It's finals week, so what better way to procrastinate my studying than to write a blog?! I already made cookies, did laundry and dishes, so I'm really rolling on this do-anything-but-studying train. I thought I would explain a little bit more about the externs selection process that I briefly mentioned in my last blog.
In the first semester of third year, summer session, we got to select our top choices for where we'd like to go during our 4th year. Everyone puts where they would like to go at the time they would like, and it seems to have worked out pretty smoothly for my class.
Our 4th year is broken up into 3 semesters of 4 months each, starting in May after finals. One of our externships will be at SCO, but the other two can be as far away as Alaska or as close as the VA hospital down the street from school. The selection process is broken up into Fall Pool, Local Pool and General Pool. I chose Fall Pool, so that I would have first dibs for my other externs and because I really like the fall in Memphis. Final distribution of externs is also based on home-state and grades. It seemed like a very daunting process, but we all survived as friends!
Next summer I will be at the Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City for my institutional rotation. Part of the selection process also involves picking a private practice and an institutional site. I'm really looking forward to working with kids and I think it will give me a unique view of pediatrics different from my exposure at SCO. In the spring of the following year, I will be in Centennial Colorado, right outside Denver, at a private practice with a focus in vision therapy. I'm very excited to see how a practice incorporates vision therapy and runs successfully. It seems like every practicing VT Doctor has their own way of being successful in vision therapy, so I'm definitely interested to get yet another perspective.
It might seem a bit confusing, but it's really not too bad and I actually enjoyed the anticipation. Okay, now it's really time to get back to studying.