fossildoc
08-13-2009, 02:10 PM
Maybe the title of this post is a bit presumptuous; there are probably many ways to find rotations, but I'll tell you how I did it, and if it seems right for you, go for it.
First, the school policy. The school allows and even encourages students to find their own elective rotations. Core rotations are a little trickier because the rules are more strict to comply with residency and licensing requirements; before attempting to arrange your own cores, it might be a good idea to contact our rotations coordinator for additional instructions. Also, there may have been a change in school policy regarding how electives work; I got an email from our clinicals vp which I think was inadvertently sent to students already in rotations, and was meant for students who had not started. It seemed to imply that students were not only encouraged but actually required to arrange electives; I may have misunderstood that email, so you should check on it and make a post to this forum. For those of us already in rotations, the rotations agencies arrange electives, except for those we find ourselves.
What I did was very simple. It required a Yellow Pages (YP) -- paper or online (I used paper) -- and Mapquest or other online mapping service. I wanted to do an elective rotation in Dermatology. It would have been easy to find dermatologists through one of my preceptors, except for one catch: they were too far away. I'm studying for Steps and I don't want to waste time driving long distances to rotations, so I wanted something within ten miles of my apartment. That's where Mapquest comes in.
I simply opened the YP and went down the list of dermatologists. There were lots of them, but it became easier as it went along. At the beginning, I entered every address into the Mapquest "driving directions" page, which immediately told me how far it was from my apartment. I eliminated anything over ten miles, but I made a note of the town it was in. Every time I countered that town in a YP listing, I ignored it, rather than entering it into Mapquest again. For every doc within ten miles, I noted his/her name and phone number; after a while, I noticed that many docs had the same phone number, presumably because they were in a group practice, and that saved more time. What I wound up with was not a unique set of doc names, but a unique set of phone numbers with one doc associated with each, all within ten miles. There were fifteen of them.
I called every one. When cold-calling a doc's office trying to get a rotation, don't ask for the doc. You won't get through, and the receptionist will have no idea what you're talking about. Instead, always ask to speak to the office manager, who usually knows about such things. Have your pitch prepared on a sheet of paper so you don't get tongue-tied while begging to be taken as a student. In the first few sentences, you must cover the following points:
1. You are a student of a foreign med school which is accredited for US licensing and which has many students in the Atlanta area
2. Your school encourages students to find their own elective rotations for their own convenience, and you are calling because you are crazy about their specialty and it's near your apartment
3. You have malpractice insurance, a police clearance (don't say "police record" or they'll think you're an ex-con), immunizations, and references from other rotations with area docs
4. You want to be with them for four weeks (or six, or whatever) and it's up to them how much you will be allowed to do
5. Your daily schedule is very flexible and you are willing to do anything (you can work mornings, nights, around the clock, pick up their laundry, make coffee, etc.)
The office manager will "get back to you". S/he probably won't, but a couple will. You may be asked to provide phone numbers or a web site for the school; I provided two references which I knew would be very good.
I got two call-backs; one said "no", and the other said "yes, we want you", and that's the one I'm starting with next Monday.
After you have the invitation, tell the office manager that the school's agency will contact them and will fax a contract. You can't do a rotation without a contract; that specifies the terms of malpractice insurance and payment. (No, you don't have to pay anything; it's included in your tuition.) Then call MedStars and give them the contact information; everything after that is invisible to you. Just show up on time. You should ask the office manager if you are required to bring any equipment, like stethescopes and whatnot. For dermatology, all I need is my lab coat.
Well, that's it. The key points to remember are that you make the initial contact and get the invitation, then you give the contact info to MedStars, not the other way around.
First, the school policy. The school allows and even encourages students to find their own elective rotations. Core rotations are a little trickier because the rules are more strict to comply with residency and licensing requirements; before attempting to arrange your own cores, it might be a good idea to contact our rotations coordinator for additional instructions. Also, there may have been a change in school policy regarding how electives work; I got an email from our clinicals vp which I think was inadvertently sent to students already in rotations, and was meant for students who had not started. It seemed to imply that students were not only encouraged but actually required to arrange electives; I may have misunderstood that email, so you should check on it and make a post to this forum. For those of us already in rotations, the rotations agencies arrange electives, except for those we find ourselves.
What I did was very simple. It required a Yellow Pages (YP) -- paper or online (I used paper) -- and Mapquest or other online mapping service. I wanted to do an elective rotation in Dermatology. It would have been easy to find dermatologists through one of my preceptors, except for one catch: they were too far away. I'm studying for Steps and I don't want to waste time driving long distances to rotations, so I wanted something within ten miles of my apartment. That's where Mapquest comes in.
I simply opened the YP and went down the list of dermatologists. There were lots of them, but it became easier as it went along. At the beginning, I entered every address into the Mapquest "driving directions" page, which immediately told me how far it was from my apartment. I eliminated anything over ten miles, but I made a note of the town it was in. Every time I countered that town in a YP listing, I ignored it, rather than entering it into Mapquest again. For every doc within ten miles, I noted his/her name and phone number; after a while, I noticed that many docs had the same phone number, presumably because they were in a group practice, and that saved more time. What I wound up with was not a unique set of doc names, but a unique set of phone numbers with one doc associated with each, all within ten miles. There were fifteen of them.
I called every one. When cold-calling a doc's office trying to get a rotation, don't ask for the doc. You won't get through, and the receptionist will have no idea what you're talking about. Instead, always ask to speak to the office manager, who usually knows about such things. Have your pitch prepared on a sheet of paper so you don't get tongue-tied while begging to be taken as a student. In the first few sentences, you must cover the following points:
1. You are a student of a foreign med school which is accredited for US licensing and which has many students in the Atlanta area
2. Your school encourages students to find their own elective rotations for their own convenience, and you are calling because you are crazy about their specialty and it's near your apartment
3. You have malpractice insurance, a police clearance (don't say "police record" or they'll think you're an ex-con), immunizations, and references from other rotations with area docs
4. You want to be with them for four weeks (or six, or whatever) and it's up to them how much you will be allowed to do
5. Your daily schedule is very flexible and you are willing to do anything (you can work mornings, nights, around the clock, pick up their laundry, make coffee, etc.)
The office manager will "get back to you". S/he probably won't, but a couple will. You may be asked to provide phone numbers or a web site for the school; I provided two references which I knew would be very good.
I got two call-backs; one said "no", and the other said "yes, we want you", and that's the one I'm starting with next Monday.
After you have the invitation, tell the office manager that the school's agency will contact them and will fax a contract. You can't do a rotation without a contract; that specifies the terms of malpractice insurance and payment. (No, you don't have to pay anything; it's included in your tuition.) Then call MedStars and give them the contact information; everything after that is invisible to you. Just show up on time. You should ask the office manager if you are required to bring any equipment, like stethescopes and whatnot. For dermatology, all I need is my lab coat.
Well, that's it. The key points to remember are that you make the initial contact and get the invitation, then you give the contact info to MedStars, not the other way around.