3rd year clerkships

Every year the third year medical students freak out because they're convinced of the psychology of clerkship rotations. Some older medical student probably came along and told them that the 4th rotation is the best time to put what you're interested in because it's a time when you're not super burned out, but still experienced enough to shine. All that is bullshit, but there is truth to be told in the importance of the order of the rotations. If surgery were my first rotation and I had been placed on vascular surgery and _____ (substitute with malignant service), I probably would not be going into a surgical sub-specialty. If I hadn't had a gimpy ass attending on medicine who completely turned me off to internal medicine, it is highly probably or even likely that I would've gone into med-peds or at least into internal medicine. Ask any doctor/specialist. In most cases, they ended up in the fields that they did due to their interactions with a key mentor. Mine ended up being a couple of key residents who changed my life. So is there magic in the order of the third year clerkships? No. Is the order important. It's crucial, but we really have no power over it.

-bender