3rd and 4th Year Rotations (Auditions/Aways and More)!

For the current medical school Class of 2024, congratulations on having submitted or being in the midst of submitting your NRMP Rank Order List! For those of you who have matched into ophthalmology, plastic surgery, or urology already, congratulations and best wishes for those who have yet to match into your PGY1 (PY/TY). This is an exciting time and the culmination of years of effort in the making. Once you have submitted your list, you have time to now take a breath, reflect, patiently await match week, and begin to consider your transition to residency. As you do so, please consider the importance of remaining steadfast and disciplined during your rotations, sponging up as much as you can to help you prepare for your new role as a resident physician (MD/DO)!

For the medical school Class of 2025, you are likely in the midst of finalizing your specialty decisions (both primary and possibly parallel plans). As you do so, VSLO (and non-VSLO) away/audition rotations await you! Questions that I hear from students at this stage range from the number of auditions/away rotations to complete (sometimes limited by specialty organizations or your home institution) and whether to consider programs within reach or to extend to those for which you may not be as competitive. These are excellent questions!...

However, I would like pivot to focus on the quality and yield obtained from your overall medical education for a moment. As a member of one of the AAMC Next Step One workgroups, one of the conversations that is ongoing is regarding the ideal number of auditions/away rotations students should complete, both within their primary specialty and also to support their parallel plan as needed. As students have gradually increased their number of away/auditions to hopefully increase their competitiveness for a specialty (and for the specific programs where they audition), less time remains for students to experience other specialties during medical school. Once matching into a specialty, they are likely not going to have exposure to these other areas in the future, potentially limiting their well-roundedness as a physician.

Case in point, as an internal medicine physician, I look back upon the rotations that I had in medical school. Those such as outpatient ObGyn, sports medicine, radiation oncology, PMR, ophthalmology, dermatology, radiology, and ENT were perhaps some of my most valuable learning experiences. Not only did they help me in my overall practice of medicine but also gave me an understanding of what my patients experience when referred to other specialties.

Overall, my hope is that as students decide which rotations to select in both their 3rd and 4th years, that, in addition to the practical aspect of auditioning for the purposes of matching, that they consider specialties outside of their chosen one. Also, my hope is that audition/away elective expectations from programs/specialties continue to be specified (as they have been already in some specialties) to ensure both equity and to allow for students to explore other specialties, and I believe, really fully experience medical school!

I believe it is an exciting time for students in their clinical years! There are many options and definitely some uncertainty as decisions are continually made, but each step leads closer to the next. My last thought is that regardless of the rotation selected, that you are able to truly immerse yourself in it, ask questions, learn, connect with patients, and do your best (as I am sure you already do :)).

Wishing you all the best with both the match for the Class of 2024 and specialty and rotation planning for the Class of 2025!

Sincerely,

Dr. Vora

Founder, MedStudentCoach LLC

Associate Clinical Professor, Creighton University School of Medicine

ABIM Board Certified, Internal Medicine