Meeting with school PD soon, any advice?

[jpsurg]

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Hi all,

I'm currently an M3 on my surgery rotation. I recently became interested in PRS. I probably would have been more interested earlier but never considered it very realistic because I heard how competitive it was. I scored 258 on step I and have published 3 radiology papers, but have no PRS research.
So basically I was going to contact our PD to introduce myself to him and ask him some questions, since at this stage I have very little information. I haven't done this before, and was wondering if anybody had advice on practical questions I could ask, things to say to make the meeting go well?
Also I had a question about research. This must have come up many times, but I'm concerned about my lack of PRS research. I'm interested in research, so would taking a year off to work somewhere help my chances? I have heard mixed thigns previously. Thanks!

 

[deleted144060]

We really need an FAQ section. Maybe I'll ask Max and Plastikos to help out with starting one. But in the mean time, try this thread:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=425560

--Moravian

 

[deleted144060]

So basically I was going to contact our PD to introduce myself to him and ask him some questions, since at this stage I have very little information. I haven't done this before, and was wondering if anybody had advice on practical questions I could ask, things to say to make the meeting go well?

Be prepared to discuss why you want to go into plastics. An answer like "I think it's really cool" is not going to fly. If the reseearch thing is something you want to do, ask if there are any projects going on that you can get involved in.

The next step would be to arrange a rotation on the service.

--M

 

[plastikosmd]

happy to help in any way moravian

to the op asking the question...im not sure what you mean by asking him questions....
what i think is a good idea...is set up a meeting, meet him and introduce yourself, he will ask the usual stuff..like why are you interested, where are you from...etc. feel it out from there. things to get more connected to your program
1) research is fine...double edge sword..if you drop the ball, get burned- not a good face time to time invested ratio
2) shadowing works well...make sure you pick the right person to shadow...personality match/will write a good letter/someone you can learn from..etc
3) a rotation is a must, good experience, chance to learn and polish skills that you will use on future rotations