Order of Third-Year Clerkships

[cuteaggression]

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My school has 6 required clerkships during 3rd year: OB, psych, IM, peds, surgery, and FM. I am interested in ophthalmology, but I won't be able to do an ophthalmology clerkship until the beginning of 4th year.

Do you guys have any advice on what order I should do these clerkships in?

I was planning to do IM and surgery 3rd and 4th (not too late or too early) since those seem to be the most relevant and important to an ophthalmology residency. What do you guys think?

 

[cuteaggression]

I guess I should post the order I was hoping to do them in:

(1) OB - I am not interested in OB, but I have heard that this is an interesting and hands-on clerkship, so I thought it'd be fun to do first.

(2) Psych - I want to have some extra time to prepare and study for IM.

(3) IM

(4) Surgery

(5) Pediatrics

(6) FM - I want a good review to prepare for Step 2.

 

[Polonium-210]

I guess I should post the order I was hoping to do them in:

(1) OB - I am not interested in OB, but I have heard that this is an interesting and hands-on clerkship, so I thought it'd be fun to do first.

(2) Psych - I want to have some extra time to prepare and study for IM.

(3) IM

(4) Surgery

(5) Pediatrics

(6) FM - I want a good review to prepare for Step 2.

I think I know your school. Most people from said school recommend psych last to give you time for Step 2 CK preparation. It is a lighter rotation. I wish said school had elective time during third year even if it was only four weeks.

 

[cuteaggression]

I think I know your school. Most people from said school recommend psych last to give you time for Step 2 CK preparation. It is a lighter rotation. I wish said school had elective time during third year even if it was only four weeks.

Haha, I think you do too. I've heard to put either psych or IM last to prep for Step 2, but I figured that FM would have similar material and is slightly lighter as well.

I wish it did too, but I think there is a time for electives during surgery where we can choose to follow a specific subspecialty of surgery. Is that right?

 

[Ismet]

It would be good to have OB before surgery (start learning about suturing etc before you do it on surgery) and IM before surgery, as the surgery shelf is basically IM.

Haha, I think you do too. I've heard to put either psych or IM last to prep for Step 2, but I figured that FM would have similar material and is slightly lighter as well.

I wish it did too, but I think there is a time for electives during surgery where we can choose to follow a specific subspecialty of surgery. Is that right?

Depends on your school. At mine, we rotated through 2 surgical services but we really didn't have a choice, we were all randomly assigned to two services. Your school may do it differently.

Elective is the term for a non-core or non-required rotation.

 

[Ismet]

Also moving thread to Allo/Osteo forum proper, rather than Allo class threads.

 

[Chillbo Baggins]

Haha, I think you do too. I've heard to put either psych or IM last to prep for Step 2, but I figured that FM would have similar material and is slightly lighter as well.

I wish it did too, but I think there is a time for electives during surgery where we can choose to follow a specific subspecialty of surgery. Is that right?

At my school (which may be the same??) you get a 1 week elective during surgery.

 

[OrangeOrange]

I guess I should post the order I was hoping to do them in:

(1) OB - I am not interested in OB, but I have heard that this is an interesting and hands-on clerkship, so I thought it'd be fun to do first.

(2) Psych - I want to have some extra time to prepare and study for IM.

(3) IM

(4) Surgery

(5) Pediatrics

(6) FM - I want a good review to prepare for Step 2.

This order looks good. There is a little bit of psych, peds, and gyn on the FM shelf in addition to all the general medicine, so you would be well prepared.

 

[solitarius]

The Big 2 are Medicine and Surgery.

How would I do it:

1. [Some rotation]
2. Medicine or Surgery
3. Some other rotation
4. Medicine or Surgery

I wouldn't start with either of the Big 2 as you need some experience getting used to the wards. I also wouldn't do Medicine and Surgery back-to-back.

Some people advise against doing Surgery last since you'll be spent after a full year of clinical rotations. At the same time, I would hesitate to do Surgery first or second since the hard-core Surgery gunners are going to choose this order.

 

[BoomerSooner39]

MS4 matched into ophtho here. I think it's more important that you do an ophtho rotation earlier in the year rather than try to do both IM and surgery beforehand. IM especially will not likely prepare you much for a rotation in ophthalmology. I would not recommend waiting until fourth year to do an ophtho rotation if you are interested in applying. The application opens early in fourth year, with the first deadlines at the end of August for some programs.

A home ophtho rotation can be a great starting point for getting involved with research, meeting faculty/staff, and obtaining letters of rec (you need at least two from ophthalmologists for your application). Further, if you find out you do not like ophthalmology (some of my classmates found this out after doing their rotation), you would not have much time to figure out what you want to do instead or seek out other electives in a specialty you may otherwise consider.

 

[Doctor-S]

I guess I should post the order I was hoping to do them in:

(1) OB - I am not interested in OB, but I have heard that this is an interesting and hands-on clerkship, so I thought it'd be fun to do first.

(2) Psych - I want to have some extra time to prepare and study for IM.

(3) IM

(4) Surgery

(5) Pediatrics

(6) FM - I want a good review to prepare for Step 2.

In your OP, you mentioned that you're interested in ophthalmology, but you won't be able to do an ophthalmology clerkship until the beginning of your 4th year.

Some general suggestions:

More of your attention and time will be required in specialties that require a lot of work with inpatients (IM, Peds, OB/Gyn, Surgery). Since internal medicine provides you with a basic framework upon which to expand your medical knowledge, it is useful to complete your IM rotation early in your 3rd year (and before surgery).

You might consider OB/Gyn before general surgery. In OB/Gyn you'll become more familiar with basic surgical skills (e.g., suturing, knot-tying). Expect weekends and long hours in general surgery. Most of the time, Psych is less time-intensive. You don't want to burn-out (think Step 2 exam) - so keep that in mind when submitting your clerkship track preferences for third year.

 

[cuteaggression]

MS4 matched into ophtho here. I think it's more important that you do an ophtho rotation earlier in the year rather than try to do both IM and surgery beforehand. IM especially will not likely prepare you much for a rotation in ophthalmology. I would not recommend waiting until fourth year to do an ophtho rotation if you are interested in applying. The application opens early in fourth year, with the first deadlines at the end of August for some programs.

A home ophtho rotation can be a great starting point for getting involved with research, meeting faculty/staff, and obtaining letters of rec (you need at least two from ophthalmologists for your application). Further, if you find out you do not like ophthalmology (some of my classmates found this out after doing their rotation), you would not have much time to figure out what you want to do instead or seek out other electives in a specialty you may otherwise consider.

Thank you for the advice! If I could do an ophtho rotation earlier, I would, but unfortunately I can't until after third year at my school.

 

[Polonium-210]

Yeah I do not care that the said institution does not give third year elective time. Four weeks of elective would be nice.