Kern core rotations

[dtanita]

Has anyone done their core rotations at Kern? If you have how did you like it?

Being from Cali it's going to probably come down to Kern or England/Ireland.

[leofalcone]

I did all of my core rotations at Kern Medical Center and had the option of doing all of my electives (although I elected not to stay), which by the way were all scheduled for me by the end of my third year....that was great, setting up electives at other places was a huge pain.

KMC was a great place to spend my 3rd year of medical school. I have absolutely no regrets and looking back I would not have changed a thing. Those, however, were not my feelings when I first drove into Bakersfield for my orientation on that very hot July afternoon. Seriously, about 5 minutes after I arrived in Bakersfield I called my wife and told her I was going to call Phil and Nancy and tell them that I just can't do it. I think I drove into Bakersfield on the "not so nice" part of town and when I was talking to my soon-to-be landlord, he was like yeah the house is about 3 blocks from the hospital......and after seeing the neighborhood around the hospital, I was like there is no way in hell I am living anywhere near this hospital....but you know, to the west and south of the hospital the neighborhoods are shady but if you go straight east, they are great as can be and very safe. Anyways, where was I.....oh yeah....no regrets at all. I went in for orientation, met the director of the medical students, Dr. Ragland.....awesome guy....the medical education staff were great and I was convinced that I made the right decision to go out there. Bakersfield is actually not that bad of a place to live......population of about 300,000 or so I think....but very country. 1.5 hours to LA, 4 hours to Vegas, 6 hours to Lake Tahoe, 4 hours to San Fran, 3 hours to Yosemite, 2 hours to Santa Barbara, 2 hours to Sequoia National Forest and General Sherman, within 0.5-1 hour from great hiking in mountains and white water rafting on the Kern River.....How do I know these things??.....because my wife and I visited all of them while we were there.....although Paris, Barcelona, Florence etc would have been nice too if we would have decided to go to England.

KMC is about a 200 bed hospital, so not huge....a place where you get to know everyone from attendings to nurses to residents (all of them). You don't feel you get lost in the hugeness of the place. This is a county hospital....having a spanish language background is a big plus, but not essential as there are plenty of translators when needed.....amazing pathology at this place as the patient population does not take care of themselves, unfortunate but great for learning. My most memorable case at KMC was a 39 year old hispanic male (HIV neg) who presented only with bilateral hearing loss getting progressively worse over the last 2 months.....to make a long story short, he was diagnosed with Cryptococcal meningitis and come to find out he had a recent history of cleaning pigeon crap off of his mother's porch on multiple occasions. Also, Coccidiodomycosis is endemic in Bakersfield (Cocci clinic and all)....remember the San Joaquin Valley and Cocci for the boards. Funny story.....when I did my ID elective in Detroit, we had this guy in the office who was being treated for Cocci and came down with this peculiar rash that my ID attending just couldn't figure out......I said, you know it could be a cutaneous manifestation of Cocci....he said, I didn't know Cocci could do that....and after he looked it up in a book....he was like, how in the world did you know that??....I gave the credit to AUC and the wonderful education they have given me.

Must start new paragraph....sorry to be so tangential.....but now that medical school is over with for me I have too much time on my hands. A nice thing about KMC is that they keep track of everything for you in regards to the L6 California letter thing.....great if you want to be in California for residency. And the attendings all have UCLA, Stanford and UC Davis on their letterheads when they send out letters of recommendation....big plus. Dr. Amin (chairman of FP and Pediatrics) is very well known. Dr. Johnson (chair of IM) also very well known. Didactic lectures monday-friday....some good, some not so good. I also took ACLS for no cost.

This is a great place for students...they don't kill you during your 3rd year....plenty of time for reading. The only overnight call you do during this year is in surgery (for us it was like every 6th night). IM and OBGYN was q5 or so and only until 10pm, no peds call (I wish there would have been some though), FP call was from home q6 and til 10pm. Most weekends off for most rotations. And as far as I am concerned, this is how it should be.....medical students shouldn't get killed with call.....we need to stay healthy and have plenty of time to be studying for boards. Other clinical sites in the U.S. don't have the same philosophy....so inquire. Some of my classmates were doing q3 overnight call during surgery and IM at various places.....ridiculous if you ask me....but I am sure others would disagree with me.

Ton of procedures as a student (at least there were for me), residents are a good group of people for the most part, attendings will know you by first name by end of year and very approachable, residents pay for medical students meals in the cafeteria with their cards, great weather except for the terribly hot summers, great med ed staff to keep track of everything, very affordable cost of living (my wife and I and 2 dogs rented a 3 bedroom house with 2 car garage, privacy fenced back yard with orange/plum/almond/rose/grape trees, hardwood floors, driveway all on a nice quiet and safe street literally a 1 minute drive from hospital all for $900/month). If you are into Trauma.....great trauma rotation.....very busy trauma....one of your required months during surgery is on the trauma team....I thought it was an awesome month, very busy and some thought there was too much scut work in tracking down Xrays etc, so others I know do not share my feelings on this rotation.....also not much O.R. time during this month.....on a typical weekend day, you will be responding to as many as 15 trauma activations/day.....although average more like 8-10.

I may think of more later....but that should give you a good start. Depending on what you want out of your clinical years, I would strongly recommend going to KMC. If you decide to go there and do 3rd and 4th year, there are no surprises.....your whole 3rd year schedule will be given to you at the beginning and then your whole 4th year elective schedule will be given to you at the end of your 3rd year.....big, big plus. The only other facility that is similar to this fashion is Providence in Detroit.

[leofalcone]

double post.

edited by the mod squad for your convenience

[tRmedic21]

Thanks very much for all that wonderful information and insight on Kern! Double post should be deleted, if any moderators are watching. While I myself have no interest n Cali, I know many students here who do, and I think this is EXACTLY the kind of information we need (in-depth and detailed, point-by-point) on ALL our clinical sites. It would be nice to see if MEIO could compile a statement just like this from various student who rotate at each core site, then simply put them in a handout to be given to 4th and 5th semester students. Or maybe not MEIO, perhaps we as students (SGA, Spouse's Club, Note Service, AMSA, Phi Chi, or any group at all) could do the same. Of course we don't have access to all the people who have gone before us, but if the school doesn't want to do something like this (make a "Student Impressions Booklet"), then we could do our best.

Anyone else who has the inclination to write the same kind of review of their clinical site, please feel free to post it here on the boards!

Thanks again, Leo! Oh yes, and all the others who have contributed in the past, George, FLK, Anne, Faith, and all the others I am sure I am leaving out! :?

[AKaplan]

Thanks for the great description of your Kern experience. I am from Visalia, CA which is between Bakersfield and Fresno. So I know very well what a hell-hole some parts of that area resemble. Nonetheless, I have family near Kern and I do want to come back to CA to ultimately practice and settle down.

One good thing about the Bakersfield location is that it is fairly central, easy to get to LA, SanDiego, SanFrancisco, etc.

Do you have any knowledge of the Norwalk rotations?

Are there any spots in Alameda County Hospital in Oakland? It's a great trauma center and I know they used to offer Psych rotations there.

[missMDinthecity]

Thank you so much for the descriptive post. I am considering doing the core rotations at Kern and this helps out a lot. Does anyone know if it will be difficult to get this rotation?

[kemper6036]

Thanks for the great description of your Kern experience. I am from Visalia, CA which is between Bakersfield and Fresno. So I know very well what a hell-hole some parts of that area resemble. Nonetheless, I have family near Kern and I do want to come back to CA to ultimately practice and settle down.

One good thing about the Bakersfield location is that it is fairly central, easy to get to LA, SanDiego, SanFrancisco, etc.

Do you have any knowledge of the Norwalk rotations?

Are there any spots in Alameda County Hospital in Oakland? It's a great trauma center and I know they used to offer Psych rotations there.

norwalk is for psych only. since auc students dont do psych at kern, you go to norwalk.

[kemper6036]

Thank you so much for the descriptive post. I am considering doing the core rotations at Kern and this helps out a lot. Does anyone know if it will be difficult to get this rotation?

yes it will be difficult. CA is the most represented state at AUC so lots of ppl go back there.

if you are dead set on kern you might have to wait a while to get it. also you need at least a 220 on step 1. the docs from kern yesterday say they give preference to CA residents, but that is not what OCSA told us so i dont know for sure

[Scott1981]

first, the posts on this thread are 4.5 years old. second, there is no minimum step score for kern. im pretty sure the minimum is/was only for ross students. i didnt have a 220, but i was offered a slot there.

[kemper6036]

that is true with the age of this thread......just relaying what i was told

[stcheng82]

I'm doing my core rotations at kern now, and as far as core is concerned, it's still first come first serve with no minimum step 1 requirement, and you don't get preference for being a CA resident. Electives on the hand require a 210 (or 220 I'm not sure).

[Scott1981]

210 rings a bell in my head with electives since its outside auc's contract with them.

[FOID]

first, the posts on this thread are 4.5 years old. second, there is no minimum step score for kern. im pretty sure the minimum is/was only for ross students. i didnt have a 220, but i was offered a slot there.

i think the minimum is for electives.

the wait is long because a lot of people want kern.

[FOID]

here's the website if you want to check it out...

Eligibility Requirements (http://www.kernmedicalcenter.com/body.cfm?id=366)

[missMDinthecity]

stcheng82 a question for you... were you waitlisted at all? Hopefully I will make it through the semesters on the island, how long in advance should I apply for a spot at Kern? (Sorry... I will be starting AUC January 2009... so I'm not exactly sure how these rotations work!)

[FOID]

stcheng82 a question for you... were you waitlisted at all? Hopefully I will make it through the semesters on the island, how long in advance should I apply for a spot at Kern? (Sorry... I will be starting AUC January 2009... so I'm not exactly sure how these rotations work!)

the wait could be 4-8 months. there are 4 start date per year (jan, apr, july, sept) and each take 4-5 students

[FOID]

you apply after taking the step 1 so it's based on a 1st come, 1st serve basis

[Scott1981]

best advice would be to plan to take step 1 as soon as you leave the island. its all based on first come first serve with whoever has a pass score.

[Wannabe Doktor]

Maybe this is just naïvety :confused: showing through, but are students at AUC still considered Visiting Students when AUC has the affiliation agreement in place? If so, is this how it is for all of the clinical locations?