Struggling to Pick 3rd Year Elective

[orengiaj]

Hello,

I am a current 2nd year at an osteopathic school and I'm looking for advice.

To start off, I am not really sure what type of residency I want to end up applying for. However, I've always been interested in surgery and think it would fit my personality well. Not so sure about the lifestyle though.

Anyways, my 3rd year rotations start out with psych then I immediately have a 4-week elective. What should I do for this elective? Research? Do something I'm interested in? Try to rule something out? Etc...

Any and all advice is welcome!

-Adam

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[oingoboingo]

You could do an anesthesia elective so you will be familiar with the OR by the time you have your surgery rotation. I wouldn't do a research elective until you figure out what field you are applying to.

 

[DocWinter]

I suggest getting involved in what you think you would like QUICKLY so as to give yourself time if you find you don't like that field.
The above poster has a great idea. By doing something you are interested in you might be ruling something out, the old two birds/one stone thing.

 

[orengiaj]

Well I have shadowed a vascular surgeon in the OR so I have a tiny bit of experience there. What I am most worried about is wasting one of my elective rotations on something that will be of no benefit to me when selecting/applying to residencies.

I know that it isn't very ideal to do something that I know I might want a LOR for this early on because, to be frank, I won't be very impressive on my second rotation ever.

 

[gouqianbi]

By doing something you are interested in you might be ruling something out, the old two birds/one stone thing.

 

[redpanda]

Probably do something you might be interested in. My program had both surgical and medicine subspecialty electives. The four week rotation is divided into two 2 week blocks and you pick both subspecialties that you want to rotate in (e.g. ENT and ortho, cards and endocrine, etc.). It was specifically designed to expose the MS3 to the subspecialty with no expectation that they had taken the core clerkship yet (because that obviously can't happen for everyone early in MS3).

 

[stsa84]

What do you think you're most interested in, that is not part of the core curriculum? Do that. If you end up pursuing surgery, you'll get plenty of exposure during your 2 month rotation, and can do 4th year rotations in the field.

 

[hallowmann]

OP, I would pick something like Rads or Anesthesia, because at least Anesthesia will get you some exposure to the OR, and you might actually be able to network with surgeons and I feel like with Rads you'll be siding things that almost every doc has to look at. A lot depends on your interests though. You could also use it to try a field you might like, but won't have a core in, like EM or one of the surgical subspecialties.

It sounds like you go to my school based on your schedule, so you probably have surgery near the end of the year. Given that, I'd honestly try any other fields you might be interested in that's not a core, just to get exposure in 3rd year, that's my plan at least, rather than doing something that will mainly help you for GenSurg.

Probably do something you might be interested in. My program had both surgical and medicine subspecialty electives. The four week rotation is divided into two 2 week blocks and you pick both subspecialties that you want to rotate in (e.g. ENT and ortho, cards and endocrine, etc.). It was specifically designed to expose the MS3 to the subspecialty with no expectation that they had taken the core clerkship yet (because that obviously can't happen for everyone early in MS3).

Yeah, if OP goes to my school, they don't give us that option. All rotations must be 4 weeks long on one service. I've heard of people agreeing with their attending or hospital to classify a rotation as "IM", but for it to really be 2wks each on 2 subspecialty services, but that requires some hospital connections.

 

[TallScrubs]

Try urology. Surgical specialty, good lifestyle.