Pod Clinicals

[CapnCule]

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Hey y'all,
So I read through a bunch of forums of people asking what the best pod school is. Most people are saying there isn't one. With that in mind, my question is strictly pertaining to clinicals. Which schools have offer the strongest clinical exposure. Volume of cases along with variety. Thanks

 

[cohedo]

This question is very broad, and I think you will find that you receive the same answer as you have about which school is best. Each school has its own pluses (and minuses) when it comes to clinical rotations. Temple has its own clinic that is really busy and sees a wide variety of issues because of the location it is in. NYCPM is similar to Temple. Barry has three of its own clinics. For externships, you will do rounds at their three clinics and then three more of your own choice wherever you want to go (FL, CO, NY, OH, AZ, HI, wherever...). Kent has its own clinic in Cleveland that is super nice and updated, but I can't make a comment about the patient volume there. I am not sure about the other schools as these were the three I chose to fully consider.

I ended up going with Barry for all of the traditional reasons you hear people say. But, I was particularly drawn to the fact that they set up three of your externships for you, and then you find the other three. The other schools have you find you own, with the exception of Temple and their clinic.

Did that answer your question?

 

[heybrother]

Let's talk generalities. 3rd year tends to be close to home - associated with your school clinic and its faculty and likely some local rotations in town. For example, I believe the entirety of DMU's third year is within Des Moines (school clinic, VA hospital, etc.). Fourth year is highly likely to involve travel. You'll see a few threads devoted to this across the forum (normally called something like - "How many clerkships does your school have"), but the each of the schools has a different number of clerkship/externships allowed. These are your opportunities to travel across the country, meet new doctors and make connections, impress people, and find a residency.

When people talk about best clinic they usually are referring to the perceived busyness and diversity of the school clinic in 3rd year and whatever portion of 4th year some schools keep their students in town for. Temple and NY students usually pile on here to say that this is where they shine. Perhaps some other schools can make a case to wrest the crown, but I'll let people speak for themselves. Fourth year clinicals for most people will involve travel to externships and therefore each individual student will have a different schedule and the opportunity to create as rigorous a year as they would like.

Cohedo's understanding of 4th year is not my understanding. I haven't done the process yet, but I'm sort of under the impression its moving towards a completely computerized mini-match process. DMU has a specific process by which students work with faculty to setup their 4th year (choosing programs to apply to) taking into account their background, the perceived selectivity/competitiveness of the program, etc. You aren't thrown to the wind and I think we need to be clear about what words like "Find your own" means. Without really getting into what cores/electives/clerkships - there's basically a centralized clerkship list. Its not like your school just tells you "find some doctors to shadow". Schools have relationships with specific programs outside of their state for you to take advantage of and the majority of residencies take students for clerkships and want you to visit. Your school will also likely help you get in touch with residents at current programs to find out what sort of candidates they are looking for and do they take students from your particular school frequently.

 

[CapnCule]

Thanks for the replies, that helps a lot. My top 2 choices are Temple and Scholl. Can anyone comment on Scholl?

 

[Kevin732]

I am curious about scholls too

 

[janV88]

Scholl's clinic is borderline terrible. 1-2 pts in 5 hours is your typical work day. I used clinic to study for exams. I hate our clinic and almost every attending that works there.

Where we make up ground in clinical skills are the mandatory podiatry core rotations we have interspersed between our elective clerkship rotations for the last 1.5 years of school (3rd years leave for rotations starting January of their 3rd year). The mandatory podiatry core rotations are at Cook County/ Stroger and 3 VA hospitals. All located in the Chicago area and all ridiculously busy. Clinics are filled with non-compliant social holes and the pathology you will see can be diverse. The rotations do a fantastic job of making you extremely jaded and make you believe there is no hope for society. Students are the workforce for these clinics. These clinics are associated with residency programs and this gives students the inside track if they want to stay in Chicago. Without the students these residency programs wouldn't exist though which leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. All in all you will get clinical experiences comparable to Temple and NYCPM. During these rotations I'm seeing about 7-10 pts a day, 5 days a week, for month long rotations. It's pretty steady work.

At the end of my last 1.5 years of rotations I will have completed 11 months of podiatry (7 elective clerkship months and 4 mandatory podiatry rotations) + 1 month rotations in ER, General Surgery and Internal Medicine in neighboring hospitals around the Chicago area. That's a lot of podiatry. If you can't "figure it out" after all that then you probably didn't match.

You must've had a few slow months. I was averaging 10-16 pts a day at jesse brown, hines, and stroger!

 

[that1guyfromFL]

Barry has three of its own clinics. For externships, you will do rounds at their three clinics and then three more of your own choice wherever you want to go (FL, CO, NY, OH, AZ, HI, wherever...)... I ended up going with Barry for all of the traditional reasons you hear people say. But, I was particularly drawn to the fact that they set up three of your externships for you, and then you find the other three.

This is incorrect. You have 7 months of externships anywhere you schedule them (with 1 additional vacation month) between May and December during 4th year.

Why in the world would you want to waste 3 months in a Barry clinic as a 4th year?

 

[pacpod]

Cohedo's understanding of 4th year is not my understanding. I haven't done the process yet, but I'm sort of under the impression its moving towards a completely computerized mini-match process.

All clerkships are organized via an online application system. I guess you could call it a "mini-match". You select what program you are interested in attending and then rank a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice month. For example, if you want to go to Program X you pick it and then rank your top three choices of when to attend.

DMU has a specific process by which students work with faculty to setup their 4th year (choosing programs to apply to) taking into account their background, the perceived selectivity/competitiveness of the program, etc.

They offer Core/clerkship sessions if you would like them, but otherwise it is kinda "on your own". I found the sessions to be fairly helpful, but you need to come into them knowing what you want and what your goals are.
Once you pick what programs you are interested in, you can set up a meeting to speak with faculty to see what their thoughts are regarding program strengths/do they think you are a good fit/etc. The best way I found to gather information about programs was to contact those ahead of me who either clerked or are residents there.

Schools have relationships with specific programs outside of their state for you to take advantage of and the majority of residencies take students for clerkships and want you to visit.

I don't know about other schools, but the only "special relationships" that DMU had were with programs that were our cores. DMU has to have that relationship to get the 3 moth rotation set up. It can bear little to no weight as to if you get the program as a residency or not.

There are still a few programs that do not have clerkships set up, but that list is getting smaller each year. I visited/interviewed at two programs that didn't have a clerkship and I know at least one of them will have an official clerkship for the 2014-2015 year.

Your school will also likely help you get in touch with residents at current programs to find out what sort of candidates they are looking for and do they take students from your particular school frequently.

Like I mentioned before, this is probably your best resource in scoping out programs just short of visiting for yourself.