Anesthesiology Electives

[JPicasso]

Long time lurker, first time caller/poster. I'm currently in the middle of 3rd year and just finished my anesthesiology rotation. Totally made me switch my mind and want to pursue it.

 

I was hoping some people would be able to give me some insight into how I should plan my 4th year electives with respect to CaRMS?

 

Also, if anyone knows how many electives to do/where to do them?

 

Someone told me that half of my electives should be in anesthesiology and I should venture to places outside of Ontario.

 

Any guidance at all would be most appreciated.

[A-Stark]

Best to do at least 6-8 weeks of anesthesia and split the rest of the time with stuff like IM/ICU, surgery, emerg.

[kinemed]

As above, I would suggest at least 6 weeks in anesthesia. If you're committed to anesthesia, or planning on backing up with family (vs. another specialty), I would suggest 8 weeks pre-CaRMS. I loaded my anesthesia electives pre-CaRMS because I wanted all/most of my letters to be from anesthesia. Some people suggest doing an elective in a school you plan to rank highly right before interviews. I think it might have limited effect in some places as the chances of working with someone on the selection committee or who interviews you might be small (depending on the site and selection committee structure). Other good electives would be in ICU/PICU/ICU, emerg, chronic pain, palliative care.

 

As for locations, it's worth doing a least one elective away (outside of ON). Not only will it give you exposure to working in different locations, it shows that you're not focused on staying in Ontario (though who knows if they really care). The best places to do electives are sites where you would work with a single preceptor for most of the time - easier to get a strong reference letter.

 

In Toronto and Ottawa you will typically be shuffled from staff to staff every day. Mac and Dal assign you to a single preceptor for the length of your elective. I did an elective at the Ottawa Heart Institute and would highly suggest it (not sure if open to non-Ottawa students) - sick patients, lots of procedures, lots of drugs you don't use routinely in normal ORs, and fewer staff so I was able to shuffle things and work with some multiple times. I can't comment from personal experience on electives in other locations. Difficult to get electives at Queen's and UBC. Some less than stellar comments about electives in Calgary.

 

The CFMS has an elective database that might have some more info. http://www.cfms.org/resources/carms-interview-database-4.html

[teleskiier]

Don't worry if you're late to the game. I've heard of people matching to anesthesia with as little as 2 weeks of anesthesia electives and 2 weeks of ICU.

 

If you can, I agree that 6+ weeks of anesthesia is ideal. I did my first elective in Winnipeg and can't say enough good things about it. Their program is excellent and they are more teaching-oriented than any other place I visited. I did a community rotation in BC just before Carms and I found that I had a lot of independence; I suspect this would be the case at most smaller centres.

 

Make a good impression on your electives by showing up early and setting up the room, reading around patients/cases the night before, doing call, being nice to OR team/nurses/admin staff.

 

A lot of programs value high performance in non-anesthesia rotations. I found EM, ICU, and cardiology electives very helpful. The other suggestions listed are good ones. Also consider resp, ENT, trauma surgery, thoracics. Nice thing about anesthesia is that many other specialties are relevant.

 

Good luck! (And apply for electives early!)

[JPicasso]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

Much appreciated.

[synch]

I'd like to add to this that I did only two weeks of anaesthesia electives, and those weeks were at my home school. I ended up with several anaesthesia interviews (in fact, I got an interview everywhere I applied) despite this.

 

I ultimately ranked another specialty above anaesthesiology and ended up matching to that specialty. Partway through the CaRMS tour, I realised that anaesthesiology was probably not for me.

 

Of course, we don't know what the outcome would have been had I actually tried to match to anaesthesiology, and I wouldn't say that my strategy was a safe one, but what I think my experience does say is that you shouldn't be scared of applying to anaesthesia if you don't end up doing a ton of electives in it. For me, my elective was a last minute game-changer, and I didn't suffer for it in getting interviews.