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- Jul 31, 2003
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I am having a hard time deciding the order of my 4th year rotations, mostly wrt Step 2.
The major concern I have is, I will be coming off of a research year during which I has clinical exposure only about once a week in an outpatient clinic.
My advisor recommended that I start with a consult service or two (namely pulm and cards) prior to even doing the anesthesiology sub-I, just to get back into the swing of things and review these two major organ systems that are most important for anes. I think this is a great idea.
In addition to pulm and cards i'd also like to take an ID consult month (won't really be that useful for anes sub-i though). In fact, i'd think ID would be more high yield than a pulm month otherwise. I could be wrong.
Since I have been out of the loop for a while in terms of inpatient patient care, I'm thinking i should take Step 2 after doing my medicine sub-I.
There is also this amazing CCM elective at my school that everyone raves about with minimal scut and loads of teaching. People have said a lot of step 2 questions deal with ICU cases, so I'm thinking this elective would be a good one to take prior to step 2.
I am required to take Step 2 prior to the end of November by my school. But I'd also like to take it early enough so that if I do really well, it could help boost my chances at top programs.
right now, the plan looks like:
June-- consult (pulm or cards)
July-- consult (pulm or cards)
Aug-- anesthesiology sub-i
Sept--CCM or med sub-I
Oct--med sub-I or CCM
Nov--step 2 study month, take step 2 @ end of the month
I am just concerned that taking step 2 at the end of november will be a tad late to do me any good in terms of boosting my chances at a top tier school (2 of which are my 1st choices currently) AND this schedule leaves no room for a pre-match away elective.
What my question is, if I'll get more learning about cards or pulm physiology in CCM, maybe I can postpone one of the consult months until later, instead of risking ending up on a consult service where there might not be much teaching at all?
Or, if the med sub-I won't help significantly for step 2, I can definitely take the sub-I later.
I appreciate any and all advice.
My stats to put this in context:
223 on Step I
3rd year grades: 1 honors (fam med), mostly HP's (emed, outpatient med, peds, surgery, neuro, psych), and 2 P's (medicine--was very 1st rotation--and ob/gyn)
1 non-1st author pub from med sch summer research
uncertain about yield of pubs from current research (will have a few poster presentations soon, though)
The major concern I have is, I will be coming off of a research year during which I has clinical exposure only about once a week in an outpatient clinic.
My advisor recommended that I start with a consult service or two (namely pulm and cards) prior to even doing the anesthesiology sub-I, just to get back into the swing of things and review these two major organ systems that are most important for anes. I think this is a great idea.
In addition to pulm and cards i'd also like to take an ID consult month (won't really be that useful for anes sub-i though). In fact, i'd think ID would be more high yield than a pulm month otherwise. I could be wrong.
Since I have been out of the loop for a while in terms of inpatient patient care, I'm thinking i should take Step 2 after doing my medicine sub-I.
There is also this amazing CCM elective at my school that everyone raves about with minimal scut and loads of teaching. People have said a lot of step 2 questions deal with ICU cases, so I'm thinking this elective would be a good one to take prior to step 2.
I am required to take Step 2 prior to the end of November by my school. But I'd also like to take it early enough so that if I do really well, it could help boost my chances at top programs.
right now, the plan looks like:
June-- consult (pulm or cards)
July-- consult (pulm or cards)
Aug-- anesthesiology sub-i
Sept--CCM or med sub-I
Oct--med sub-I or CCM
Nov--step 2 study month, take step 2 @ end of the month
I am just concerned that taking step 2 at the end of november will be a tad late to do me any good in terms of boosting my chances at a top tier school (2 of which are my 1st choices currently) AND this schedule leaves no room for a pre-match away elective.
What my question is, if I'll get more learning about cards or pulm physiology in CCM, maybe I can postpone one of the consult months until later, instead of risking ending up on a consult service where there might not be much teaching at all?
Or, if the med sub-I won't help significantly for step 2, I can definitely take the sub-I later.
I appreciate any and all advice.
My stats to put this in context:
223 on Step I
3rd year grades: 1 honors (fam med), mostly HP's (emed, outpatient med, peds, surgery, neuro, psych), and 2 P's (medicine--was very 1st rotation--and ob/gyn)
1 non-1st author pub from med sch summer research
uncertain about yield of pubs from current research (will have a few poster presentations soon, though)