M4 electives

[x10694]

Hey,
I have a few electives that I can take in M4, wondering if I should do anesthesiology related rotations like CCM, Pulmonary medicine, etc, or do something completely unrelated like pathology, cardiology, etc. I guess taking anesthesiology related rotations will better prepare me for residency??? I know that at least doing other non related rotation will broaden my medical experience as I will likely never see these fields again. What are general consensus out here regarding this matter?

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[PMPMD]

Hey,
I have a few electives that I can take in M4, wondering if I should do anesthesiology related rotations like CCM, Pulmonary medicine, etc, or do something completely unrelated like pathology, cardiology, etc. I guess taking anesthesiology related rotations will better prepare me for residency??? I know that at least doing other non related rotation will broaden my medical experience as I will likely never see these fields again. What are general consensus out here regarding this matter?

Cards or pulm would be helpful. You can also possibly take some of these intern year (see recent thread). A SICU rotation would be very helpful. Or you could just enjoy your free time.

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

Hey,
I have a few electives that I can take in M4, wondering if I should do anesthesiology related rotations like CCM, Pulmonary medicine, etc, or do something completely unrelated like pathology, cardiology, etc. I guess taking anesthesiology related rotations will better prepare me for residency??? I know that at least doing other non related rotation will broaden my medical experience as I will likely never see these fields again. What are general consensus out here regarding this matter?

Man, I can't even remember the last time I did something heart-related.... (Most people consider cardiology an "anesthesiology-related" field, FYI).

There are different approaches to your 4th year; you have to decide which is best for you. Some people want to take as many tough/intense rotations as possible to better "prepare" themselves for intern year. Some people use 4th year as a time to take something they might be interested in but not as a career. Or a mix of both, which I guess is what I did. For my electives I did peds pulmonary, radiology, procedures in family medicine, anesthesia "research" (in-house QI data collection, basically).

Neither way is right or wrong.

 

[gasblaster]

Hey,
I have a few electives that I can take in M4, wondering if I should do anesthesiology related rotations like CCM, Pulmonary medicine, etc, or do something completely unrelated like pathology, cardiology, etc. I guess taking anesthesiology related rotations will better prepare me for residency??? I know that at least doing other non related rotation will broaden my medical experience as I will likely never see these fields again. What are general consensus out here regarding this matter?

I would take anesthesiology-related rotations at the beginning of the year (rotations that will show up on the transcript you submit with your residency applications) and then after that take whatever you like. I went with interesting/cush rotations especially around interview season and towards the end of 4th year when I wanted to have more free time and enjoy life. Like others have said, you can take a lot of those anesthesiology-related rotations during intern year. For mine, I'm planning on doing anesthesia, cardio, pulm, pain, ent, and another tbd.

 

[iwumd07]

I took general anesthesiology, 2 weeks peds anesthesia, ENT (for airway anatomy...and free nasal steroids), radiology (very helpful), interventional radiology (very boring and waste of time), plastic reconstructive surgery, SICU (great experience! I did more than the surgical/EM residents rotating on sicu/trauma...no joke, they didn't want to manage SICU patients except for doing lines), neuro (mandatory), IM sub-I, ophtho, and urology. I had a fun year, and learned a ton from the subspecialties that I actually apply almost every week during prelim year. Just pick electives you think you'll enjoy. You'll be learning cardio/pulm/renal/anesth all your life...take some months to do something you'll likely never do again.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

I agree with the above.

I did ENT as an M3, so I didn't as an M4. Wanted to do CT surgery, but couldn't so I did 2 months in the SICU, 2 months General Anes, neuro, interventional cards, etc.

I'd highly recommend a radiology month if possible. I tried and couldn't (scheduling issues).

 

[psychbender]

I did my anesthesiology and a few ICU months up front, along with ID (former micro guy, so that was fun, and good for intern year prep), Sports, and Plastics. I finished up with Nephrology (boring as hell, but useful in the long run), and a Wilderness/Remote Medicine elective in Belize (live tissue lab was awesome; can now say that I've done a surgical airway and open thoracotomy on a living creature). If I did fourth year over again, I'd replace Plastics with CT Surgery, and Nephrology with Cardiology (which was my plan, but I got stuck with Nephro instead).