katakari Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Is it unprofessional to cancel an elective REQUEST less than 6 weeks before desired elective, or simply just confirmed electives? (Queen's & Dal via AFMC) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bambi Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 I don't see it as unprofessional. They will find someone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Is it unprofessional to cancel an elective REQUEST less than 6 weeks before desired elective, or simply just confirmed electives? (Queen's & Dal via AFMC) not if it is just a request. Different if they actually allocated a spot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katakari Posted October 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Thank you. Even applying right when applications opened I never heard from either school :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Thank you. Even applying right when applications opened I never heard from either school :/ yeah that happens - elective booking is messy. Don't worry about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katakari Posted October 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Yeah I'm just glad I had set up backups early at my home school. Triple booking everything next time around... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermviser Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 yah it's brutal... i've heard many horror stories from DAL... what did you apply for at DAL.. I still haven't heard anything from them either.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katakari Posted October 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 yah it's brutal... i've heard many horror stories from DAL... what did you apply for at DAL.. I still haven't heard anything from them either.. Was looking for emerg. Not too concerned as I want FM and just need to make sure I do an elective out there eventually. I feel worse for my friends who want competitive things and can't get spots anywhere in Canada. For the money I spent on applying, a rejection letter would've been nice though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-Stark Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 If I could redo my CC4 electives tour, I would have cancelled some (at least one) as I was having second thoughts (okay, serious doubts) about one specialty *during* electives. It would have been within the 6 week deadline, but so long as you're polite about it and explain I don't see it as a problem. Plans change and you should not feel bound to do an elective rotation that no longer fits with your CaRMS plans for whatever reason. Otherwise, one school cancelled my elective only 2 weeks before I was scheduled. They got me another one, but I arguably could have written a letter to their dean about "professionalism". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermviser Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Was looking for emerg. Not too concerned as I want FM and just need to make sure I do an elective out there eventually. I feel worse for my friends who want competitive things and can't get spots anywhere in Canada. For the money I spent on applying, a rejection letter would've been nice though. Your friends trying for derm? It's like impossible to get electives in derm.. :-/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katakari Posted October 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Your friends trying for derm? It's like impossible to get electives in derm.. :-/ Ophtho. I was hoping to do a derm one next year to broaden my knowledge, any recommendations of schools that are easy to secure? It would have been within the 6 week deadline, but so long as you're polite about it and explain I don't see it as a problem As I understand, they will message your school regardless of intentions. I do agree there should be a reciprocal policy for students to receive final notice by 6 weeks -- I believe UBC has this already even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermviser Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 I was hoping to do a derm one next year to broaden my knowledge, any recommendations of schools that are easy to secure? None.. lol. I'm still scrambling myself.. but if I find anything I'll let you know. PM me come next year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloh Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 It sucks to see that elective booking is still a mess. It's a neverending viscious cycle. You double and triple book to avoid these things but in effect it's making it cumbersome on everyone. Elective booking really needs to be centralized and then no one will have to double book and have this uncertainty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermviser Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 It sucks to see that elective booking is still a mess. It's a neverending viscious cycle. You double and triple book to avoid these things but in effect it's making it cumbersome on everyone. Elective booking really needs to be centralized and then no one will have to double book and have this uncertainty. Agreed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 It sucks to see that elective booking is still a mess. It's a neverending viscious cycle. You double and triple book to avoid these things but in effect it's making it cumbersome on everyone. Elective booking really needs to be centralized and then no one will have to double book and have this uncertainty. hopefully one day it will be - with some sort of prioritization scheme that allows people to get higher level access to say one area they are most interested in. right now it is very challenging to run, and it does effectively reduce the chances randomly of some people trying to get into a specialty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermviser Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 right now it is very challenging to run, and it does effectively reduce the chances randomly of some people trying to get into a specialty. especially derm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 especially derm sure - for anything small it is a worse problem. Trouble is that of course those wanting derm need elective and face time - both to make an impression and also to actually improve their skills so they can be even more impressive on the next elective. However anyone doing family medicine has an actual use for doing 2 weeks of derm as well to just get a taste of all the routine skin conditions that walk through the front door daily in a typical practise. Others just want to do it because it is interesting - and perhaps relatively easy as there is not exactly a ton of call in derm on elective. Demand overall is huge. Rads also has that problem - I mean at many schools it is a morning only 2 week elective, with no call, and not exactly a lot of expectation. Plus everyone should know some basic rads and it is often isn't covered well in med school so some people want to learn a bit of it on elective. Adds a big bottle neck - I got less than 1/2 of the electives I signed up for and started immediately when I could. Of course now there are even more medical students ha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLengr Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 DAL has been a disaster for booking OOP electives since I was a med student. At that point, they had a lady for OOP elective requests to come to Dal (vs. dal students requesting Dal electives). She took months (if she ever did) reply to your request. She wouldn't pick up her phone and her message machine specifically said not to leave a message or send an email to her because they would not be answered. How she kept her job I never knew. I ended up calling to program director in my specialty of choice there. He had the program secretary set up the elective. They told me that everyone had to do it that way since the official channel was useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermviser Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 DAL has been a disaster for booking OOP electives since I was a med student. At that point, they had a lady for OOP elective requests to come to Dal (vs. dal students requesting Dal electives). She took months (if she ever did) reply to your request. She wouldn't pick up her phone and her message machine specifically said not to leave a message or send an email to her because they would not be answered. How she kept her job I never knew. I ended up calling to program director in my specialty of choice there. He had the program secretary set up the elective. They told me that everyone had to do it that way since the official channel was useless. Great idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katakari Posted November 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 I ended up calling to program director in my specialty of choice there. He had the program secretary set up the elective. They told me that everyone had to do it that way since the official channel was useless. Is this still the case? I still want to go out there for an elective, probably for EM. Queen's I was at least anticipating as my friend applied for the same elective before I did and received a rejection; they also had a notice on their page added later on saying they were full for everything to 2016. Still, much more transparency is needed, especially given the large application fees. It would be nice if there was some sort of central ranking, like carms, everyone submits all their electives choices all at once, with ranks, and then they try and get as many people with their top choice electives. Or, have a live excel file that shows all possible available options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 Things haven't changed with DAL... it's exactly what I'm going through with them... it's unbelievable... went through that as well - it was less than fun. payment system was stupid as well if I recall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermviser Posted November 2, 2015 Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 Edit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermviser Posted November 19, 2015 Report Share Posted November 19, 2015 Edit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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