How necessary is it to have a car in clerkship?

[indecisivePremed]

Is it possible to bike to the hospitals? During clerkship for the Hamilton campus, are the rotations still primarily in Hamilton or all over the surrounding area?

[yybonn]

I know some students who have gotten through the entirety of clerkship without a car (bike, bus, uber/taxi, occasional car rental). Rotations are primarily in Hamilton but I've heard there are some sites further away like Newmarket, etc .. not sure if you get to pick those sites? 

[indecisivePremed]

Thanks! Is there some listing of all of the possible sites we could end up at? 

 

[NeuroD]

6 hours ago, indecisivePremed said:

Is it possible to bike to the hospitals? During clerkship for the Hamilton campus, are the rotations still primarily in Hamilton or all over the surrounding area?

I started biking half way through clerkship... wish I did it from the beginning. So much more convenient than driving/busing. The only sites you have to worry about are places out of town (which you can often avoid), or electives in specific locations (like if u want to ophtho in a random clinic or at the Stoney Creek urgent Care centre)

[indecisivePremed]

11 hours ago, PhD2MD said:

 places out of town (which you can often avoid)

So just to clarify, it sounds like we get some element of choice about where we are placed? That sounds great! SoBi looks like a very interesting system, I'm looking forward to trying that too. 

[NeuroD]

41 minutes ago, indecisivePremed said:

So just to clarify, it sounds like we get some element of choice about where we are placed? That sounds great! SoBi looks like a very interesting system, I'm looking forward to trying that too. 

Ya, at the very least you can pretty much bank on being in Hamilton, if not the specific hospital. Sometimes u get unlucky, but it's rare.

 

[bearded frog]

You'd have to rely on buses a lot or be a really good biker. Some times your rotations are at Juravinski on the mountain and you'd have to be dedicated to bike that every day.

[Edict]

You do get choice, but it does happen sometimes where you get placed farther away. It is possible to survive clerkship without a car if you are into biking and are selective about your hospital rankings. I'd expect to have on average one of your core rotations in an area outside of Hamilton. For some of them, if you are far away enough the school will provide housing and you just need to get to and back once.  

With that being said, it does add some degree of hastle. Theres always a few extracurriculars here and there all throughout med school that would be easier navigated if you had a car but if you are really into biking, its worth a shot.