NO, I know you can do Medicine and Surgery. Don't know about anything else. Where are you Dr Nick?

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Yadira

Sorry, i've been busy with surgery rotation (go figure. Saw an open-heart today!). So here's how it stands. Officially for the hospitals in michigan we can do the following rotations:
St. Joseph Mercy Oakland, Pontiac - Medicine, Surgery
North Oakland, Pontiac - OB/GYN, Family practice
St. John, Detroit - Pediatrics

That list comes from the Clinicals website.

However, My class has found it very difficult and downright impossible to schedule OBGYN at North oakland and Peds at St. John. There just seems to be alot of red tape to go through, i.e. Wayne State students get priority for OB at North Oakland. At St. John we were finally given 1 or 2 spots for the peds core, however since St. Joe has such a late start date (mid-Sept. for Fall class) we have to literally schedule our cores back to back to get them done in time to take Step 2. The dates we were given for St. John peds did not fit well with that restriction.

On the other hand, the problems we were having specifically with north oakland was communication between our school and the hospital as to if there were spots available. But the info we received also differed between who we talked to at North Oakland. From what i can tell thus far, it seems life is alot easier if you can schedule directly with the hospital rather than using our school as the "middle man" (true for most hospitals). We now have permission to schedule directly with North Oakland, so it might improve. Personally i am trying to schedule a peds elective at St. John and have yet to hear back from the contact person our school gave me.

Long story short: It is my personal opinion that you should not come to Michigan with the belief that you will be able to do all of your cores here. There is just too much at risk and unproven at this time and things change year to year (just look at Providence.)

Atleast one previous student did ER at St. John and North Oakland. He happens to be the first person from SGU to do OB at North Oakland (he was already there for family practice and was encouraged to try for OB). You can also do ER at St. Joe. What this means is that there are electives available but you have to contact the hospital to find out which ones are available. Note: Some states (i.e. California) may require you to do ALL of your rotations (including electives) in specialties where there is a ACGME residency program. That means, at St. Joe you can ONLY do surgery and internal medicine, NOT neurology, nephrology, ICU, pulmology, etc. This was a surprise to one of my fellow students who had to cancel all of the electives she scheduled here.

So what do St. Joe students usually do for their cores? Typically we do IM and surgery here, Peds in miami, psych in MD, and then pick up OB in NY/NJ. 3-4 students do atleast some of their electives here. I am heading to the UK for OB and psych since i couldn't get my cores done in the US in time to study and take step 2 AND stay out of NY. (Personally, i think anything over 600$/month for an apt. is a ripoff. Hence why i am going to another country where i will pay less for housing than i do in Michigan.)

More advice: If you would rather slit your wrists than pay $1000/month for an apartment in NY with 2 roomates and only one bathroom (i might be exagerating a little bit but i know this is the situation in atleast one case),
AND you don't mind moving around,
AND you'd rather spend anytime at all in the friendly midwest where even the houskeeping staff says hi to you in the hallway,
then come to Michigan.

If you want to stay in one place for 2 years AND love saying "I live in Upper Manhattan",
then NY is for you but be sure you get a clinical center that offers all of the cores (i.e. not Sound Shore/Westchester).

My prediction: St. Joe and Providence have been extremely popular with couples and families since the cost of living is much less and the schools are decent compared to NY. Since we lost Providence, i have a feeling unless you are from michigan or have a family, your chances of getting one of the spots at St. Joe are pretty slim. But that depends on how the families and SOs will weigh the cost of living against probably having to move around. Only time will tell.

I hope this helps.

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PGY-2 Pediatrics
SGU class of 2007

Because Harvard is still trying to be the SGU of new england.

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PGY-2 Pediatrics
SGU class of 2007

Personally, I thought it was very helpful to have clinical rotations in multiple hospitals. Sure, it was a real pain to pick up everything and move but the experience gave me a better perspective when it came time to rank for residency.

all of this is very interesting.....

as someone who doesn't look forward to NY/NJ rotations it would seem as if UK is now my only option.

ah well - could be worse I suppose.

Cheers,

Silenthunder

Just curious, are you still allowed to sign up for electives/core roatations at Harbor Hospital in Maryland? If so, I highly recommend doing medical core and electives there. The program director is outstanding and they really emphasize on teaching the medical students.

It is listed on the SGU website as primarily a place to do electives (medicine is the only core offered), however contact information is not available on the clinicals dept. affiliated hospitals list. Kinda like Norwalk hospital in CT.

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PGY-2 Pediatrics
SGU class of 2007

FREE ROTATIONS @ harvard? I would like that very much. Steph do your thing, do you thing

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Peace out
Envivany
SGU
Class of 2009

Hey Steph, can I come back to school and do a Harvard rotation? And yeah, I think you're right about that Family Med rotation too. There's more than enough rotations down here in Jersey, so I don't think I need to help out on that end.

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Shankar Santhanam, MD
Family Medicine/Hospitalist/ER Doc/Jack of All Trades
NJ

Hey 'Thunder, you can always join me at San Joaquin General in CA! As far as I know, we have 3 cores - medicine, psyche, and surgery. "Rumor" has it that they may be adding others. And you won't be freezing your *** off come November!