Boulder Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 All right team, I need a little advice with elective selection- Hoping to work ER and eventually rural ER after graduation. Two of my electives are already determined, one is a rural ER rotation and the other is an international primary care rotation. I have two more electives I need filled, and I have it narrowed down to the following: Trauma surgery Cardiology Cardiothoracic surgery Orthopedics Medical intensive care Radiology Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boulder Posted May 7, 2013 Author Share Posted May 7, 2013 All right team, I need a little advice with elective selection- Hoping to work ER and eventually rural ER after graduation. Two of my electives are already determined, one is a rural ER rotation and the other is an international primary care rotation. I have two more electives I need filled, and I have it narrowed down to the following: Trauma surgery Cardiology Cardiothoracic surgery Orthopedics Medical intensive care Radiology Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boulder Posted May 7, 2013 Author Share Posted May 7, 2013 All right team, I need a little advice with elective selection- Hoping to work ER and eventually rural ER after graduation. Two of my electives are already determined, one is a rural ER rotation and the other is an international primary care rotation. I have two more electives I need filled, and I have it narrowed down to the following: Trauma surgery Cardiology Cardiothoracic surgery Orthopedics Medical intensive care Radiology Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UGoLong Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 I don't know what your fixed rotations are but, if you don't already have ortho, that would be a good background for the ER. I think that CT surgery and radiology would be a stretch as far as helping you with an ER job. The others all have some advantages. The final point is that I thought I knew what I wanted to do before rotations. I learned quite a bit from rotations, not the least of which is what I really enjoyed doing. Starting out, I thought ER (I am a paramedic), family practice, or internal medicine. I turned away from ER when I noted how much I liked having a long term relationship with patients. Family practice kept me locked in an office going from room to room to room to... you get the picture. I ultimately ending up in a subspecialty of internal med because of the relationship issue and the chance to get around during the day between hospitals and offices. I'm not saying that that life is for everyone, but every rotation taught me what I either liked or didn't like so much. So, keep your options open would be my advice. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UGoLong Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 I don't know what your fixed rotations are but, if you don't already have ortho, that would be a good background for the ER. I think that CT surgery and radiology would be a stretch as far as helping you with an ER job. The others all have some advantages. The final point is that I thought I knew what I wanted to do before rotations. I learned quite a bit from rotations, not the least of which is what I really enjoyed doing. Starting out, I thought ER (I am a paramedic), family practice, or internal medicine. I turned away from ER when I noted how much I liked having a long term relationship with patients. Family practice kept me locked in an office going from room to room to room to... you get the picture. I ultimately ending up in a subspecialty of internal med because of the relationship issue and the chance to get around during the day between hospitals and offices. I'm not saying that that life is for everyone, but every rotation taught me what I either liked or didn't like so much. So, keep your options open would be my advice. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UGoLong Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 I don't know what your fixed rotations are but, if you don't already have ortho, that would be a good background for the ER. I think that CT surgery and radiology would be a stretch as far as helping you with an ER job. The others all have some advantages. The final point is that I thought I knew what I wanted to do before rotations. I learned quite a bit from rotations, not the least of which is what I really enjoyed doing. Starting out, I thought ER (I am a paramedic), family practice, or internal medicine. I turned away from ER when I noted how much I liked having a long term relationship with patients. Family practice kept me locked in an office going from room to room to room to... you get the picture. I ultimately ending up in a subspecialty of internal med because of the relationship issue and the chance to get around during the day between hospitals and offices. I'm not saying that that life is for everyone, but every rotation taught me what I either liked or didn't like so much. So, keep your options open would be my advice. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
med218 Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Not sure how rural EM you're looking to go after school, but prior to PA school I was on a critical care team transporting patients back to our level 1 trauma center and many rural EDs we went to were staffed on nights with solo PA coverage. In that setting you would really need to feel comfortable with the really sick patients and I might recommend trauma and critical care medicine for more exposure to these types of patients, but I agree ortho is definitely a good one to have for ED as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
med218 Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Not sure how rural EM you're looking to go after school, but prior to PA school I was on a critical care team transporting patients back to our level 1 trauma center and many rural EDs we went to were staffed on nights with solo PA coverage. In that setting you would really need to feel comfortable with the really sick patients and I might recommend trauma and critical care medicine for more exposure to these types of patients, but I agree ortho is definitely a good one to have for ED as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
med218 Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Not sure how rural EM you're looking to go after school, but prior to PA school I was on a critical care team transporting patients back to our level 1 trauma center and many rural EDs we went to were staffed on nights with solo PA coverage. In that setting you would really need to feel comfortable with the really sick patients and I might recommend trauma and critical care medicine for more exposure to these types of patients, but I agree ortho is definitely a good one to have for ED as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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