when to do em clerkship?

[scrappy]

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hi all,

i'm a nascent m3 about to begin rotations and i have a strong interest in em as a career bc i feel it is a good match for my personality. em is required for us, but not possible until 4th year unless you do some fanagling (is that a word?) so anyway, i was wondering what you guys thought about that. is 4th year (to begin late july 2005) too late to do em for the first time? or is it more advantageous to switch it out with, say, neuro (required m3 year), or something?

also, what kinds of things do i need to be doing now and during my third year to prepare myself for applying to em residencies?

thanks!

 

[Seaglass]

You should do EM after most of your core rotations, certainly after peds and IM. IMHO July is a little late because that's valuable time, and if you don't like EM then you should really be doing something else during that month. I did my first EM rotation in May of my 3rd year and a second during Oct. of 4th year. I was still able to get a letter from the Oct rotation.

As far as other things to do - try to do well on your medicine rotation as a lot of what we do in the ED is medicine.

 

[dchristismi]

Hi,
I was in your shoes last year, as my institution wouldn't let us switch things around. It's now July, and I'm finishing up my first EM rotation... Definitely do all your core clerkships first, try to do well, and do a month of EM as soon as you can. When you get closer to 4th year, start thinking about externships - you can always cancel them, but many fill very early. In any case, you may very well fall in love with some other specialty over the course of 3rd year, but it's hard to really know until you actually try it.

By my second shift, I knew I'd found my field. Good luck in finding yours.
Danielle

 

[drcrusher]

For the ER residents, what electives would you guys suggest doing during 4th year?

 

[Seaglass]

Nothing ER related. Something fun.