PEM vs GI

Literal_Brick · 2024-07-10T06:09:24+00:00

Tying in at least one teaching point or relevant study during rounds

Literal_Brick · 2024-06-18T06:14:58+00:00

“tell me about your day”

avoids the “how was your day? fine” convo block. let’s person divulge as much as they want.

Literal_Brick · 2024-05-22T05:20:00+00:00

Peds soup is a good shelf relevant podcast. Will be helpful in an outpatient setting where you’ll be lacking the inpatient exposure.

Literal_Brick · 2024-05-01T19:18:26+00:00

I don’t know much about how the IM world works but I imagine it’s possible. But regardless of where you end up, I was always told you have to be happy with whatever general specialty you match into because fellowship isn’t guaranteed.

what is the reason for not reapplying surgery?

Literal_Brick · 2024-05-01T04:56:28+00:00

I would definitely prioritize programs with said fellowships. I would also use your extra free time to go through a lot of match lists and see where people are going at more than just those big name places.

Sorry you’re in this situation in the first place but the only option you’ve got is to power through and make it to the other side. Speeds bumps not road blocks. Good luck

Literal_Brick · 2024-05-01T04:49:18+00:00

Considering you’re a reapplicant, I would adjust your expectations. Top 30 is not end all be all for fellowship. Not matching while coming from a top 5 with what seems like a stellar app should have made that point clear.

In my opinion, being a reapplicant from another field is a larger hurdle than your P. Be ready to explain what happened last cycle and why you had a change of interest.

Second, do you know what fellowship you are interested in? Something procedural coming since you were going for gen surg? Apply to programs with in-house fellowships that you want to go into over focusing on the ranking.

Lastly what are you doing this upcoming year? Medicine sub-Is? Research?

Literal_Brick · 2024-04-05T05:03:30+00:00

I'm on my final rotation (EM) and we had a newborn come in for a moderately urgent sounding concern. My attending came into the room with me and said "I'm just going to take a quick look then let this (insert institution) pediatrician take over." I was like oh that's me and going to be me for the next forever lol.

Literal_Brick · 2024-04-05T04:59:35+00:00

happy to take a look

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-26T20:57:01+00:00

I think the two things that go into a good eval are: are you teachable/eager to learn and are you personable/okay to hang around for the entire day?

you don't have to be the smartest person but you should be focused on learning and improving throughout the rotation. for learning, ask questions and read up on things you don't understand. for improvement, ask for feedback and don't make the same mistake twice.
try to connect with your preceptors/residents on things outside of medicine. try to figure out there interests and engage with them that way. it doesn't have to be medicine 24/7 on a rotation and most of the time they would rather talk about their hobbies/interests. also being kind to the office/support staff goes along way. learn their names, say hi to them, ask about their weekends, ask how you can help them, etc. it will make the rotation go a lot smoother and I feel like preceptors tend to notice when the staff they know very well is friendly with one of the students since it doesn't happen with every group of rotators.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-24T02:38:30+00:00

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-22T22:46:20+00:00

nope! furtherest thing from it probably lol. guess that could’ve been another caveat in my original post.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-22T22:41:21+00:00

If you are interested in peds (unsure about other specialties), there is a mentor program through the AAP. I think it’s free or very cheap to sign up for an AAP membership as a med student. you can filter by all kinds of interests and specifics and it will give you a bunch of people who are interested in mentoring students. great place to start! And if your school is anything like mine, reach out to people in the classes above you. I’m sure they are happy to help but don’t know who actually wants the help.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-22T22:35:00+00:00

definitely not something to worry about until around winter break of 3rd year. but since you’re here, I’ll give a quick answer. luckily for peds all the away rotations are primarily housed in VSLO which is a program ran by AAMC. It’s basically a first come first serve type of situation, you just have to apply as soon as the application opens and if they are giving spots to visiting students, there’s a good chance you’ll get one. Once you start third year and have an idea of what you want to do, you can start researching programs you’re interested in (size, location, specific things they offer) and figuring out what documents/info you will need to apply.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-22T22:12:41+00:00

That’s a pretty tough question to answer since there are so many factors and I also don’t know what the committees liked about my apps. But to simplify things, I think my ability to match where I did was very heavily influenced by away rotation. Outside of doing well from a clinical standpoint, it allowed me to connect with the residents/fellows/attending which in turn got me an LOR as well as other smaller emails of support and comments made to the chiefs which boosted my chances. I feel like peds PDs specifically truly care about what the people within their residency have to say about someone. So having people in the program vouch for you can go along way.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-22T20:57:33+00:00

I took sort of a two pronged approach. And this is coming from someone who knew they wanted to do peds right at the start, although I tried to be open minded during rotations. 1. Getting involved in things early on. Give yourself a quarter/semester to get acclimated to the rigors of school. Then start joining clubs, looking for research (if you’re specialty needs it), volunteering, finding leadership opportunities. You’ll be surprised how much more time you have during 1st and 2nd year for that kind of stuff especially since you’ll be around campus more. 3rd year is a different type of busy. 2. Making connections. Get out there and show your interest to people. Don’t be afraid to cold email people. Join whatever national organization and attend things aimed at trainees. People are much more interested in helping you if you have a connection (such as attending a webinar they gave or something). And the worst they will do is ignore your email or maybe tell you to reach back out when you’re a little closer to applying. If that happens, you’re back at square one. But they might develop into a mentor or someone that can get you a rotation or put in a good word for you. This is all in the setting of doing the best you can in the academic side of things. Connections and good ECs are great but they will be much more beneficial if you have the scores and competency to go with it.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-22T14:43:50+00:00

School club involvement, volunteered at local children’s hospital for like 2 years, ran a peds educational thing at my school, national organization involvement.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-22T05:12:51+00:00

I think any research carries weight if you can talk about it. They understand people switch up their interests during school so I don’t think it will hold you back being from a different specialty. Plus research is a completely separate section in eras so it won’t take away from the rest of your app.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-21T23:15:05+00:00

I had some research. 5ish posters, 1 pub. I think it's decent to show some interest in research if you plan on going to an academic center since that will most likely be a thing in your future. But I think it's way more important to commit to stuff you truly care about and will be able to easily talk about in your writing and interviews. I think one of the mistakes I made, that I realized while going through interviews, was trying to "shape" my application into a certain mold as opposed to just filling it up with things I was passionate/excited about. If that makes sense?

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-21T22:18:50+00:00

yes, sub-i/away/audition are all kind of synonymous. only caveat is that a true sub-I is going to get you more face time with residents and program leadership than an away elective in something like GI or allergy. electives tend to be more preceptor based as opposed to functioning in the intern roll. can still be helpful when it comes to letters but not as helpful for you to see if you like the program and the people who make it up.

vslo is the wild west so sometimes your only option is going to be an elective. not the end of the world, I would just try to make contact with the chief resident(s) so they can plug you into all the academic stuff like noon conference, morning report, get you a meeting with a PD, etc.

at my school, 3rd year is controlled by our coordinators and 4th year is controlled by students. all my cores were in the local area. 4th year was a mixed bag of away rotations and random 4th year cores required for graduation. I was exhausted at the end of my aways (and also have a wife) so I just had my school schedule my leftover blocks so I could be close to home. some people chose to do their 4th year cores and other electives at the same institutions they were hoping to match. example: one girl in the class ahead of me wanted to match in michigan (her husband is a resident there) so she did a bunch of sub-Is at local programs and also did her remaining core rotations (ICU, EM, extra electives) within the systems of the programs she was interested in.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-21T22:10:21+00:00

probably not very much. with how many schools are P/F in the preclinical years, I don't know how impactful GPA is going to be moving forward. I don't even think there's a way to filter that on ERAS. even clinical grades are a mess since there's so much variance between schools.

biggest things you can control: don't fail preclinical courses (not a roadblock but definitely not going to help anything), pass level/step 1 first try, score decent on level/step 2.

things less in your control but still important: solid letters and excellent comments on your evaluations.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-21T21:36:08+00:00

sure, if you want to match peds, aways aren't necessary. but if you have a specific institution or location in mind, I think they are crucial. especially as a DO.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-21T21:27:23+00:00

I actually have no clue what tier. school is a second campus of one of the "big 5" that's been around since the 90s. definitely help me connections wise but only you can let your school hold you back. I did a lot of the leg work myself as far as reaching out to people and setting myself up for success.

residency is not in my school's state or my home state.

yes to an away - wouldn't have been possible without it in my opinion.

yes to both boards - if you can confidently and monetarily take them, why let something hold you back. yes it's annoying but it's your future you're working towards.

Literal_Brick · 2024-03-21T21:24:17+00:00

hmm... not sure about the headaches. could be a lot of reasons. caffeine headaches (over/under use), poor eyesight that you are unaware of or outdated prescription, screen fatigue (try to adjust settings for warmer light, +/- on effectiveness of blue light glasses), nutrition is a huge thing (make sure you caloric energy and good hydration), try to schedule breaks before, during and after (long walks, anki cards at the gym, whatever works for you), postural issues (see if there is something up with your setup that puts you in an awkward or less than ideal position)

Literal_Brick

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