SOMA rotations and residency

[TXKnight]

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I am in the process of choosing schools to apply to. I have read about SOMA and like their approach to basic science years, however, I have doubts about rotations.
I understand that you do your core rotations at a CHC and that's great but if, for instance, I am interested in EM and want to do some audition rotations during MS3 and MS4 in a few out of state (TX)/in-state big hospitals, am I allowed to schedule aways frequently during those years? Would I be at a disadvantage as compared to fellow allo/osteo who do get to complete their rotations in a more "standard" curriculum?
I am at loss here, someone with experience chime in please
thanks!

 

[MedPR]

Yea I have pretty much the exact same question. Rotating at a CHC is great, but I feel like I might not get the kind of experience necessary depending on where I end up after medical school. Obviously SOMAs mission is rural care, but I'm sure some students change their minds somewhere along the way. Will they be able to successfully transfer to, say an ED in an urban setting?

SLC to the rescue!

 

[TXKnight]

Yea I have pretty much the exact same question. Rotating at a CHC is great, but I feel like I might not get the kind of experience necessary depending on where I end up after medical school. Obviously SOMAs mission is rural care, but I'm sure some students change their minds somewhere along the way. Will they be able to successfully transfer to, say an ED in an urban setting?

SLC to the rescue!

Yeah I really need to know this in order to make an educated decision. By the way, for those who had been waiting, the match list for SOMA's first class is out. It seems like they did well, but I am not too savvy when it comes down to residency placements and which are good or what programs are not...
http://www.atsu.edu/kcom/prospective_students/postgrad_flipbook/
like MedPR said...we need experienced help here!

 

[MedPR]

Yeah I really need to know this in order to make an educated decision. By the way, for those who had been waiting, the match list for SOMA's first class is out. It seems like they did well, but I am not too savvy when it comes down to residency placements and which are good or what programs are not...
http://www.atsu.edu/kcom/prospective_students/postgrad_flipbook/
like MedPR said...we need experienced help here!

Seems like a pretty standard list. What exactly is "Traditional Osteopathic Internship?"

 

[SLC]

I am in the process of choosing schools to apply to. I have read about SOMA and like their approach to basic science years, however, I have doubts about rotations.
I understand that you do your core rotations at a CHC and that's great but if, for instance, I am interested in EM and want to do some audition rotations during MS3 and MS4 in a few out of state (TX)/in-state big hospitals, am I allowed to schedule aways frequently during those years? Would I be at a disadvantage as compared to fellow allo/osteo who do get to complete their rotations in a more "standard" curriculum?
I am at loss here, someone with experience chime in please
thanks!

You can schedule auditions anywhere you like; most of 4th year is comprised of elective rotations that you schedule (with the help and backing of the school) in places you're interested in completing residency at. So in a word, yes, you are allowed to schedule frequently during 4th year, and some during 3rd year (whenever you're not on a required core rotation. Some RDME's (faculty directors at the CHC's) will even work with you in scheduling a few core rotations at outside institutions if you have connections.

The rotations are identical to any other school, with the obvious difference being that most of the inpatient core rotations are in CHC's. Surgery, EM, Cards, Inpatient IM, OBGyn (the delivery part) will be in hospitals that the CHC is affiliated with or that the RDME has arranged agreements with.

I don't think that SOMA's CHC based curriculum will hold anyone back in any way. In fact, it may be an advantage as you're likely to see more chronic disease and higher overall acuity at the CHC than you would at a regular outpatient family medicine or IM clinic.

SOMA's 1st and 2nd year clinical training can't be beat either. We're quickly making a name for ourselves as having extremely well trained students who can get out and work right away. Our 3rd and 4th year students are often mistaken for residents and interns while on rotations.

Does that help?

 

[SLC]

...Obviously SOMAs mission is rural care...

Not rural care, but rather underserved care. Our CHC sites are nicely situated so as to give most students opportunities to experience rural and urban settings during the clinical years.

We have sites in Seattle, NYC, Portland, Phoenix, and Tucson for folks who like the larger urban/suburban feel.

We have sites in Oahu, and Alabama for folks who like being near a larger city, but not necessarily in it.

We have sites in Flagstaff, South Carolina, and Ohio (though it's very close to Cincinnati) for rural folks. Portland CHC gets into some rural areas in east WA and Idaho; and even places where you'd be practicing "frontier medicine" when you rotate on the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

The end goal is to serve the medically underserved wherever they are.

 

[TXKnight]

You can schedule auditions anywhere you like; most of 4th year is comprised of elective rotations that you schedule (with the help and backing of the school) in places you're interested in completing residency at. So in a word, yes, you are allowed to schedule frequently during 4th year, and some during 3rd year (whenever you're not on a required core rotation. Some RDME's (faculty directors at the CHC's) will even work with you in scheduling a few core rotations at outside institutions if you have connections.

The rotations are identical to any other school, with the obvious difference being that most of the inpatient core rotations are in CHC's. Surgery, EM, Cards, Inpatient IM, OBGyn (the delivery part) will be in hospitals that the CHC is affiliated with or that the RDME has arranged agreements with.

I don't think that SOMA's CHC based curriculum will hold anyone back in any way. In fact, it may be an advantage as you're likely to see more chronic disease and higher overall acuity at the CHC than you would at a regular outpatient family medicine or IM clinic.

SOMA's 1st and 2nd year clinical training can't be beat either. We're quickly making a name for ourselves as having extremely well trained students who can get out and work right away. Our 3rd and 4th year students are often mistaken for residents and interns while on rotations.

Does that help?

This actually helps a lot! thank you SLC. I'm liking this school better by the day, for real.
Now for those that maybe plan (maybe-if accepted) to specialize in fields other than primary care , are there any obvious CHC sites that would be better?
Also, the fact that by MS2 you are involved in care in outstanding. I have a family so it's nice to be able to know you'll be in the same place (mostly) for 3 years.

Feel free to throw any other info at us SLC

 

[SLC]

This actually helps a lot! thank you SLC. I'm liking this school better by the day, for real.
Now for those that maybe plan (maybe-if accepted) to specialize in fields other than primary care , are there any obvious CHC sites that would be better?
Also, the fact that by MS2 you are involved in care in outstanding. I have a family so it's nice to be able to know you'll be in the same place (mostly) for 3 years.

Feel free to throw any other info at us SLC

I don't think that any CHC site is necessarily better than any other. Some want to be in large urban centers so they can rotate in anything they like. For example, we have a doc in Phoenix that the Phoenix CHC folks can rotate Cardiology with, he guarantees an abstract or publication to every student that rotates in his office (they do a lot of research). Some people want to stay in PHX for reasons like that. Others went to Alabama because it's not a CHC but rather a medical education consortium, so you do everything in teaching hospitals etc.

But at the end of the day, your board scores and rotation grades/recommendations are what get you the residency. You can get great scores and letters no matter where you go. I picked my site based on some of the things it has that I want, just about everyone did the same for their sites.

And yes, you will be able to be in the same place for the final 3 years. I might move my family back home for 4th year since I'll be traveling a lot, but that's just my personal plan not the school's.

 

[TXKnight]

]Not rural care, but rather underserved care[/B]. Our CHC sites are nicely situated so as to give most students opportunities to experience rural and urban settings during the clinical years.

.

that's pretty cool, I'm very interested in undeserved care.
For some reason the HI and WA CHC's sound pretty appealing to me...dunno
HI sounds great for the beauty of the place,beaches and all the ladies...don't know about their CHC

 

[SLC]

that's pretty cool, I'm very interested in undeserved care.
For some reason the HI and WA CHC's sound pretty appealing to me...dunno
HI sounds great for the beauty of the place,beaches and all the ladies...don't know about their CHC

Their CHC is awesome, serving mostly native Hawaiians. It also offers rotations in Samoa, and other Pacific Islands (they consider themselves the pacific rim's CHC). Washington is cool because of the diverse patient population, and the fact that it's Seattle, which is an awesome and beautiful city.

But I thought for sure I'd be staying in PHX before I saw each of the CHC's presentations, I didn't end up even ranking it in the end because there were other sites that seemed more appealing to me. Not that there's anything wrong with PHX at all, they have awesome opportunities, but other places seemed a better fit in the end.