What to do in the summer

[16cwl1]

I'm a MS1 at UofT and I plan on doing emerg in the future. To be specific, I'm planning on matching to Toronto family med and then doing the practice eligibility route for emerg. My main priority is location so I can't really budge on Toronto. I was told that family med here is pretty competitive to match to so I was wondering what I should be doing in the summer to maximize my chances of matching? 

 

EDIT: I'm also OK with going to Hamilton for Mac and Bowmanville for Queen's as well

[shikimate]

You could consider doing one of those 4-6 week "rural" elective. I found it a great clinical exposure before clerkship. In the rural setting FM does so much and I got to see and do an incredible amount of fun stuff (and few sweat inducing things too!) that I'd never find in urban outpatient setting.

[16cwl1]

4 hours ago, shikimate said:

You could consider doing one of those 4-6 week "rural" elective. I found it a great clinical exposure before clerkship. In the rural setting FM does so much and I got to see and do an incredible amount of fun stuff (and few sweat inducing things too!) that I'd never find in urban outpatient setting.

That sounds interesting! Would you be able to provide a link for this? I managed to find this but I'm not sure if this is what you were referring to. Is it more of a shadowing experience or would it involve "clerks" being involved in patient care? I just finished first year so I'm not sure how comfortable I would be doing anything beyond shadowing at this point. 

[robclem21]

15 hours ago, 16cwl1 said:

I'm a MS1 at UofT and I plan on doing emerg in the future. To be specific, I'm planning on matching to Toronto family med and then doing the practice eligibility route for emerg. My main priority is location so I can't really budge on Toronto. I was told that family med here is pretty competitive to match to so I was wondering what I should be doing in the summer to maximize my chances of matching? 

 

EDIT: I'm also OK with going to Hamilton for Mac and Bowmanville for Queen's as well

I think family medicine is competitive in the sense that Toronto is popular enough that it typically requires you to be keen on family medicine and to have some dedicated interest to it (either electives or extra curriculars or detailed plan for practice). It can however be tough to match if your CV looks like 95% ENT/Surgery and then you happen to throw an application to back-up with family medicine. Compared to most specialties it is still not very competitive and should be fairly easy to match if it's your first choice specialty.

I would enjoy your summers. As others have suggested, I know colleagues who have done some summer rural ED or unofficial research/peds electives for 3-4 weeks and have enjoyed it. Don't feel guilty about relaxing and traveling and enjoying your time off though. Clerkship is a grind and can wear you down without much relief. Also, there are many ways to show interest in family medicine during clerkship and the academic year without having to push yourself too much during the summer.

[jb24]

Matching FM is not competitive, enjoy your summers. Just work hard on your rotations later on and get really good letters to be competitive for your location, but tbh CARMS is a lot of randomness and it will boil down to luck. 

[Edict]

FM at Toronto would probably require that you actually want it first choice, but it isn't that competitive. I would say, especially if you are from UofT, you really just need to not have weird red flags which I am sure you don't. You'll be fine, don't sweat it. 

[shikimate]

Yeah ROMP is one of the programs.  Don't worry about your skill, this is all about being exposed to the clinical setting without the pressure of CARMS. The more you see the better. You'll be amazed how fast your skills progress in 4 weeks. For example, at first I excised skin lesion under supervision, then at the end I could do one on my own. 

Also it's low pressure and should be fun. Some of my classmates even went on fishing/hunting trips with their attending on the weekend. I really enjoyed exploring the small town in the summer.

14 hours ago, 16cwl1 said:

That sounds interesting! Would you be able to provide a link for this? I managed to find this but I'm not sure if this is what you were referring to. Is it more of a shadowing experience or would it involve "clerks" being involved in patient care? I just finished first year so I'm not sure how comfortable I would be doing anything beyond shadowing at this point.