10 Weeks and Counting (16/30)

Everyone's terrified of being placed in northern Maine

     This morning at 9 AM, final preferences for clinical clerkships were submitted. Now the magic of E*Value begins and "The Spin" decides our fates. By the end of this month my classmates and I will know where we're going for each of our rotations, and in just 10 weeks we will begin the first one. For anyone not sure what I'm referring to, here's the gist: every PA student is required to go on at least 8 clinical clerkships/rotations in different specialties (Primary Care, Pediatrics, Medicine I and II, Surgery, Women's Health, Psychiatry, and Emergency Medicine). Most schools also have at least one elective rotation, which can either be a repeat of one of the core rotations, or something completely different (e.g. dermatology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, NICU, etc.). My school lets us have one elective rotation, and also allows certain specialties (e.g. cardiology, ICU, urgent care, endocrinology, etc.) to count as our Medicine II rotation. MCPHS has clinical sites all across New England, and we can be placed in any of them. When we submit our preferences, we are telling a computer where we would like to go. To do this, New England is divided into zones, and we rank the zones for each rotation, knowing that we cannot pick particular hospitals, just the region, and there is not necessarily a site in each zone for every rotation. It's a bit anxiety-inducing to weigh the pros and cons of each zone for each region, and for Medicine II and our elective there's the added stress of preferencing the rotation specialty first and then working with whatever zones are available for it. It's all done now though, so there's nothing left to do but wait. Well, wait and study our tails off because this week is filled with four exams. However, next week is spring break, so a rest is in sight. :)