Questions regarding CCOM rotations

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NonTradMed

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I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this topic, so please move it if it's not.

I have just been accepted into CCOM and a couple of other schools but I'm keeping CCOM as a top choice for a major reason: I keep hearing about its great rotation sites.

I had been doing some research on what the various DO schools have to offer in terms of rotations and many schools seems to farm out their students 3rd and 4th year. I do NOT want to move around too much my 3rd or 4th year but I also don't want to sacrifice my education for convienence. It seems CCOM would offer a chance to stay in one city while still allowing for good rotations at well known teaching hospitals.

However, I have some questions regarding these clinical rotation options for CCOM, and I haven't been able to find answers to them in the forums:

1. How much of CCOM's rotations are traditional, ward-based ones and how much of it is preceptor-based? Is it possible to do rotations that are ALL traditional ward-based rotations?

2. I would like a structured curriculum for 3rd/4th year with set lectures/syllabus etc during these last two years (hey, paying 30k!). I saw on the CCOM's website that they require mandatory attendence for lectures during rotations, does this mean there will be strict curriculum and structure as to what I should be learning during each rotations? Or is it going to be some guy who spits back stuff when he feels like it?


3. Are the people that are teaching me during 3rd/4th years in the rotations getting paid? Or are they volunteers? I've heard this is vital to the success of most rotations. I can't seem to find an answer to this anywhere.

4. Regarding doing rotations with the other medical students in the city, how difficult is it to get these "shared" rotations? Do CCOM get last pick? first pick? Is it a general lottery for all the med schools in the area? Or is space for rotations even an issue in such a large city?

5. Can most CCOM rotations be done at major teaching hospitals/academic centers? I know there are tons of area hospitals but I have heard the best places to do your rotations is in the academic centers. And how difficult is it to get these rotations? How many students actually get the 'good spots' during rotations?

6. Lastly, can anyone give me their general experiences with CCOM rotations? How much guidance do you get from the administration to set up these rotations? How much legwork do you have to do to set them up---i.e do you just sign up for them and wait, or do you have to make the calls yourself?

Please correct a lowly premed's misconceptions of how all this works. :)

Any other comments are also welcome. Thanks so much!

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NonTradMed said:
I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this topic, so please move it if it's not.

I have just been accepted into CCOM and a couple of other schools but I'm keeping CCOM as a top choice for a major reason: I keep hearing about its great rotation sites.

I had been doing some research on what the various DO schools have to offer in terms of rotations and many schools seems to farm out their students 3rd and 4th year. I do NOT want to move around too much my 3rd or 4th year but I also don't want to sacrifice my education for convienence. It seems CCOM would offer a chance to stay in one city while still allowing for good rotations at well known teaching hospitals.

However, I have some questions regarding these clinical rotation options for CCOM, and I haven't been able to find answers to them in the forums:

1. How much of CCOM's rotations are traditional, ward-based ones and how much of it is preceptor-based? Is it possible to do rotations that are ALL traditional ward-based rotations?

2. I would like a structured curriculum for 3rd/4th year with set lectures/syllabus etc during these last two years (hey, paying 30k!). I saw on the CCOM's website that they require mandatory attendence for lectures during rotations, does this mean there will be strict curriculum and structure as to what I should be learning during each rotations? Or is it going to be some guy who spits back stuff when he feels like it?


3. Are the people that are teaching me during 3rd/4th years in the rotations getting paid? Or are they volunteers? I've heard this is vital to the success of most rotations. I can't seem to find an answer to this anywhere.

4. Regarding doing rotations with the other medical students in the city, how difficult is it to get these "shared" rotations? Do CCOM get last pick? first pick? Is it a general lottery for all the med schools in the area? Or is space for rotations even an issue in such a large city?

5. Can most CCOM rotations be done at major teaching hospitals/academic centers? I know there are tons of area hospitals but I have heard the best places to do your rotations is in the academic centers. And how difficult is it to get these rotations? How many students actually get the 'good spots' during rotations?

6. Lastly, can anyone give me their general experiences with CCOM rotations? How much guidance do you get from the administration to set up these rotations? How much legwork do you have to do to set them up---i.e do you just sign up for them and wait, or do you have to make the calls yourself?

Please correct a lowly premed's misconceptions of how all this works. :)

Any other comments are also welcome. Thanks so much!

I would love to help you out but a 3rd or 4th year would be better suited to answer your quests. As a 2nd year, I am still learning some of these things myself. All I can say is CCOM is a great school and it will be a good choice if you plan on attending. Hope some of the 3rd and 4th years can help you out on here.
 
Well, thanks for dropping by anyway! :thumbup:

Not getting much in the way of answers here....maybe I need to put this into the clinical rotations forum....
 
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NonTradMed said:
Well, thanks for dropping by anyway! :thumbup:

Not getting much in the way of answers here....maybe I need to put this into the clinical rotations forum....

From the stuff I know now. Rotations are done on a lottery system that you rank your places to go and then you get some #1 choices and some of your lower ranked choices. This is one thing I do know about.
 
I can't answer all your questions but i can answer some. i'm half way through my third year now and I'm still now sure how everything works.

as far as selecting rotations goes:

first we rank our "tracks" which is the order in which you will do each your rotations. People generally try to select their track based on what there interests are. For me, I tried to get a track that had surgery later in the year so that I would have some clinical experience behind me and wouldn't look like an idiot while doing surgery. We have a computer system in which we rank all of the tracks. After everyone has ranked theirs, the computer system tries to match everyone with their top choice or at least close to it. (we've allready done our fourth year track selection and i got my first choice).
After you find out what track you have then you have to select from a list, the available rotation sites and rank each site for each rotation. Again the computer does its magic and you find out what sites you are going to. Its always possible to trade if you don't like the site you got. For instance I had a very good site for OB/Gyne (even though i have no interest in it). One of my class mates had a crappy site but he was interested in OB/gyne. Out of the kindness of my heart and the realization that i would hope someone would do the same for me, i switched sites with him.

We have one elective our third year and 5 our 4th year. We can go anywhere that will have us for our electives.

Yes, lectures are mandatory once a week. There is a bit of structure to what we should be learning for each rotation. Core concepts and whatnot. After two years of lectures though, I can only handle so much. Some sites will also have lectures with the residents.

Third year is wonderful. i love working with doctors, nurses, other staff and patients so much more than sitting in a class room. Here in chicago we have some very good rotations and some very bad rotations. I assume it will be the same just about anywhere. you get out of it whatever you put into it though.

hope i answered some of your questions. CCOM is pretty hard core when it comes to exams and studying (usually 2 exams a week). but I certainly feel prepared and the boards were a breeze. I have nothing to compare my experience to but I feel i've had a very good education for the most part.
 
CTashby said:
first we rank our "tracks" which is the order in which you will do each your rotations. People generally try to select their track based on what there interests are.

....

Yes, lectures are mandatory once a week. There is a bit of structure to what we should be learning for each rotation. Core concepts and whatnot. After two years of lectures though, I can only handle so much. Some sites will also have lectures with the residents.

hope i answered some of your questions. CCOM is pretty hard core when it comes to exams and studying (usually 2 exams a week). but I certainly feel prepared and the boards were a breeze. I have nothing to compare my experience to but I feel i've had a very good education for the most part.

Yeah, I've heard of the number of exams CCOMs like to give their students. :)
That's ok, I'm the type that would goof off if I didn't have an exam hounding me every week!

What did you think about your rotation experience in comparison to kids from other medical schools? Did you think CCOM offered you good opportunities? Less opportunities?
 
I've only finished three rotations so far. (peds, ob/gye, and family) both my peds and family rotations have been great. ob/gye not so much, but remember i switched my rotation. I think we get quite a number of excellent oportunities. I'm going to do an ent rotation in michigan starting monday (6 out of the 18 DO ent programs are in michigan). I'll also be doing my internal medicine rotation at Cook County (we'll see how that goes). I'm, so far, quite satisfied. I can't compare to the other area schools though.

If you would like to see some of the sites we rotate through you can go to our clinical education website.

http://mwunet.midwestern.edu/academic/ccomclined/studentarea.htm
 
Hey NonTrad congrats on getting into CCOM!! :thumbup: Just curious to know when you found out about your acceptance and when you interviewed. Thanks!
 
CTashby said:
I've only finished three rotations so far. (peds, ob/gye, and family) both my peds and family rotations have been great. ob/gye not so much, but remember i switched my rotation. I think we get quite a number of excellent oportunities. I'm going to do an ent rotation in michigan starting monday (6 out of the 18 DO ent programs are in michigan). I'll also be doing my internal medicine rotation at Cook County (we'll see how that goes). I'm, so far, quite satisfied. I can't compare to the other area schools though.

If you would like to see some of the sites we rotate through you can go to our clinical education website.

http://mwunet.midwestern.edu/academic/ccomclined/studentarea.htm


Thanks for the link. I too have been accepted at ccom for the class of 2010. Just curious about the link: Under "postdoc" section of ccom academics it only lists IM, EM, ob/gyn, FP residencies....what gives? Any idea where to get info on their other residencies...like the surgical ones?
 
DiLLynqnt said:
Hey NonTrad congrats on getting into CCOM!! :thumbup: Just curious to know when you found out about your acceptance and when you interviewed. Thanks!

I did my interview on Nov. 10th, then I emailed on Nov. 22nd about my status and was told I got in, so they were pretty quick about it. I still haven't gotten my letter yet, but the holidays are probably going to delay the letter anyway. Hope that helps.

Btw, thanks for everyone's input on the rotations. If anyone have anything to add, please do! :)
 
I'm also a third year in the middle of my rotations. I think CCOM has GREAT clinical options. You can pretty much rotate anywhere in the chicago area, except during core rotations. 3rd year you are pretty much stuck with core sites, but there are a ton to choose from, most good, some not so good. 4th year you have a lot more choices and can rotate anywhere in the country.

I've done OB/GYN, peds, and family so far, and I have had wonderful experiences at all the places I have been. I felt that CCOM prepares its students very well for rotations. We sometimes work with other students from other schools in the chicago area, and we perform just as well. From my own personal experience and hearing about others', all the hospitals have been receptive of us.

You do get lectures once a week during each rotation, and they're ok. There is definitely teaching during third year done by our school and the hospitals we are at. But there is more individual learning during third year than the first two.

Chicago is a great place to go to school at b/c the clinical sites offered are hard to beat!
 
NUgirl said:
I'm also a third year in the middle of my rotations. I think CCOM has GREAT clinical options. You can pretty much rotate anywhere in the chicago area, except during core rotations. 3rd year you are pretty much stuck with core sites, but there are a ton to choose from, most good, some not so good. 4th year you have a lot more choices and can rotate anywhere in the country.

I've done OB/GYN, peds, and family so far, and I have had wonderful experiences at all the places I have been. I felt that CCOM prepares its students very well for rotations. We sometimes work with other students from other schools in the chicago area, and we perform just as well. From my own personal experience and hearing about others', all the hospitals have been receptive of us.

You do get lectures once a week during each rotation, and they're ok. There is definitely teaching during third year done by our school and the hospitals we are at. But there is more individual learning during third year than the first two.

Chicago is a great place to go to school at b/c the clinical sites offered are hard to beat!


Sounds like you are really enjoying your clinical rotations. I thought the classes offered during third year would be a boon, but it seems the few students who have mentioned this are not so hot into the lectures offered every week during third year. What are most students' take on these lectures? Excessive? Not enough?

Also, can anyone tell me what they think about the clinical teaching within the hospitals? Are they any good?

Thanks!
 
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