 2, it behooves you to have more than 1 since the EM letters carry more weight than others.

I would recommend doing more than 1 EM clerkship -- I was asked on every interview where else I rotated other than my schools required rotation (which I had at Detroit Receiving). After my first interview, I quickly scheduled a second elective at another hospital in the area and was very glad I did (especially considering I am doing my residency there 🙂 The reason why I say you should do more than one is to emphasize that it is the perfect opportunity for you to gain a second SLOR.

Good luck!

 

[leiface]

Does your school allow early away rotations? You can definitely do some away acting internships (my med school had rotating students from other schools all the time) in emergency medicine to get your letters. I think letters from surg, IM etc are all good, but it would be great to get more than one letter for EM.

Having said that, there are probably plenty of applicants with only one EM letter, and if you are a fantastic applicant either way, it probably won't hurt too much.

 

[ccfccp]

Just remember that SLORs are the number one thing that program directors look for when looking at an applicant. One off-service LOR should be fine, but it won't carry the weight of a letter from EM faculty or a PD. If your home hospital has an EM residency program, you should probably do the that plus one away for two SLORs. Our school doesn't have an EM residency so I did two away rotations successively in July and August...

You should be good if you get your rotations done in July-September. October is possible but pushing it because your applications have to be certified by November 1.

 

[rvca1981]

How about a letter from doing an Em elective such as Ultrasound? Would that carry some weight as well?

 

[roja]

I would advise against this. This is a common misperception but in the ultrasound elective, the SLORs dont have the same weight: primarily because you are not having any real clinical duties. What PD's etc want to look at is you clinical skills, how you work 'in the trenches' with faculty and staff. Its fine to have a SLOR from an ED ultrasound month as a THIRD em letter but you really need to have two SLOR's from an ED rotation. If there is absolutely no way you can do a second EM subI, you need to get letters from two individuals during your rotation. One can be the standard clerkship evaluation (usually a composite eval by the clerkship director/s) and one from a faculty member that you worked with enough to ask for a letter.

 

[rvca1981]

I would advise against this. This is a common misperception but in the ultrasound elective, the SLORs dont have the same weight: primarily because you are not having any real clinical duties. What PD's etc want to look at is you clinical skills, how you work 'in the trenches' with faculty and staff. Its fine to have a SLOR from an ED ultrasound month as a THIRD em letter but you really need to have two SLOR's from an ED rotation. If there is absolutely no way you can do a second EM subI, you need to get letters from two individuals during your rotation. One can be the standard clerkship evaluation (usually a composite eval by the clerkship director/s) and one from a faculty member that you worked with enough to ask for a letter.

Thanks for that advice Roja. Coming up with a second rotation is becoming a daunting task being an IMG.

 

[wckedjkster]

coming up with a second rotation is becoming a daunting task being an IMG.

you should start calling all the EM residency programs in May since the school's 4th years get priority. I went to Ross U and started the process late (in july) but was able to get 3 EM rotations at very good programs. I called/emailed over 100 programs to try to schedule an elective.
It's definitely possible, just try to be as persistent as possible.

 

[rvca1981]

you should start calling all the EM residency programs in May since the school's 4th years get priority. I went to Ross U and started the process late (in july) but was able to get 3 EM rotations at very good programs. I called/emailed over 100 programs to try to schedule an elective.
It's definitely possible, just try to be as persistent as possible.

Thanks man, im at Ross too. Its terrible. my friend and i are in surgery right now and any down time goes into calling places for EM. Where were you able to schedule yours at?

 

[vtucci]

Thanks man, im at Ross too. Its terrible. my friend and i are in surgery right now and any down time goes into calling places for EM. Where were you able to schedule yours at?

We have a number of current residents from Ross. I do not know how many of them did an away here but I cannot say enough good things about my home program.

You can try to contact our program and see if they have any spots in June, July, August, September. Although EM is not a required fourth year rotation for us (it is a required 3rd year rotation), EM is a hot field and many USF students do an elective in adult EM. There are a limited number of spaces for MSIVs.

I don't know how this flies but you can look into peds EM as an elective.

Good luck!!

 

[bravotwozero]

You can submit letters from other fields, but keep in mind that some programs require 2 letters (not sure how common this is, but some of the midwest programs I applied to required 2 EM SLORs).

I thought you needed 3 for ERAS? Or do the ERAS letters not have to be all in the same specialty? Is submitting 3 letters significantly more advantageous than 2?

Also, do good lors from residents carry any weight at all?