Rotation electives help!!!

[SnowyOwl]

I am a 2nd year osteopathic med student and I am a bit unclear on this whole rotation process. My school is great but has sort of left of us in the cold when it comes to rotations. I am currently thinking EM or FM and I want to get experience with rural FM. Any suggestions for how to get hooked up with docs/schools for electives which we are supposed to set up ourselves?
Also, any opinions on getting an osteopathic versus MD residency?....I would like to maintain and expound upon my OMM skills. Thanks!!!

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[Droopy Snoopy]

My school is great but has sort of left of us in the cold when it comes to rotations.

The first part of that sentence doesn't exactly jive with the second part. But it's only Christmas, schools usually don't address 3rd year scheduling until later in the spring anyway.

 

[hooperg]

In many instances, you simply state to your clinical director (especially during third year) that you want to do an elective rotation in field X. During your elective time, said clinical director will assign you to an accommodating preceptor, either MD or DO (unless you specify). Some programs require you to be a fourth year before even batting an eyelash at you. Some programs require you to have rotations Q,R,S and T done before giving you the time of day. A lot of it is school dependent though. We have one block of possible elective time in the fall and one in the summer during third year and then much more during 4th year.

As a second year, you may want to start querying some programs to see their requirements and make connections. Good luck and have fun. Smoke step 1 now and worry about rotations later

 

[AmyO]

I agree that your main focus should be kicking butt on Step 1 (USMLE & COMLEX but that's my opinion & a whole other topic) then worrying about rotations since most away rotations won't even look at your application until summer of the year before your 4th year but to answer your question...... Your school should give you some direction on scheduling your 3rd year and then you are usually cut loose for 4th year. Your school could be different, but I imagine they would have to assist you b/c many of the places I am applying to do away rotations at will only take visiting 4th year students not 3rd year students (there are some but many have the 4th year stipulation from what I've seen in the midwest). I would think for FM especially rural medicine or EM, either osteopathic or allopathic rotations should give you good learning experiences. More major level I trauma centers are associated w/ allopathic medical centers but there are certainly great osteopathic ER rotations esp if you are willing to travel to Michigan, Ohio, or Pennsylvania. Most if not all of your 3rd year should be core rotations (we have 1 3rd year elective) so make sure you are fulfilling your school's graduation requirements if you truly have to set up your 3rd & 4th year w/o any help (which seems pretty odd). 4th year is where you will primarily worry about electives and sub-internships in areas you might like to pursue a residency in. If you are interested in getting information about rotating, you will usually find it on the hospital's website or more likely on the medical school's website that is associated w/ that particular hospital. I think you are probably jumping the gun a bit and your school will give you more direction about 3rd year and scheduling in a few months. Good luck! Oh, and if you are wanting to practice OMM on certain rotations such as FM, then you probably will want to do that particular rotation w/ an osteopathic training program (one affiliated w/ an osteopathic residency or is a core site for osteopathic medical students from PCOM, KCOM, etc). From my experience, MD preceptors or preceptors associated w/ an allopathic program tend to not want you to do OMT (this is my experience and may be different for others)----not b/c they are against it but b/c they don't know how to perform OMT & therefore can't supervise you properly.

 

[EM2BE]

I agree that your main focus should be kicking butt on Step 1 (USMLE & COMLEX but that's my opinion & a whole other topic) then worrying about rotations since most away rotations won't even look at your application until summer of the year before your 4th year but to answer your question...... Your school should give you some direction on scheduling your 3rd year and then you are usually cut loose for 4th year. Your school could be different, but I imagine they would have to assist you b/c many of the places I am applying to do away rotations at will only take visiting 4th year students not 3rd year students (there are some but many have the 4th year stipulation from what I've seen in the midwest). I would think for FM especially rural medicine or EM, either osteopathic or allopathic rotations should give you good learning experiences. More major level I trauma centers are associated w/ allopathic medical centers but there are certainly great osteopathic ER rotations esp if you are willing to travel to Michigan, Ohio, or Pennsylvania. Most if not all of your 3rd year should be core rotations (we have 1 3rd year elective) so make sure you are fulfilling your school's graduation requirements if you truly have to set up your 3rd & 4th year w/o any help (which seems pretty odd). 4th year is where you will primarily worry about electives and sub-internships in areas you might like to pursue a residency in. If you are interested in getting information about rotating, you will usually find it on the hospital's website or more likely on the medical school's website that is associated w/ that particular hospital. I think you are probably jumping the gun a bit and your school will give you more direction about 3rd year and scheduling in a few months. Good luck! Oh, and if you are wanting to practice OMM on certain rotations such as FM, then you probably will want to do that particular rotation w/ an osteopathic training program (one affiliated w/ an osteopathic residency or is a core site for osteopathic medical students from PCOM, KCOM, etc). From my experience, MD preceptors or preceptors associated w/ an allopathic program tend to not want you to do OMT (this is my experience and may be different for others)----not b/c they are against it but b/c they don't know how to perform OMT & therefore can't supervise you properly.

agree with this. Focus on boards and rotations will follow. If you don't pass boards, rotations won't happen. I know it's nice to look ahead to the life without sitting in a classroom all day, but don't look ahead all day every day.