Electives suggestions for fam med (going for McMaster)

[TripJay]

Any elective advice for someone who is looking to match family med at McMaster (or somewhere in Southern Ontario)? I've heard it's good to be diverse, but maybe some electives are better than others?

Thanks in advance!

[ralk]

21 hours ago, TripJay said:

Any elective advice for someone who is looking to match family med at McMaster (or somewhere in Southern Ontario)? I've heard it's good to be diverse, but maybe some electives are better than others?

Thanks in advance!

A few FM electives would be advisable, especially at the sites you're hoping to match to, but 2-3 is all that's really necessary. Otherwise pick electives for interest or to fill in gaps in your knowledge. They should ideally have some relevance to FM, but frankly most electives should have some relevance to FM.

[TripJay]

Thanks @ralk!

[Edict]

If you are 100% family, wouldn't just doing mainly family and a few others for diversity make more sense? Just don't do too much of any other one specialty, which could make it look like you are backing up. 

[ralk]

On 12/10/2017 at 5:13 PM, Edict said:

If you are 100% family, wouldn't just doing mainly family and a few others for diversity make more sense? Just don't do too much of any other one specialty, which could make it look like you are backing up. 

Honestly, no, loading up on FM electives wouldn't be ideal. Unlike other specialties, FM is too large for face time during electives to make much of a difference in terms of matching. Your chances of working with someone who will have a direct role in your CaRMS ranking is fairly low - too many preceptors, too many satellite residency programs, etc. This is in contrast to other specialties where electives' main advantage is showing your ability to the person or persons who will be making the final decisions in the match process.

Since FM is a generalist field, having a broad elective panel is often more useful than dedicated FM. A lot of specialties are very relevant to FM but for which we get little training in core clerkship rotations or in residency. Electives are in that sense the one opportunity to pick up knowledge in those fields.

I agree that FM gunners shouldn't overload their non-FM electives in one field to avoid the perception of backing up with FM. Likewise, if someone finds a lot of FM electives that really capture their interest, especially ones that get away from the standard urban or suburban clinics, then there's nothing wrong with doing more FM electives. However, there's no real benefit to loading up on FM electives when it comes to matching. A broad spread of electives with enough direct-FM exposure usually works out the best.

[ralk]

On 12/10/2017 at 5:13 PM, Edict said:

If you are 100% family, wouldn't just doing mainly family and a few others for diversity make more sense? Just don't do too much of any other one specialty, which could make it look like you are backing up. 

Honestly, no, loading up on FM electives wouldn't be ideal. Unlike other specialties, FM is too large for face time during electives to make much of a difference in terms of matching. Your chances of working with someone who will have a direct role in your CaRMS ranking is fairly low - too many preceptors, too many satellite residency programs, etc. This is in contrast to other specialties where electives' main advantage is showing your ability to the person or persons who will be making the final decisions in the match process.

Since FM is a generalist field, having a broad elective panel is often more useful than dedicated FM. A lot of specialties are very relevant to FM but for which we get little training in core clerkship rotations or in residency. Electives are in that sense the one opportunity to pick up knowledge in those fields.

I agree that FM gunners shouldn't overload their non-FM electives in one field to avoid the perception of backing up with FM. Likewise, if someone finds a lot of FM electives that really capture their interest, especially ones that get away from the standard urban or suburban clinics, then there's nothing wrong with doing more FM electives. However, there's no real benefit to loading up on FM electives when it comes to matching. A broad spread of electives with enough direct-FM exposure usually works out the best.

[Mithril]

For CaRMS I remember doing two FM electives, one EM, and one CTU before the CaRMS tour. All of these electives filled in the gaps for generalist knowledge and it worked out for me.

[JohnGrisham]

20 minutes ago, Mithril said:

For CaRMS I remember doing two FM electives, one EM, and one CTU before the CaRMS tour. All of these electives filled in the gaps for generalist knowledge and it worked out for me.

2x 4 week FM electives?

[Mithril]

3 hours ago, JohnGrisham said:

2x 4 week FM electives?

Yeah. And ER was also 4 weeks. CTU was 3 weeks.

[JohnGrisham]

1 hour ago, Mithril said:

Yeah. And ER was also 4 weeks. CTU was 3 weeks.

Interesting! So in total you had 12 weeks of FM pre-carms then? Assuming 4 week rural FM in year 3 too

[Mithril]

25 minutes ago, JohnGrisham said:

Interesting! So in total you had 12 weeks of FM pre-carms then? Assuming 4 week rural FM in year 3 too

Yeah, but I'm not sure what the UBC curriculum is now. Our rural was in the summer between 2nd and 3rd year. Every FM elective I had was slightly different (rural clinic/ER/maternity, urban clinic, and in-hospital integrated physiotherapy and occupational therapy focus).

I managed to get my number one choice so I must've done something right.

[JohnGrisham]

1 hour ago, Mithril said:

Yeah, but I'm not sure what the UBC curriculum is now. Our rural was in the summer between 2nd and 3rd year. Every FM elective I had was slightly different (rural clinic/ER/maternity, urban clinic, and in-hospital integrated physiotherapy and occupational therapy focus).

I managed to get my number one choice so I must've done something right.

The rural (and only FP rotation) for new  curriculum is embedded into year 3. So people have it at different times.  Tbh was surprised there wasn't an urban FP required rotation too..