Questions for LECOM FL Students

[bob13]

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I have a question for some current LECOM Bradenton students.

What is the school doing to develop more Florida rotations and residencies? They make a big deal of how many affiliate hospitals they have, but most of them are up north. That’s all fine and dandy to have a ton of rotations, but what good does that do for the Bradenton and SWFL community and student who live in Bradenton.

I am a little concerned (as many DO students are) that the school is just going to increase graduates, but do nothing to increase residencies opportunities in Florida. I think the real problem may be that now FL will have 2 DO schools and same number of residency spots before LECOM. This will be a big problem for future students!!! And what are the students that wish to go into fields other than family practice going to do? They will be left with two options which are bad for either the community or DO profession. Student will have to choose between

1. Move up north for a specialty residency (leaving the community the school is suppose to be helping and most likely not returning to bradenton. or
2. Go into an allopathic residency and further weakening the appeal of DO residencies. (and leaving the Bradenton area.

I guess my questions are
1. Is LECOM FL increase the residency opportunities in FL and if so what fields?
2. how long is this going to take?

I would love some feed back from current LECOM Bradenton students about this.

Thanks,

bob

 

[mickdogg81]

I have a question for some current LECOM Bradenton students.

What is the school doing to develop more Florida rotations and residencies? They make a big deal of how many affiliate hospitals they have, but most of them are up north. That’s all fine and dandy to have a ton of rotations, but what good does that do for the Bradenton and SWFL community and student who live in Bradenton.

I am a little concerned (as many DO students are) that the school is just going to increase graduates, but do nothing to increase residencies opportunities in Florida. I think the real problem may be that now FL will have 2 DO schools and same number of residency spots before LECOM. This will be a big problem for future students!!! And what are the students that wish to go into fields other than family practice going to do? They will be left with two options which are bad for either the community or DO profession. Student will have to choose between

1. Move up north for a specialty residency (leaving the community the school is suppose to be helping and most likely not returning to bradenton. or
2. Go into an allopathic residency and further weakening the appeal of DO residencies. (and leaving the Bradenton area.

I guess my questions are
1. Is LECOM FL increase the residency opportunities in FL and if so what fields?
2. how long is this going to take?

I would love some feed back from current LECOM Bradenton students about this.

Thanks,

bob

bob,
As part of the first class of LECOM-B, I am pleased with the hard work and effort put into developing rotations here in Fl. Obviously, you have to understand that developing rotations takes some time and LECOM-B has spent all year working and developing rotations to keep students here in Florida. We have developed quite a few rotations here in florida during the first year at sites all over the state icluding sites in Venice, Arcadia, Punta Gorda, Orlando, Fort Myers, St. Petersburg, all of Bradenton (which has some great Hospitals), and West Palm. Additionally, we are in the process of getting rotations at more hospitals in Pensacola, Sarasota, Largo and Wauchula (Neuro Rehab center). At this point, it is quite an acheivement considering we had NONE of these to begin with. In terms of residencies, I think that falls on the part of the AOA, being said they are the ones who approve accredidation of AOA residencies. I believe a majority of the aforementioned hospitals we are in current talks with will be available for rotations for us our third year (if not already added). In regards to time frame, LECOM-B has kept up diligently to make sure there are rotations to keep students here in Fl. After all, a little more than half of the students here are from Fl and prefer (from what I understand) to stay.
Overall, I am extremely pleased with the effort on behalf of our clinical staff to objectively attain these rotations. We as a beginning class wanted results like these as stated at the beginning of the year and so far they have come through. Also, LECOM-B has gained great support from the public here...a nonetheless comforting yet essential aspect of starting up a first year school. Any additional comments will be welcomed via pm!

Cheers,

Mick

 

[bob13]

👍 Mick,
Thanks for the feedback. I was not trying to attack LECOM FL. I am impressed with what all the residencies the Erie campus is affiliated with. As a potential applicant, I am curious to know what the FL campus was doing to keep students in FL for both rotations & residency.

Thanks,

bob

 

[DragonWell]

Bumping this thread to see if any current LECOM-FL students have any new info on rotations?

I'm sold on LECOM-FL for many reasons but the lack of established local rotations does give me a bit of a pause sometimes....

 

[scpod]

Bumping this thread to see if any current LECOM-FL students have any new info on rotations?

I'm sold on LECOM-FL for many reasons but the lack of established local rotations does give me a bit of a pause sometimes....

Yes, but there are quite a few students who like the idea of doing rotations elsewhere. It can certainly be a logistical hassle, though. The next class has students from OH, CA, TX, NV, ND, IL, WI, NJ, OK, KY, MA, GA, SC, MI, NC and more. Some of them don't really want to stay in Florida. You can if you want to, but it's nice to have an option.

 

[Xanderain]

See Below

 

[lynx]

I am as well 2nd year here and I am quite frustrated so far with what has been done for our clinical rotations down here, in Florida. The majority of signed affiliations are individual docs and not the hospitals. It can be actually a good thing, I don't know yet, but I'd like to have a chance to spend at leats half of my rotations in a teaching hospital. Also, the majority of few hospitals we are affiliated with (at the moment) are community hospitals, not teaching hospitals. Yes, there is quite a lot of competition going on in Fl, for us - especially with USF med. school which is located in Tampa and NOVA. Yes, I understand it's not so easy to establish new connections but that's a full time job for a clinical ed department at school. And the results so far are discouraging for me, personally. Basically, they encourage us to find our own rotations. Again, this is good on one hand - you get to go to the places you want. On the other hand, it takes a LOT of time and energy to do it - on top of studying.
As far as residency question - at the moment, LECOM has only 1 affiliated hospital which has LECOM residency I believe - Wellington Regional Med. Center (West Palm beach, Fl).
Also, none (except 1 hospital in Orlando) of the FL hospitals provide housing. Forget about it if you're going with individual doc. Remember, that none of them get paid for teaching us, so it is hard to find true teachers.
I want to add that we don't have a complete list of local affiliates yet. It's still being worked on.
Another point - this year Erie campus got to choose their northen sites first, and only then our class could pick from "leftovers". However, we get priority in chossing FL sites.
ANy questions - feel free to pm me.
🙂

 

[DragonWell]

I am as well 2nd year here and I am quite frustrated so far with what has been done for our clinical rotations down here, in Florida. The majority of signed affiliations are individual docs and not the hospitals. It can be actually a good thing, I don't know yet, but I'd like to have a chance to spend at leats half of my rotations in a teaching hospital. Also, the majority of few hospitals we are affiliated with (at the moment) are community hospitals, not teaching hospitals. Yes, there is quite a lot of competition going on in Fl, for us - especially with USF med. school which is located in Tampa and NOVA. Yes, I understand it's not so easy to establish new connections but that's a full time job for a clinical ed department at school. And the results so far are discouraging for me, personally. Basically, they encourage us to find our own rotations. Again, this is good on one hand - you get to go to the places you want. On the other hand, it takes a LOT of time and energy to do it - on top of studying.
As far as residency question - at the moment, LECOM has only 1 affiliated hospital which has LECOM residency I believe - Wellington Regional Med. Center (West Palm beach, Fl).
Also, none (except 1 hospital in Orlando) of the FL hospitals provide housing. Forget about it if you're going with individual doc. Remember, that none of them get paid for teaching us, so it is hard to find true teachers.
I want to add that we don't have a complete list of local affiliates yet. It's still being worked on.
Another point - this year Erie campus got to choose their northen sites first, and only then our class could pick from "leftovers". However, we get priority in chossing FL sites.
ANy questions - feel free to pm me.
🙂

Since LECOM-FL is such a new school, it seems unavoidable that the trailblazing classes are going to hit some bumps in paving the way for classes to come. (Thanks for that by the way! 😉 We do appreciate it!) However, your post also gives me the impression that you feel the school is not as supportive as it could be in this process. Do you think that the problems you're experienceing are mostly growing pains due to the newness of the school, or do you feel it's more of a systemic issue within the school itself? Thanks for sharing your experience - it's very helpful to hear how it's going.

 

[Xanderain]

Since LECOM-FL is such a new school, it seems unavoidable that the trailblazing classes are going to hit some bumps in paving the way for classes to come. (Thanks for that by the way! 😉 We do appreciate it!) However, your post also gives me the impression that you feel the school is not as supportive as it could be in this process. Do you think that the problems you're experienceing are mostly growing pains due to the newness of the school, or do you feel it's more of a systemic issue within the school itself? Thanks for sharing your experience - it's very helpful to hear how it's going.

See below

 

[theDolph]

Hello all. I just recently received my acceptance letter and am just trying to find out more information to help with my decision. I really like the school and what they have going, not to mention the florida weather. However some of the questions and concerns that have come up with regard to clinical rotations have me somewhat puzzled. My main question is what do some of the current students think overall their experience has been. Like if they would have known or did they know the frustrations they are having with securing rotations sites would be much of a factor. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[GregsAnatomy]

Mick is right, we are starting to have some great rotations spots. I personally have been trying to add docs to that list, but with the kind of responses I get, you would think that I was asking them for money. When you do come here, make sure that you don't have the school send the (big) packet of forms to fill out for a "full-time" affiliation - it scares them off. All you need is a letter saying they will teach you from this date to that date.

As for residencies, yes, that is all AOA. But, its also a reason to get active in AOA and FOMA, and start raising hell. I want to do a residency in Jacksonville or Orlando, but there is only allopathic there (as far as I know). Maybe in the future there will be more, but it will be well after my time.


Joey MS-II
LECOM-Bradenton

NSU has a Family Practice/OMM residency at Florida Hospital East Orlando.

 

[BrachialPlexus]

So LECOM does not pay their sites like the rest of the schools in the country... So, is your 3rd and 4th year tuition just being pocketed????

 

[Xanderain]

And LECOM and their minions DO monitor these boards and you will end up on their hit list if you say anything bad, even if it is true.

 

[smgilles]

Yes. And forget all of the good things I've said in the past about rotations here. It's damn bad. People aren't doing their job, and there are a lot of people that are getting royally screwed, myself included. But hey, there is always LECOM-Dominican Republic. I swear, LECOM is becoming like Survivor.

Also, the information about the letter is wrong - they still need to have the doc fill out that damn packet.

That's the beauty about LECOM. They will have 600 students (225 MS3s, 225 MS4s, and 150 MS3s from FL-LECOM) trying to find roations starting 1st week of June. They don't even have to sweat it because they don't pay a penny out of pocket for rotations since it is entirely up to the student to work it out. But you know what they are the "largest medical school in the nation" and that has to mean something, doesn't it? 👎

Just some simple math:
600 x $25k = $15,000,000 that is essentially being pocketed.

Makes me proud🙄

 

[bob13]

i am sorry to hear (a year later) of the problems w/ lecom... good luck getting good rotations!

-bob

 

[MHC]

I am a first year student here in Bradenton. I am already so frustrated with the administration here that I am pretty sure that I'm going to cut my losses and leave. If you have any other option, take it. This place is totally disorganized and PBL here is a mess. Out of the three facilitators I've had, only one was qualified for the job. One was a secretary (she is gone now) and one a psychologist, who knows nothing about the basic sciences.

Many other students here hate it, but just keep quiet and try to get through. This of course is just my opinion, and others are probably happy here. To me, it is the worst institution of higher learning I've ever attended.

And before people step in with responses guessing that I am an unhappy bad student, or a troll, I am one of the better students here, and have the one of the highest entering MCATs at 29. But as I say, this is just my experience. I hope anyone coming next year will have a better time.

 

[bob13]

hang in there MHC...... i am sure that PBL will work out for ya??????? 😱 😱 !!!!