At UF we pick 5 locations first. There is one called "out of state" and the rest are in Florida or southern Georgia. Then we rank our top 15 specialties that we would like for rotations. The computer will try to put your rotations in the geographic areas that you chose. After the rotations are assigned, you then have a month to swap. You can swap into a different specialty, or just move to a different area.
I've learned more on rotations than sitting in class. It's important to choose many different specialties to expand your interests, not what is perceived to be easy. Our required rotations are Ambulatory Care (8 weeks), Adult Medicine (8 weeks), Drug Information (4 weeks), Community (4 weeks), and your choice of pediatrics/geriatrics/oncology (4 weeks). I chose Oncology, but was assigned Geriatrics. We have 4 other rotations of 4 weeks each, which are your electives. We also have a "month off" rotation.
My current rotation is geriatrics and the hospital I am at usually has 2 students. But, I'm here by myself. I am responsible for all the work of 2 students, so I don't get much of a break. The hospital is small, but I still have to check for renal dosing requirements, & IV to PO meds for every patient. This is normally divided between 2 students. I can't do that work until the afternoon, because my morning is spent being a pharmacist. They hired 2 pharmacists to fill the vacancies, but they don't start until next month. So, they have me doing final checks before drugs go out which leaves the pharmacists free for order entry and fielding telephone calls. The pharmacy is not open 24 hours, so in the morning we have to process all orders from the night before.
My next rotation is drug information and there are also 2 students at that site. But, most only have one student at a time.
