Splitting EM & FM electives

[steve1234]

Hey all,

 

I'm having a tough time deciding between Emerg & Family - so I was thinking of splitting my fourth year electives between the two.

 

Any ideas as to how electives can be designed best to accommodate both specialties?

 

Thanks!

[rogerroger]

Hey all,

 

I'm having a tough time deciding between Emerg & Family - so I was thinking of splitting my fourth year electives between the two.

 

Any ideas as to how electives can be designed best to accommodate both specialties?

 

Thanks!

 

I strongly suggest that if you are looking at EM you should do mainly emerg electives. EM programs want to see you committed to emergency. You will get less interviews if you split.

 

Getting interviews in family med is not hard. I did two weeks of family med electives and got more interviews than I could attend in FM. I'm not special or unique. The emergency programs have the luxury of choosing who they want. Face time is a big deal to these programs. You get this time by showing up and working in the ER on elective.

[Ttoronto]

rural FM electives will give u EM experience as well! Lots of people in my class split between FM and EM and yes majority got FM but a good number got EM as well

[rogerroger]

rural FM electives will give u EM experience as well! Lots of people in my class split between FM and EM and yes majority got FM but a good number got EM as well

 

Rural FM electives are the only type of FM elective I would do. You will do more and have less learners around. If you want Royal College Emergency Med, then do your EM electives at a major academic center.

[thebouque]

FM is not competitive at all. EM on the other hand...

[johndoe88]

Rural FM electives are the only type of FM elective I would do. You will do more and have less learners around. If you want Royal College Emergency Med, then do your EM electives at a major academic center.

 

I've been trying to find programs where it is specifically stated as FM-emerg electives. I can't really find anything asides NOSM. Do you know any other schools that have this? From what I can tell from diff schools catalogs is that there aren't any family specific emerg ones. Thanks for the input!

[rogerroger]

I've been trying to find programs where it is specifically stated as FM-emerg electives. I can't really find anything asides NOSM. Do you know any other schools that have this? From what I can tell from diff schools catalogs is that there aren't any family specific emerg ones. Thanks for the input!

 

 

UofT had tons, go look at community/rural Emerg electives... These types of electives do exist, you just need an FM preceptor who has a clinic and does EM on the side.

[MD Consultants CA]

EM is extremely competitive. If you are interested in both EM and FM, you should do almost all EM and no more than 2 FM electives. In EM you would be working with different preceptors and it's possible most of them don't know you well at the end of your rotation (depends on how much face time you get with each preceptor). When you ask for evaluation/reference letters, ask from the one whom you have worked with the most, and ask all others you have worked with to pass on any feedback to your main evaluator.

 

For FM, if you do 2 electives and are competent/easy to work with (think CanMEDs), you should be fine.

 

 

Hey all,

 

I'm having a tough time deciding between Emerg & Family - so I was thinking of splitting my fourth year electives between the two.

 

Any ideas as to how electives can be designed best to accommodate both specialties?

 

Thanks!