medicine clerkship before neuro?

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dl2dp2

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background: i'm a MS3 in a MD/PhD program getting out of PhD in Dec. Since we only have 1.5 yrs of clinic time and file residency apps in Sept next year, we have limited time for trying out different clerkship. Right now I'm leaning towards neuro, and shooting for a top program for a future career in academia, and would thus like to do well in that rotation.

Should I try to schedule medicine before neuro? This may hurt my performance in medicine, however, since i'll be doing medicine w/ the last group in 3rd year. or i can do neuro before medicine, but this may hurt my performance in neuro. advice? Any other general advice is also appreciated. I have reasonable pubs from PhD and decent step I (~1 SD above national mean)...or am i being neurotic?

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background: i'm a MS3 in a MD/PhD program getting out of PhD in Dec. Since we only have 1.5 yrs of clinic time and file residency apps in Sept next year, we have limited time for trying out different clerkship. Right now I'm leaning towards neuro, and shooting for a top program for a future career in academia, and would thus like to do well in that rotation.

Should I try to schedule medicine before neuro? This may hurt my performance in medicine, however, since i'll be doing medicine w/ the last group in 3rd year. or i can do neuro before medicine, but this may hurt my performance in neuro. advice? Any other general advice is also appreciated. I have reasonable pubs from PhD and decent step I (~1 SD above national mean)...or am i being neurotic?

I believe that just about every program requires that you have completed a medicine rotation prior to beginning an elective in neuro your 3rd year. Even if your program doesn't require the medicine rotation, I don't understand why you would try and do neuro without that under your belt. I'm just not sure you would be much good to the service without it. I'm not sure if you were thinking of doing an away rotation for neuro, but just about every program requires that you have completed all of your 3rd year rotations prior to taking a student for a sub-i rotation. My recommendation is that you try and get involved with the neurology department at your school between now and Dec. When you aren't in the lab working on an experiment see if you can get away and go to grand rounds. Or even see if you can do pre-rounds with the residents in the morning before you have to be at your lab. You could even use your weekends and spend a day or half-day working with the residents and seeing what neurology is like. You probably won't be able to fit in out-patient clinic with your research, but you should be able to find ways of "testing" out neurology prior to Dec. Good luck.
 
I think darksideone gave some good advice.

I would add my own experience, I did neuro first rotation of 3rd year. I definitely think I would have gotten more out of the clerkship had I done medicine beforehand. It is helpful to know how to pre-round, give clinical presentations, write notes, write orders, fill out requisition forms (for MRI, CT, etc) to be helpful to the team. Also it is helpful to have a rotation or two under your belt in order to know how to manage your time and do the appropriate studying for the rotation. Finally, it is important to be able to perform at your best during your clerkship to work with and impress the attending(s) that will potentially be writing a letter of recommendation.

If you end up doing neuro early in your 3rd year clerkship order, I would highly recommend doing a neuro sub-I as a 4th year student. Also helps to do a medicine sub-I before the neuro sub-I.

That all being said, as an MD/PhD from a prominent program, you will likely a priori be in the top tier of applicants, so try not to stress too much (easier said than done--I know). :)
 
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