Surgery clerkship: Which subspecialty rotations are most useful for shelf studying?

[deleted1095841]

At my school, in the surgery clerkship, we get to pick any TWO of the following to rotate in (will spend 4 weeks in each):
General surgery
hepatobiliary
surgical oncology
vascular
thoracic
urology
trauma
critical care surgery

Which of these are most useful for shelf studying?
Also, I haven't done internal medicine yet, in case that is relevant.

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[the shretiology]

Hard to say, but subspecialty-wise I’d vote trauma and crit care. You need to know how to manage and workup surgical patients above all. Trauma is tested pretty heavily so it’d be nice to get comfortable, and crit care should have lots of floor management.

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

The more accurate answer is "whichever lets you out earlier."

If you want to become skilled clinically, spend more time in clinic. If you want to become a skilled at reading vignettes and picking answers, spend more time reading vignettes and picking answers.

 

[HighwayVagabond]

This answer is probably institution specific, but in terms of having first hand exposure to the pathologies most commonly tested on the shelf, general surgery and trauma are likely your best bet.

 

[aldol16]

General surgery and trauma. Or critical care surgery depending on what falls under that umbrella at your institution.

 

[Billiam95]

Having recently taken the shelf - probably general and trauma. If breast surgery were an option, I'd probably substitute that for trauma.

 

[esob]

Trauma for sure. There was a lot of breast pathology on my exam as well, so I would probably pick that as my second choice.

 

[Dr G Oogle]

Gen surgery and trauma will probably be highest yield ( a lot of trauma is critical care so youll get that on that rotation)

 

[Gilakend]

The more accurate answer is "whichever lets you out earlier."

If you want to become skilled clinically, spend more time in clinic. If you want to become a skilled at reading vignettes and picking answers, spend more time reading vignettes and picking answers.

This is the only right answer. The best way to do well on the shelf is to hammer questions +/- books/videos/podcasts if that's your thing.