Third year rotation order

[ciestar]

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Alright, probably been talked about...however, I am at the point and find myself agonizing over what the best order to do my clerkships will be. Any advice on how to approach it? For instance, I do NOT want to do surgery... is it best to do it first and get it out of the way? I’ve also received advice saying don’t do what you think you want to go into first..

 

[Crayola227]

ironically I felt the same as you, did mine first, and that was my highest clerkship grade ever

there's no real magic algorithm here

I mostly paced mine out in such a way to front load and then be balanced every other rotation in terms of difficulty, because I thought more about burn out than any magic order, and I know front-loaded is better for me that way

plus, it was nice to sometimes leave surgery and still see the sun - that only happens if you do it in the long summer months

I kept what I thought I might have as my most desired specialties for mid-year - not too green, but not too burned out

as many will tell you, besides such considerations it doesn't matter all that much

 

[Doctor-S]

Probably don't need to overthink the rotation order because there are pros and cons to any clerkship order.

Here are some questions: What interests you the most? Any ideas? What are your goals?

More of your attention and time will be required in specialties that require a lot of work with inpatients (IM, Peds, OB/Gyn, Surgery).

FWIW ... since internal medicine provides you with a basic framework upon which to expand your medical knowledge, it is useful to complete your IM rotation early (and before surgery). On the other hand, if you do not want to do surgery, maybe get surgery out of the way first. You might consider OB/Gyn before general surgery, too. In OB/Gyn you'll become more familiar with basic surgical skills, which you can later use in surgery. Consider FM after Peds, IM and OB/Gyn. Most of the time, Psych is less time-intensive. IM and FM later might help with your step 2 review.

Try not to stress too much about clerkship order ... you'll be okay.

 

[ciestar]

Probably don't need to overthink the rotation order because there are pros and cons to any clerkship order.

Here are some questions: What interests you the most? Any ideas? What are your goals?

More of your attention and time will be required in specialties that require a lot of work with inpatients (IM, Peds, OB/Gyn, Surgery).

FWIW ... since internal medicine provides you with a basic framework upon which to expand your medical knowledge, it is useful to complete your IM rotation early (and before surgery). On the other hand, if you do not want to do surgery, maybe get surgery out of the way first. You might consider OB/Gyn before general surgery, too. In OB/Gyn you'll become more familiar with basic surgical skills, which you can later use in surgery. Consider FM after Peds, IM and OB/Gyn. Most of the time, Psych is less time-intensive. IM and FM later might help with your step 2 review.

Try not to stress too much about clerkship order ... you'll be okay.

I am most interested in Peds and Psych right now.

I was actually told that by an MS4 regarding IM and Step 2. It wasn’t something I had considered.

EDIT: my school gives us grids and we rank them based on preferences. I have 16 potential schedules to work with.

 

[philzaloe]

I started on Medicine and found that incredibly helpful. In my third year, medicine was the only rotation in which attendings/residents sat down and taught me how to write a note and present. I can't imagine starting other rotations without having that initial training (although a surgical note and presentation is much more abbreviated, I found it helpful to know what a full note/presentation looked like and then pared it down to suit what my surgery residents preferred). Medicine can also be a bit tedious and pedantic at times - though I loved all the extra time teaching - but it's a lot easier to enjoy that at the start of third year than at the end, when you're invariably burnt out and just itching to go home at the end of the day.

I also knew I didn't want to do surgery, so I saved that for my last rotation. The surgery shelf is a hodge-podge of random material so it helped to have seen all the previous rotations beforehand. Plus, you apply for aways before your last rotation is over, so I wanted to see everything I was more likely to apply into before the away rotation deadlines came. What if I fell in love with peds and wanted to do an away, but I had saved that for my last rotation? It'd be a bit harder to secure the away rotations I wanted.

Of course, ending on IM would be the best preparation for Step 2. Ending on surgery was still helpful for Step, though I probably spent two more weeks studying for step 2 than my friends who ended on IM did.

 

[Spica]

There are so many pros and cons to each order of rotations, it's really difficult to figure which one is the best (probably because neither is). It highly depends on what each rotation is like at your school. Surgery can be brutal and demoralizing as a first rotation and at my school we do a lot of clerkship assignments in IM so it would have been a difficult one to start with as well. So ask the 4th years at your school about the specifics of each rotation. In the end, it doesn't matter very much.

Don't do what you want to go into as a first rotation is probably the most universal advice. Also try to rotate with friends so that you guys can have similar schedules and can support each other. 🙂

 

[mvenus929]

I started on Medicine and found that incredibly helpful. In my third year, medicine was the only rotation in which attendings/residents sat down and taught me how to write a note and present. I can't imagine starting other rotations without having that initial training (although a surgical note and presentation is much more abbreviated, I found it helpful to know what a full note/presentation looked like and then pared it down to suit what my surgery residents preferred).

Variable by school, so you should talk to the third and fourth years at your school. Based on the intensive focus I had to give our med students throughout the year to do a good presentation and note (especially an assessment), I'd say internal med didn't do a great job for our students, and most of them learn it better on peds.

 

[Crayola227]

Variable by school, so you should talk to the third and fourth years at your school. Based on the intensive focus I had to give our med students throughout the year to do a good presentation and note (especially an assessment), I'd say internal med didn't do a great job for our students, and most of them learn it better on peds.

I'll second that it was better this way at my school as well. And I went in the opposite direction of Peds.

So it's also a lesson that you should never disregard what you might learn on a clerkship in making you a future physician.

Talking to peers ahead is one of the best ideas.

 

[Crayola227]

This is the best thing. Gather a bunch of points to consider and figure out which will apply to you. That's what I did with all the tips and pointers I could gather when I made my schedule.