The winner is …

I’m going to Alert Bay, BC (http://ww.alertbay.com/) for my rural placement, which was choice #3 in my rankings. I’m one of the lucky ones. Some of my friends, despite having ranked 30 different locations got placed at a random location in the province. This was the result of there being too few preceptors for students initially, a problem the faculty was able to correct only after we had all ranked our preferences.

I’m happy with my placement, although a little unsure of what to expect. It looks to be an interesting summer none-the-less.

The results are…

Last night – after I made it home from the library I found the following message in my email from the program assistant for Rural Practice concerning the summer placements:

” Hi Everyone: I’ve finally been given access to the computer location where the matching results were located. I have briefly checked the results, and expect I will be able to release them to the class as a spreadsheet attachment to an email to the class no later than 16:30 tomorrow afternoon. I do have a few questions concerning the matching results, but they won’t hold up releasing the results to the class. “

Oh – the excitement and dreaded anticipation – here’s hoping for a decent placement.

A week of big decisions

This week was a crazy one in terms of selecting a preference for the summer rural placement and for the 3rd year rotations (clerkship). The picture above is actually of the third year schedule – and if one looks closely you can see that there are 24 different variations of how one might do the rotations in the third year. In my mind it came down to a bit of debate on whether or not I wanted to do the big three first or second (the big three being paediatrics, internal medicine, and surgery). Each run consecutively for 8 weeks, back to back, and are considered to be the most intense of all the rotations done in third year. Furthermore, the experience I have during these rotations will no doubt play a critical part in my decision whether to do medicine or surgery (still undecided at this point). Doing the big three first would be intense but would happen at a time when I most excited and enthusiastic about school and would result in the easier rotations falling over the summer months. On the other hand, doing the smaller rotations first would allow me to gain a set of skills that would definitely make doing the big three easier. That is to say, I wouldn’t be as inexperienced in the hospital and this would alleviate much of the stress caused by the intensity of the longer rotations.

The decision for third year rotations was made all the more complicated by the fact that everyone had their own strategy for choosing. After talking to a number of people I ended up with a set of different theories of what the best course would be without any definite answers. This all may be a moot point because at the end of the day the actual placements are done by computer. In theory the computer draws everyone’s name at random and assigns the selections according to ranking and preference, in much the same way it was done for rural practice. Essentially, all thought and research into choosing may be for nothing if I lose the lottery.

So what to do? Myself, I chose the big three first and I hope I get it. This was based on several conversations with close friends and some late night strategy. In the end we (as a group) decided to maximize the chances of getting placed together. This is a group of people I know I get along with, that studies well together and that should help relieve stress during those times when I need it most.

Rural Placement

At the end of this year, once the dust of exams has settled, all 225 students in the second year class will be dispersed to the four corners of this province and beyond in order to complete the rural practice component of our curriculum. The Rural Practice Program will take us away from our loved ones and the comfort of homes and place us in the middle of nowhere to practice Medicine for the first time. Most of the locations are remote rural although there are also under-serviced urban communities we can select if we so choose.

The Rural and Under-served Community Practice program, as it is officially called, was first introduced in 1974 and was adopted by the Faculty of Medicine in 1997 as a permanent part of the undergraduate program. It is viewed as a “gateway” to the clinical years and is meant to expose us (the student) to a “hands-on” experience which should give an understanding of the office setting in rural Canada. This has been a highly anticipated aspect of the second year and a source of great stress lately as the deadline for ranking our choices is today.

Presently each of the students trying to rank a large number of different locations and preceptors from the area that they would most like to go to, all the way down to the area that they’d rather avoid if possible. Given that we are dealing with a group of type A personalities here, the faculty has set firm guidelines about contacting doctors outside of the program and warned the lot of us away from stalking preceptors in locations of choice. I have ranked my choices first on the basis of location, and second on the basis of timing. My preference is to go to the Yukon if possible and the reasoning is straightforward; I have friends up in the territory already and would love to see them again (I could, in essence, kill two birds with one stone)… And then there is also the incredible hiking (see picture above). The reasoning behind my choice for timing has a lot to do with optimizing my chances for getting my location of choice. At the end of the day, all of the student names and choices will be fed into the belly of a great computer which will then match each student to a location by lottery selection. Here’s to the luck of the draw!

If you like looking at rashes, may I suggest…

The Winter Blues

January was a tough month and I’m not exactly sure why. I’ve begun to realize that I don’t like writing if there isn’t something positive to say and I have to admit that there wasn’t much that has been positive over the past month. I feel as though I need to break this habit and (perhaps in a cathartic way) write of the experiences good or bad. To this end I am hoping to establish more of a routine with this blog and commit to post at least once a week – good or bad. There are three more months until the summer and lots of stories that have been fermenting in the back of mind. It’s going to be a long three months but interesting and for the first time in a long time something I am really looking forward to. I know it’s cliche, but to know that there is an end in sight and a different set up in third year (i.e. we are finally out of the classroom and into the hospital) has bouyed my spirits and infused a new joy in me.