Madison1979 Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 I am graduating in May 2012 and am looking for a position in emergency medicine as a new graduate. I have an elective 4 week rotation to choose and I am not allowed to repeat emergency medicine as it was a "core" elective. Pediatric emergency medicine may be an option, but I am being told to strongly consider other specialties to "get a well-rounded clinical education." I have already done a cardiology elective and will be doing an infectious disease rotation next month. My last rotation before I graduate is my undecided elective. I would like to get some feedback from others as to which would be a good elective to choose in order to: (1) gain some valuable skills that will translate to EM, and (2) stand out to potential employers as valuable experience in a new grad. I wish I would be able to do another plain ole EM rotation, but my clinical coordinator and program director have come down as not possible. Thanks for the feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted February 12, 2012 Administrator Share Posted February 12, 2012 I'm looking to work in EM, and my elective rotation is slotted to be a stint in palliative care. I guess I buy into the "well rounded" bit, and it also happens to dovetail nicely with my pre-healthcare background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stjprn Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 I would think Nephrology would be helpful, as renal patients have so many co-morbidities. Or an extra Ortho or Surgery rotation. Probably my favorite rotation, so many years ago, was on the renal team at a large teaching hospital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaston Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Stick with things that have emergent application. What is common in the ER? Chest pain: Cardiology rotation. Abdominal pain: GI rotation. Joint/bone/muscle pain: Ortho rotation. I did an Ortho Trauma rotation that was awesome. What about a Trauma Surg rotation? They consult in the ER all the time. Peds Emergency Medicine would be perfect as an elective. I'm sure EMEDPA will be able to help you with ideas. That's my 2 cents. Good luck~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Steve Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Radiology. We are constantly looking inside the human body. Might as well get as much experience at it as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fireguy Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 ortho, do a rotation elective in orthopedics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason09 Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 I would say your best bet will be ortho or trauma surgery. My 3 electives I picked during PA school was ortho, cardiology, and trauma surgery. All very valuable and helpful in the ER. If it was me I would pick trauma surgery because you get a lot of really cool experience and procedures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted February 13, 2012 Moderator Share Posted February 13, 2012 trauma surgery. hands down awesomeness. lots of procedures and icu experience. peds em is also good. I was very fortunate and got to do both. we had a lot of "selectives" which I was able to use with an em focus so for surgery I did trauma, for peds I did peds em, etc. never done a well baby check, never done an appy. I have done a lot of peds procedural sedation, put in chest tubes, etc. I think it was a fair trade off. I did some ortho in school and it wasn't very helpful because most of it was outpt based and not doing emergent reductions, etc which you get more on an em rotation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VictoriaO Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 ICU, for me hands-down the best elective, and super-relevant to EM. Put in central lines almost every day, some thoracocentesis/chest tubes, did a ton of airway, ultrasound practice, we managed a lot crashing medicine patients, learned a lot about pressors, etc. Saw all kinds of badness like GI bleeds, MI, major PEs, all flavors of shock. Plus I got to work with a PA who spent a lot of time drilling and quizzing me. My other elective was trauma at a Level 1, that was a blast, also got some good procedures, got practiced at FAST and trauma survey, did some chest tubes, got a lot of CT scan reading practice, more work with vent settings/ICP issues etc Also had a trauma PA who put me to work and made sure I didn't get lost in the med student shuffle. What I would recommend, is ask your coordinators what will give you the most hands-on experience and teaching opportunities. Some trauma rotations, ICU or Peds EM rotations the residents and fellows will always have first-dibs, and you'll be at the bottom of the food chain (unless you have a PA on staff or make friends with your resident :). Others have a PA (or a Doc) on staff who is heavily involved with teaching, and will make sure you get a good experience. That's just my 2cents, take it as you will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Febrifuge Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Sheez, for a program that insists you be "well-rounded," they seem to give you a lot of electives. I got one, plus an 8-wk preceptorship at the end. Otherwise, it was mandated: Family Med, IM, Peds, Women's Health, Surgery, ER, one elective (I did Trauma Surg, can't say enough good about it in general), then the 8-weeker and for that I did another ER. We were encouraged to either make it a "last hurrah" and do something we'd never be likely to be exposed to again, or use the opportunity to be sure of our choice of field for first jobs. I agree that Rads might be interesting, and very helpful. ID and Cards will be super helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator ventana Posted February 13, 2012 Moderator Share Posted February 13, 2012 Trauma ICU Critical Care Radiology - Plain films, CT, US Pulmonolgy Rural Health Pain Management (REALLY HELPFUL as jsut about everyone in ER has or claims pain and you can't just turn into the Candy man.....) OB/GYN - gotta deal with bleeds, and all the OB issues and not be an idiot when talking to the OB ID - never did this but would think it would be HUGE no matter what field you go into - just today I had to look up cat scratch Ds and the pathogen..... Peds - gotta know what sick and healthly look lik Cardiology - is that fib, flutter or interference? ST what? yeah and many more too - honestly unless you are a prior medic stay away from ER in the first few years - go urgent care/IM/surg/ICU/Crit care get your comfort zone established and firmly planted on the ground, then make the jump..... just my $0.02 worth.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deborah212 Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Sheez, for a program that insists you be "well-rounded," they seem to give you a lot of electives. I got one, plus an 8-wk preceptorship at the end. Otherwise, it was mandated: Family Med, IM, Peds, Women's Health, Surgery, ER, one elective (I did Trauma Surg, can't say enough good about it in general), then the 8-weeker and for that I did another ER. I think this because some schools have shorter rotations (4 week as opposed to 6) and no preceptorships, but I also wonder if the clinical "year" could be longer in different sites. My program also had 4-4 week elective rotations. Mandated rotations were hospital internal medicine (8 weeks), primary care (8 weeks), peds (4 weeks), Ob/gyn (4 weeks), surgery (4 weeks), EM (4 weeks), psych (4 weeks), and geriatrics (4 weeks). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kargiver Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Ortho, plain and simple. By the numbers, the things you are going to deal with on a daily basis in the ER world are infections, sprains, strains, fractures, pain management, and old people whose bodies are falling apart whilst they maintain thier mental faculties. Until you have done EM for a while you will be kept away from the critically ill. Learn the bread and butter of EM: Primary care with a lot of orthopedics involved. G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Febrifuge Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Deb, I think you're right. All my rotations were six weeks, and I had a full 50 weeks of 'em in all. Six required, one elective (that's 42 weeks so far, right?) plus the 8-week preceptorship. I haven't had a close look at programs with 14 months of clinicals as opposed to 12, but it probably comes out very close in terms of final hours on the wards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delco714 Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 What about hospital plastic surgery? Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madison1979 Posted February 15, 2012 Author Share Posted February 15, 2012 Thanks for your suggestions, everyone. The more I think about it, it sounds like I will be choosing between ortho or trauma surg. I'm leaning toward ortho because I feel like my msk skills are a little weak, though trauma surg does sound exciting. I am not a prior medic, but I am a registered nurse and I got very good feedback and encouragement during my EM rotation from my MD preceptors to consider EM. It was one of my strongest rotations and the one that got me the most excited every day to show up. I'm going for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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