Visiting clerkships, Step 1, and Placement

[Apply Pressure]

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Hi all,

I've been corresponding with a visiting clerkships coordinator at a university hospital about doing an away-rotation in internal medicine or medicine subspecialty. During our discussion, I brought up step I scores and whether there was a minimum cut-off in order to participate. The response was this:

"We do not have a minimum score that we require. Step 1 scores are used as a tool when making placements"

My questions are as follows:

1) What exactly does this mean? Is this saying that if I'm on the lower-end of the step 1 spectrum that I'm doomed to rotate at one of their affiliate hospitals and/or in an undesirable elective and/or with less prominent faculty/physicians? I definitely appreciate replies from anyone who is familiar with this terminology or knows how these departments function.

2) This program is okay with submission of either an NBME score report or a letter from the dean of our medical school indicating successful completion of Step 1.

a) Given this information, how is it possible that they use Step 1 score to make placements but then are okay with a letter that only states whether I passed or not?

b) What would you do if you were in my position? Now that I've brought up the issue to the coordinator, do you feel that I need to submit the NBME report, or should I just send the dean's letter with my pass status and see if they make an issue about it?

Thanks for the help.

 

[John Deere Gree]

If you really want to do a rotation there, then submit the paperwork and see what happens. I think you're making a bigger deal out of it then you should. If you get sent to an "affiliate hospitals and/or in an undesirable elective and/or with less prominent faculty/physicians" you can always decline.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

"We do not have a minimum score that we require. Step 1 scores are used as a tool when making placements"

This is a legally designed answer that says nothing. They might use your USMLE score, or might not. They don't want to set a minimum, for fear that some otherwise "perfect candidate" with a lower score might appear.