What 4th year electives are you going to choose?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Y

Ypo.

Full Member
10+ Year Member
7+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2004
Messages
7,250
Reaction score
6
What 4th year electives are you planning on taking?
Members don't see this ad.
 
Depends on what residency you are applying for. But if you want a laid back 4th year you cant go wrong with Anesthesiology, Radiology, Pathology and Psychiatry. Some people even do a month of research and international rotations. Just have fun cause you are going to look back next year and wish you had slept more.
 
Well, I was hoping this thread would be be useful for other people and not just me.

But I'm weighing between internal and family. I'm not looking for the easiest 4th year; I'm looking for what would best prepare me for internship.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
We have so many requirements during our 4th year, my elective time will consist of a couple audition aways, then there's only a couple months left to play with. I'm thinking maybe radiology and an international elective.
 
Ypo. said:
What 4th year electives are you planning on taking?
Click to expand...

I think this is highly dependent on what your intended specialty is, and also on how much 'free time' your school allows you in MS4 and what their policies are. At my school we have two 'guaranteed electives' that you can get in July and August, since it's so important for people NOT going into one of the 3rd year specialties. For me these will be 1) Anatomic Pathology and 2) Radiation Oncology so that I can make a final decision on what specialty to do. The other electives I suppose will be based on that decision (also in the differential are psychiatry and pediatrics).
 
akpete said:
We have so many requirements during our 4th year, my elective time will consist of a couple audition aways, then there's only a couple months left to play with. I'm thinking maybe radiology and an international elective.
Click to expand...

Seriously. They really need to change some of their stupid requirements.

I plan to do an away elective in ortho somewhere I want to go and an away elective in London in something easy.

I may do an elective in endocrinology or rheumatology. I like both, but not enough to want to specialize in them. I've just liked them historically since college.
 
Ashers said:
Seriously. They really need to change some of their stupid requirements.

I plan to do an away elective in ortho somewhere I want to go and an away elective in London in something easy.

I may do an elective in endocrinology or rheumatology. I like both, but not enough to want to specialize in them. I've just liked them historically since college.
Click to expand...

It's funny how similar our interests are. I also enjoy endocrinology and rheumatology. If I had to do medicine or peds instead of surgery, I'd probably go into one of those subspecialties.
 
Ypo. said:
What 4th year electives are you planning on taking?
Click to expand...

REI, SICU, Neonatology, and a couple audition rotations. Sub-Is will be gen surg and outpt gyn.
 
I haven't even started thinking about it yet. I want to go into radiology, so I guess I'll be doing radiology electives. My school gives 12 weeks of away elective time, so I'll need to think about where to do those.
 
I will be going into neurosurg. I have 11 MS4 blocks, two of which will be taken by leftover 3rd year classes (I started a month late and had a "hole" for one month). That leaves me with 9 empty months: SICU or burns, IM SubI, Neurosurg at home, 2 away Neurosurgs, Radiology, Anesthesiology, and probably leaving one month empty to study for step 2/sleep.

Acute care (aka SICU/Burns) and SubI are required. My neuro will have been in 3rd year. Between my Nsurg electives and my leftover MS3 courses, I will not have much room to blow off.
 
Probably will end up being this:
1) In-house high-risk OB
2) Two or three away rotations OB/GYN (hoping for one international)
3) Advanced physical diagnosis (old-time doc who is brilliant at physical exam)
4) Probably a Rads rotation so I can study for Step II

Beyond that? I have no idea.
 
I want to do IM, and so I'm planning on a MICU month in Feb or March, after all of the interns have met their procedure quotas. I've heard that's the best way to get to try your hand at stuff.
I also want to do a radiology month, not to slack (though it doesn't hurt) but because the only image that I can even orient myself to is the chest film.
And finally, I think my last elective will be Derm. I do NOT want to pop pimples but it's like radiology-I really suck at it and could use extra practice, especially since family docs and internists are the ones treating that wierd rash as the patient waits six months for the real Derm appointment.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
like t33sg1rl, i am going to do radiology & derm b/c i think it would be helpful for most areas of medicine. i may also do infectious disease and cardiology for the same reasons.
 
When I was an MS-IV, I broke my rotations down into one of three categories:

(1) Helpful for internship prep, directly related to my chosen field
G Surg/trauma sub-I, CT Surg sub-I, Plastics

(2) Helpful for internship prep, not directly related to my chosen field
Nephrology, Rads

(3) Easy/cush so I could travel and relax
Research
 
im surprised that alot of schools dont make radiology a required rotation. during our 4th year we must do rads and EM. but im also surprised that my own school doesnt require neuro, as so many other schools do. weird!

im trying to set up psycho-onc rotation. thats the coolest elective on my list.
 
Ypo. said:
Well, I was hoping this thread would be be useful for other people and not just me.

But I'm weighing between internal and family. I'm not looking for the easiest 4th year; I'm looking for what would best prepare me for internship.
Click to expand...

I'm going into family and heres what I did/will be doing this year to help prep for intern year

1) Cardiology
2) ER
3) Nephrology (probably best choice I ever made. My comfort in dealing with inpatients went through the roof)
4) Radiology good mix of usefullness and time off😀

The rest of my rotations are either required, Sub Is, or slack off rotations.
 
Going into Anesthesiology, so I'm considering:

Cardiology
Pulmonary Medicine
Anesthesiology Research
Anesthesiology Sub-I
MICU
 
Planning on either Peds or Med/Peds:

First two will be hard ones:
Peds ICU SubI OR Peds Hem/Onc
Medicine SubI

Last two will be chill:
Dermatology
Rads or Anesthesia
 
Not to divert the thread but...

Have you ever listened to any finacial speakers who repeatedly talk about the benefit of investing early. Well, I like to think of fourth year as your chance to invest in the ol ' sleep fund. You should be storing away hours and hours of sleep before your go into sleep debt your intern year. 😴Same goes for drinks with umbrellas in them.

You fourth years should be like some rare exotic animal. You think you see one out of the corner of your eye at the hospital, but when you turn to look it was never really there.
 
Anybody have advice on choosing away rotations? How/why did you choose where to go?
 
Third year we have the following req's: Internal Med, Peds, Family, Neuro, Psych, Surg, ob/gyn, and one elective (which you can also take off as vacation and push into 4th year)

Fourth year we have req: ER, Ambulatory, and a Sub-I in a primary care field. Then we have 5 (or 6 if you took your month in 3rd as vacation) electives. This leaves you with 3 (or 2) months of true time off. The only thing about electives is that you can't do more than 3 in one given field. So you can't do 5 straight months of surgery electives. Most people I know will do 2-3 in whatever field they want to go into and then do Rads, Path, Derm, research to fill out their year.

Personally I wan't to do Rads and Path because those are things that everybody needs to know and that way you may be able to look at films/reports with more than just a semi-intelligent look on your face. Of course I will like the cushy hours as well.

My fourth year is shaping up a little bit differently though because I took off my Family Med and elective month of 3rd year as maternity leave. Therefore I will have only one month off as vacation during 4th year.
 
Ypo. said:
Well, I was hoping this thread would be be useful for other people and not just me.

But I'm weighing between internal and family. I'm not looking for the easiest 4th year; I'm looking for what would best prepare me for internship.
Click to expand...

If you're interested in FM or IM, then it might be best to choose some rotations that will make you a little more well rounded. I'd choose an ICU month (medicial, surgical, whatever), derm, rads, optho, neuro, etc. That way, you hone basic exam skills such as a proper neuro exam, eye exam, etc. I did another two weeks of rads my fourth year and I think it REALLY helped me along with CXR's - which is super important for FM or IM.

Just my opinion.
 
Ypo. said:
I'm looking for what would best prepare me for internship.
Click to expand...

Blade28 said:
When I was an MS-IV, I broke my rotations down into one of three categories:

(1) Helpful for internship prep, directly related to my chosen field

(2) Helpful for internship prep, not directly related to my chosen field

(3) Easy/cush so I could travel and relax
Click to expand...

Ypo, I understand what you're saying. I thought the same thing, and since I'm going into a subspecialty, I wanted things that I wouldn't learn during residency, but that would be helpful. I divided them a lot like Blade, as follows:
1) Women's health (yep, that was it)
2) Pediatric Urology, ER (although that's both 2 and 3, really)
3) Research, Transfusion Medicine, 3 months of vacation
and then 4) Requireds! Med AI, Geriatrics Inpt

It was a good mix, and no residency director has had anything to say about the lack of OB/GYN in my fourth year. I figure that's what residency is for, no need to fill my fourth year with it. Instead, I hang out at the VA, with the old men. Nothing like a little balance in your life. 🙂
 
dancinjenn said:
Personally I want to do Rads and Path because those are things that everybody needs to know and that way you may be able to look at films/reports with more than just a semi-intelligent look on your face.
Click to expand...

Path? Really? I would not think this would be an important one, unless you are planning on going into path.

Does anyone else care to comment on this? I mean, I have not been pimped on a single path question this whole year. It's like I completely wasted a year of my life learning Robbins!
 
Ypo. said:
Path? Really? I would not think this would be an important one, unless you are planning on going into path.

Does anyone else care to comment on this? I mean, I have not been pimped on a single path question this whole year. It's like I completely wasted a year of my life learning Robbins!
Click to expand...


My group of fellow med students put it this way. Yes you will get reports on what, how big, cell type, etc. But it may be helpful for you to remember a little more than "it could originate in the ???" or "now, anatomically that would be right beside ??? so it may have mets to ???" I guess I liked anatomy and pathology as well, and would like to go into something with a surgical aspect...so it is probably more relevant there.
 
I took a path elective last year...I thought it was interesting and definitely cush. The residents' lifestyles are SO much nicer than their peers in other fields.

However, I didn't really learn much that seems that applicable to whatever I'll be doing in the future. I guess for a surgeon it helps to see what happens to that specimen after you cut it out (mostly so you can understand why it's taking so #%! long to get the path back for that patient!). Also, it's a review of the weird zebra stuff for the medicine/pedi folks (after all, all the weird tumors and Bx results eventually end up in path, right?).

Mostly it was just a chill, easy month, though. The only residents I ever saw take 2 hour lunches. Starting at 10:30-11AM.
 
Ypo. said:
Path? Really? I would not think this would be an important one, unless you are planning on going into path.

Does anyone else care to comment on this? I mean, I have not been pimped on a single path question this whole year. It's like I completely wasted a year of my life learning Robbins!
Click to expand...

Speaking as a pathologist... Rotating in pathology is not important for the review of pathology and histology. I (as would be expected by my choice of specialty) think they are incredibly important and the basis for all medicine, but I understand that many docs don't find it very interesting and are more interested in the clinical aspects of medicine.

However, I think that rotating in pathology is critical because every physician in the hospital relies on pathology and needs to have a basic understanding of how the specialty works. If I had a nickel for every time a resident has asked if the results would be ready the day after the biopsy, I'd be a much wealthier resident. When I explain to residents that the tissue must be processed I receive the blankest of stares. The best, though, involved trying to give preliminary results on a poorly differentiated carcinoma and having a resident ask me to just slap on a cancer stain that will reveal what it is.

There are so many other daily interactions that would run much smoother (reviewing clinical indications for transfusion, the limits of what an autopsy can reveal, etc.) if clinicians had a basic understanding of pathology. I think its just poor medicine for a clinician to rely so heavily on pathologists for consulation and then not have a basic understanding of the services they provide.
 
Ziehl-Nielsen said:
However, I think that rotating in pathology is critical because every physician in the hospital relies on pathology and needs to have a basic understanding of how the specialty works. If I had a nickel for every time a resident has asked if the results would be ready the day after the biopsy, I'd be a much wealthier resident. When I explain to residents that the tissue must be processed I receive the blankest of stares. The best, though, involved trying to give preliminary results on a poorly differentiated carcinoma and having a resident ask me to just slap on a cancer stain that will reveal what it is.

There are so many other daily interactions that would run much smoother (reviewing clinical indications for transfusion, the limits of what an autopsy can reveal, etc.) if clinicians had a basic understanding of pathology. I think its just poor medicine for a clinician to rely so heavily on pathologists for consulation and then not have a basic understanding of the services they provide.
Click to expand...

Can't most of this be found out simply by spending a little time with a pathologist, though? My problem is that I have limited time for electives, and I can't see doing a whole month of path. FYI, I don't think path is boring and am actually pretty good at it having studied Robbins like crazy.

I really wish our school let us do two week rotations. 🙁
 
The tough thing is fitting so many things in. As pathologists we take care of our anatomic pathology duties, prepare tumor boards, perform FNA's, interpret cytology specimens, perform autopsies, and oversee the blood bank, clinical chemistry lab, and microbiology lab. That's a lot of stuff to see by spending some time with a pathologist.

The people who benefit most, in my opinion, are the transitional interns who do a month path elective. All of them have said that it cleared up so many questions they had as residents who were taking care of patients and relying on pathology. I realize that not everybody has this opportunity and the only time for many is during the 4th year.
 
Thanks for the info.
 
A great 4th year elective that isn't mentioned here yet is PM&R.

My musculoskeletal exam skills went from total crap to stronger than many attendings in other fields. It was also nice and chill.

I also did Anesthesia, Pain, SICU, and 2 months of research. All recommended. I have family med (mandatory, put it off as long as possible) and Rads (abroad) coming up.
 
lord_jeebus said:
A great 4th year elective that isn't mentioned here yet is PM&R.

My musculoskeletal exam skills went from total crap to stronger than many attendings in other fields. It was also nice and chill.

I also did Anesthesia, Pain, SICU, and 2 months of research. All recommended. I have family med (mandatory, put it off as long as possible) and Rads (abroad) coming up.
Click to expand...

Mind if I ask what you are planning going into?
 
Does anyone have any suggestions for surgical AIs to take if going into ophtho? I am thinking plastics and either ENT or neurosurg. (I was advised to not do ophtho at my school since there is no ophtho residency program here). If you have advice on other electives that would be appreciated too.
 
IM Sub-I, ID elective, neurosurg elective, nephrology elective, diagnostic radiology, anesthesiology, 4-6wks to bitch slap Step 2.

going into Internal Medicine.
 
Arrr!!!

Still trying to decide between nephrology and cardiology. We get cardiology exposure in residency but not nephrology.
 
Still trying to figure out what to squeeze in my last 3 blocks...going into neuro...

My main issue is whether or not to do a MICU/SICU month...I'm scheduled for SICU next month. Or whether neurosurg would be better...or neuro-ICU...I don't know if a 4th year should try to do all of them at the very end! Or they would let me spend some time in neuro-ophtho...or cards...I want to be prepared for both neuro and for my prelim medicine year, so it's a dilemma!

Any ideas? I've fit in radiology and derm so far, among others.

Oh, I forgot EM, or an abroad rotation (probably ID). Too much, not enough time...and most residents say I should just try to sleep!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
4th year SUB I question
Replies
0
Views
2K
DrPrincessMe
D
Mariam Amir
Are Canadian electives accepted in United States?
Replies
3
Views
2K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
M
3rd year elective at dream program or other programs?
Replies
2
Views
1K
Powdermonkey
Powdermonkey
Some_one
Clinical electives for international medical students
Replies
3
Views
2K
massive1
M
1
Is it possible to do my rotations in a different country? (4th year, live in Israel and want to move to US or UK)
Replies
2
Views
4K
Clerkships
C
Top