Scheduling 3rd-year clerkships

[RooAgg14]

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M2 here. We just got our 3rd year clerkship combination list, and I'm wondering if any of y'all have some advice for what is a good sequence for someone going into PM&R.

We don't have any elective time during our third year, so my PM&R electives will be done early 4th year. We have 8 blocks: 2 for IMED, 2 for surgery and a block each for OB/GYN, peds, family medicine and psych. Right now I'm thinking of doing IMED first because I view that as a 'general' clerkship and it would be a good foundation for all the other rotations. If I do IMED first, the only option my school offers for the next rotation would be surgery. In a way, I like starting off with IMED and surgery because I'll be done with the two 'big' rotations first. And then maybe I can shadow in the PM&R department at the hospital during one of the lighter rotations at the end of 3rd year to get ready for 4th year PM&R electives. Or is it better to do IMED toward the end since having a good IMED background would be helpful for PM&R -- especially inpatient. What do y'all think? Or does it not even matter.

 

[fozzy40]

Personally, I would recommend doing internal medicine at the very least early to get the basic lay out of inpatient medicine. Overall, I don't believe it really matters as long as you receive a good foundation. Check out this link which I think will help direct some of your learning on other possible 3rd/4th rear rotations:
http://www.aapmr.org/medstu/roadmap.htm

 

[Ludicolo]

In the grand scheme of things – doesn’t matter.

FWIW – I scheduled my third year as follows: OB, peds, surgery, IM, psych, FM. But I wasn’t yet completely sold on PM&R at that time. My thinking was if I started with a specialty that I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to go into (OB), I could get my clinical feet wet, make a few mistakes, and not screw up my future chances too much.

But I agree that starting with IM should give you a solid clinical foundation from the get-go. Following IM with surgery should be fine.

Regardless of the order of your clerkships, approach each rotation with an open mind, perform as if you are genuinely interested in the specialty, and try to soak up as much knowledge and experience as you can. Learn how to function as a member of the medical team, and try to learn the roles of the other team members. PM&R is a broad field, so it pays to know more than a little about everything.

 

[RooAgg14]

Sounds good -- thank you both for the 👍 advice

 

[PMR 4 MSK]

IM first would be better. I had surgery first and was absolutely clueless. IM got me headed in the right direction.