Anesthesia Elective at UBC

[gas2012]

I'm a third year medical student in the midst of applying for electives and I need some advice!

 

I was looking at Anesthesia electives at UBC and they require a minimum of 4 weeks at the more favorable sites. I was wondering if anyone can share their experience of doing a 4 week elective at UBC in Anesthesia...would you recommend it? was it too long?....I'm not sure what the reputation of Anesthesia is at UBC and would appreciate any comments!

 

Thanks in advance!

[krgregg]

did a month there this year - picked the VGH/UBC site. You start with a week at the women's, which is mostly observational, but good learning experience and different patient population and considerations vs. standard anesthesia in the OR. then 3 weeks between VGH and UBC.

really really great experience. they schedule you with a specific preceptor each week, so you get a chance to grow with them and lots of chances to gain comfort with each other. good mix of cases between the two sites. did some cool maxillofacial stuff out at UBC, some regional and low intensity stuff there, and then some bigger cases (including thoracics!) at vgh...stuff you normally wouldn't see on a standard rotating elective (very different vs. other electives i did - the standard student "low intensity high volume days").

 

overall, a really great experience. A month also gives you a chace to attend the resident academic days and meet the residents, get their feedback on the program, etc.

 

would highly recommend the 4 weeks. the only downside is if you're from a program with less elective time, you may not have the chance to do time elsewhere you're interested in. small price to pay for a great elective.

[gas2012]

Thank you for the insightful post, krgregg! Sounds like you had a great experience and it was definitely worth it. Your post got me excited about electives and hopefully I will be able to get that 4 week one at UBC (although I'm finding the "blackout" periods at certain schools (ie. Calgary, Dal) difficult to work around...and applying for electives has become pretty frustrating)

 

Best of luck with CaRMS!