Recommended electives during internship?

[OMMFan]

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I'm in the process of submitting my elective requests for my upcoming internship and wonder which ones I should choose! So far, I'm considering Rheum, Ortho, Neuro, and Anesthesia. I did two months of Neuro as a med student. I'd love to do at least a couple of weeks of Sports Med with a specific physician, but I know I'll get that during residency.

Thanks in advance for sharing any advice or tips!

 

[Llenroc]

I'm in the process of submitting my elective requests for my upcoming internship and wonder which ones I should choose! So far, I'm considering Rheum, Ortho, Neuro, and Anesthesia. I did two months of Neuro as a med student. I'd love to do at least a couple of weeks of Sports Med with a specific physician, but I know I'll get that during residency.

Thanks in advance for sharing any advice or tips!

I don't know what kind of program you matched into, but you should try to enjoy your internship. If interventional pain is offered, that might be worthwhile so you can get a sense of it. Rheumatology is good if the person your working with is highly procedural. If it's a fibromyalgia clinic then it's less compelling. Keep in mind, more Rheumatologists are like the latter than like the former. Anesthesia would be a complete waste of your time, as would be Orthopedic Surgery. I would go for things like Radiology and something else that's easy. If your PM&R experience was limited (one rotation or less) before matching, then consider a PM&R elective.

 

[Ludicolo]

How many months of electives do you get? During my transitional year way back when I did electives in rheumatology, neurology, sports med (w/ Family Med, so a little different perspective), geriatrics (involved rotating through SNF/subacute facilities), and radiology (2 weeks MSK, 2 weeks neurorads). Also, during my general surgery rotation I happened to be assigned to the vascular service, so I took care of a fair amount of fresh amputees. During residency I fashioned an elective where I spent one week each shadowing PT, OT, Speech, and social work. Figured it was important to see how the other half lived. Ortho, neurosurgery, and anesthesia would also be useful electives if you like the OR. Me no like the OR.

 

[PMR 4 MSK]

During internship, I did electives in:

Rheum - very worthwhile
Sports Med - very worthwhile
Podiatry - good, but I still suck at treating foot problems
Radiholiday - must do
Ortho - worked mostly with peds, they were the only attendings who didn't seem out to kill the residents
Urology - not sure what I was thinking, but helped me later with neurogenic bowel and bladder, but as I was on it I wondered why I was electively doing a hardcare surgical rotation...

I did neuro as a med student and fell asleep often during the attending's physical exams.

 

[OMMFan]

Thank you so much for your suggestions and for saving me a lot of grief! I'm doing a Medicine year so I don't have any electives to waste.