mew

I'm applying EM this year and was able to get 3 EM electives (7 weeks total). The issue is that my schedules have not been ideal- on my current elective I don't work with the same staff more than twice, and I've heard from other students that they're facing similar scheduling challenges at other sites. I know one of the criteria in the new standardized reference letters is the amount of time spent with the candidate/how many shifts worked together. How many shifts should I be working with someone before I can consider asking for a strong letter? Also, is it appropriate to ask to switch into sh

I'm really tired. I'm barely going through the motions in terms of clinical stuff. Academically I feel like I've lost any ability to learn new information, and I'm pretty sure I failed my last exam. The stakes for failing an exam at U of T are ridiculously high and faculty has confirmed on multiple occasions that they will not be doing anything to ease the load, despite the fact that our class's failure rate is double the usual rate and students have been asking for support for literally months. I'm supposed to start surgery this week and I'm so filled with dread. I don't know how to sur

We don't get any 3rd year electives, just the 14 weeks in 4th year, 2 of which are meant to be allocated for vacation(because we don't get any time off during the year save for 1 week in March) but nobody ends up taking vacation. The 2T3 class will have 2 weeks of elective time in 3rd year.

Thanks for this- I've already worked 3 shifts with this preceptor so I'll ask at the beginning of my next one so they can pay attention! This preceptor does know I'm hoping to go into emerg (we've talked about it) so I don't think it will come as a surprise request. It's 5 shifts over ~3 weeks so hopefully they will be able to see some longitudinal growth/development too!

Our EM rotation is ~4 weeks long and we do ~13-14 shifts. I have 5 shifts with the same core preceptor and the remainder of my shifts are each with a different physician. I have been getting generally strong feedback from this core preceptor and so am hoping to ask them for a reference letter but am not sure if 5 shifts would be enough for a strong letter. I have no continuity with the other docs, so I can't ask for a joint letter with someone else. I could try to pick up an extra shift or two with this preceptor if that would make a difference? Anybody have insight on EM preceptors' expectati

I guess it's probably not as efficient as it could be because I feel like I'm studying literally all the time- I'll take a few days off studying at the beginning of a rotation (mostly because I need downtime from the last exam). There's a repository of old exams/materials floating around but they're all from the early-mid 2000s so haven't been of much help, unfortunately.

I'm dreading going back to clinic on Monday. I spent my whole winter break trying to study and catch up on material/content that I'm weak on but only got through barely 10% of the stuff I wanted to. I'm so exhausted of constantly performing and trying to impress people and worrying about CaRMS and planning my career etc. I don't have mentors in med school that I can talk to and everything is so lonely and stressful to try to figure out on my own- COVID certainly hasn't helped. I'm also becoming more aware of all of the rest of life I'm missing out on- my friends outside of med are starting to

I keep getting the feedback that I'm very keen. I'm worried that this is tacitly a bad thing (like I'm overenthusiastic, or something). I've really enjoyed clerkship so far and I've been engaged out of genuine interest, and I'm just trying to be a good clerk. Is this a polite way of telling me I need to tone it down? How is feedback like this interpreted on a MSPR?

Hi all, I'm in M3. Long story short I love emerg but didn't get the chance to do any research (had a project getting started mid-M2 that we were preparing to submit to REB in March...things have been stalled since then). I do have other academic activities (e.g. I'm involved in UGME curriculum development) but don't have any posters or publications. I have lots of extracurriculars in med school but they aren't expressly related to emerg- more focused on my other advocacy interests. Is this going to be a significant barrier to matching- ie, should I be trying to get my M2 proj

Hi, I'm a 2T2, I have academic and clinical accommodations for a couple of different conditions, happy to chat over PM!

Yeah, I ruled out the call-intensive specialties like IM and all of surgery a while back for this reason

I have a medical condition that seriously requires consistent and adequate sleep. My treating physician is advising me to submit an accommodation request through my school's disability office to have me exempted from overnight call, with the expectation that this time will be made up in other ways. I'm worried about what my peers and preceptors will think. I'm wondering if anybody has had to do this before? How did you approach the topic with your preceptors? Thanks!

So we do need research but not necessarily emergency medicine research? Not that it makes a difference for me as I haven't done any research in med school yet. EDIT: I do have lots of other extracurricular activities both in and out of medical school, just no formal "scholarly" activity.

I've been interested in emerg for a while and was working with an attending to submit a REB for a research project that I was really excited about, which was supposed to get going earlier this year, but COVID has derailed those plans indefinitely. I'm supposed to start clerkship in the fall which won't leave any time for research. Are there any activities I could/should be doing in the meantime to help make myself a better emerg applicant?

There's a grand rounds being held next week on a niche surgical topic that I'm very interested in. I'd be going purely for my own learning, but as I haven't been formally invited by a staff, and I'm not on rotations, I'm not sure if it's against etiquette for me to be there. Would it be odd if I just came by myself as long as I stayed out of the way (ie sat at the back, didn't ask questions, etc)?