Help with deciding between electives

[unknownuser]

Currently a med 3 choosing electives for next year and I want to apply for the 5 year EM residency program next year.

Curious to know which one would be better to do, two weeks in public health or with EMS? They both sound super interesting but I wont have the ability to do both unfortunately.

Thoughts?

 

Thanks!

[bearded frog]

If you're goals with the electives are just to "somehow improve my CaRMS app for EM" then it depends on what the rest of your app looks like. With public health it depends on what you're actually doing. You might be able to get a LOR from an MD, which is unlikely for the EMS rotation, if you're lacking in that domain. However if you're just in an office somewhere that's less valuable an experience vs working in the community with underserved populations, if that's what the elective is, which has more bearing on EM, and talking about the relationship with under-served/at-risk populations with the ED and understanding the barriers they face, etc. EMS obviously is relevant to EM, especially if you focus on things like the logistics of EMS within the ED, and you can talk about a better understanding about relationship between ED and EMS in interviews etc.

So if they both are relevant to the EM experience, it depends on which aspect you think would be a better asset to your learning, and secondarily to you talk about at interviews.