Road Map for applying to ER residency

[doctor7]

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I'd like to get some ideas of how current residents planned out their 4th year. i.e. when to schedule rotations, how many, what order, and how far in advance to schedule (other than ASAP). Comments from current students are welcomed, too.

Also, if you are in a 4-year program, how did you go about picking your internship year/location.

Anything you wish you'd have paid more attention to?

Thanks.

 

[Seaglass]

We should put this in the sticky somewhere.

I think there are two schools of thought about 4th year, either you do a lot of fun rotations and take a lot of vacation, or you take rotations that will hopefully make your internship easier.

First, plan to schedule the first few months of 4th year as away rotations in EM or EM electives at programs you are interested in. Rotating in July, August, and September gives you enough time to get a letter in for applications and gives you a chance to see how people learn EM outside your institution. Unless you are a lazy ass, outside rotations are almost always a positive.

Then what to do with all those elective months? Well, it is unlikely that you will have time to get any letters from them if you follow my advice above, and it is unlikely that the grades will appear on your application at ERAS time, so I wouldn't worry too much about doing a stellar MICU month or whatever. I would recommend doing a month that is very liberal with vacation or a vacation month in December or January to provide ample time for interviews. Realistically the most interviews you can do is 3 a week so you need a good bit of time to get them done.

So now you have used up about 4 months of the year, what's left to do? Personally I advocate doing rotations in all the things you are interested in that you will never get to do again, or addressing any personal skill deficiencies that you have. I did NICU, MICU, Rads, Gas, and some research months. Other interesting rotations would include Path, ortho, optho, etc.

If you are concerned about being able to "hack it" during your ICU month as a resident then it may be helpful to do an ICU rotation as a "fourthie." Personally I think it makes little difference but friends of mine said that they felt a whole lot better as residents with some ICU time already under their belt.

In short, have a good time, it's the last time you won't have to "work" constantly so make the most of it.

Seaglass- OUT!

 

[roja]

I, again, concur wiht Seaglass

 

[dlung]

I don't know many faculty that would advocate working excessively hard 4th year. I think I heard ONE make such a comment in a med student forum, and then several faculty describing that idea with words like 'ridiculous' in informal conversation afterward.

I'd certainly say that there's no reason to do anything particularly painful after October... you figure interviews will take a lot out of you, and then after they're done, with applications all tucked in until match day, your motivation to work more than... oh... I dunno... 4 hours a day (I hope I have that much stamina) rapidly goes down the toilet.

Plus, there is so much FUN stuff to do 4th year. I'm spending my final med school winter in San Diego. Then, if all goes well, I'll be working an ED in Glasgow for a month, with no bigger tasks than getting a taste for real Scotch and trying to get into Glasgow Celtic soccer match.

 

[Seaglass]

I'd certainly say that there's no reason to do anything particularly painful after October... you figure interviews will take a lot out of you, and then after they're done, with applications all tucked in until match day, your motivation to work more than... oh... I dunno... 4 hours a day (I hope I have that much stamina) rapidly goes down the toilet.

That sounds about right to me.

 

[roja]

concurrance, again.....

 

[Andy Kahn]

I'd like to get some ideas of how current residents planned out their 4th year. i.e. when to schedule rotations, how many, what order, and how far in advance to schedule (other than ASAP).
Thanks.

i posted my 4th year schedule and experiences at http://geocities.com/andy_kahn_em/MS4.html (hope it helps and feel free to PM or email me w/ more questions.) I'm a big advocate of doing an elective that gives you a chance to improve on a skill through a few weeks or a month of repetition (slit lamp, central lines, reading radiographs, etc.). I feel my EM ultrasound elective was great and now I feel a lot more comfortable w/ them than before.

Anything you wish you'd have paid more attention to?
Thanks.

When I interviewed in Chicago, I stayed at the Holiday Inn next door to Advocate Christ for 2 nights so that I would not have to change hotels between by Christ and Resurrection inteviews (and because that Holiday Inn was pretty affordable). I had my Resurrection interview the day after Advocate Christ. Had I thought it through, I would have changed hotels so that I could stay somewhere close to Resurrection the night before that interview. I ended up driving from that Holiday Inn towards Resurrection for the night before gathering w/ Resurrection residents at a restaurant and then had to drive back to that hotel for some sleep and then had to get up again early the next morning to drive back across Chicago through the sleet/icy streets for the Resurrection interview.

I wish I would have planned to go to the national meetings (ACEP, SAEM, AAEM) during 4th year of med school. Luckily I have my vacation next week and will be in San Fran for ACEP as an intern.

For those who are couples matching, Metrohealth in Cleveland has a nepotism policy (no spouses or family members can work in the same dept). When they sent me and my wife interviews for the EM residency, I called to schedule us both for interviews, but they said that we could not both match into their program, but they would still love to have one of us interview there and the other to interview at Akron (so we ended up not interviewing there but had we known about that policy, we wouldnt have spent the money to have them on our ERAS residency list).

-andy

 

[LotaPower]

We should put this in the sticky somewhere.

I think there are two schools of thought about 4th year, either you do a lot of fun rotations and take a lot of vacation, or you take rotations that will hopefully make your internship easier.

First, plan to schedule the first few months of 4th year as away rotations in EM or EM electives at programs you are interested in. Rotating in July, August, and September gives you enough time to get a letter in for applications and gives you a chance to see how people learn EM outside your institution. Unless you are a lazy ass, outside rotations are almost always a positive.

Then what to do with all those elective months? Well, it is unlikely that you will have time to get any letters from them if you follow my advice above, and it is unlikely that the grades will appear on your application at ERAS time, so I wouldn't worry too much about doing a stellar MICU month or whatever. I would recommend doing a month that is very liberal with vacation or a vacation month in December or January to provide ample time for interviews. Realistically the most interviews you can do is 3 a week so you need a good bit of time to get them done.

So now you have used up about 4 months of the year, what's left to do? Personally I advocate doing rotations in all the things you are interested in that you will never get to do again, or addressing any personal skill deficiencies that you have. I did NICU, MICU, Rads, Gas, and some research months. Other interesting rotations would include Path, ortho, optho, etc.

If you are concerned about being able to "hack it" during your ICU month as a resident then it may be helpful to do an ICU rotation as a "fourthie." Personally I think it makes little difference but friends of mine said that they felt a whole lot better as residents with some ICU time already under their belt.

In short, have a good time, it's the last time you won't have to "work" constantly so make the most of it.

Seaglass- OUT!

Sweet advice seaglass. Any advice some some of the M3s out there?

thanks

 

[Seaglass]

Sweet advice seaglass. Any advice some some of the M3s out there?

Kick ass on rotations and get more letters than you need. Then you can cerry-pick the good ones. Start asking for letters after Jan of 3rd year. Don't take Step 2 before November.

 

[roja]

Andy- I'll be in ACEP as well. I hear tell you'll be in NYC as well come spring. 🙂

 

[DrQuinn]

I won't be in ACEP but a few of my colleagues will be.

I will c/p your post seaglass and put it in the sticky.

Q

 

[roja]

I won't be in ACEP but a few of my colleagues will be.

I will c/p your post seaglass and put it in the sticky.

Q

*sob*


Maybe AAEM in miami. 😉