Away Rotations: Danielle Sader, MS4, Shares Experiences at Maimonides Medical Center and UNLV
Away rotations are two- to four-week programs where medical students can audition for a Graduate Medical Education (GME) residency positions at a hospital or health care center.
FORT WORTH – As medical students across the United States enter their fourth-year for medical school the preparation for away rotations begin. Medical students apply to hospital or health care centers in the U.S. to land two to four-week audition for a Graduate Medical Education (GME)/residency positions. Away rotations are not required to apply to a residency program, but it gives medical students a chance to differentiate themselves from others and leave an impression on residency directors.
Danielle Sader
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
Classification: MS-4
Medical Specialty: Obstetrics-Gynecology (OB-GYN)
Away Rotations: Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York; UNLV Health in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Baylor, Scott & White Medical Center – Temple in Temple, Texas
Away rotations for fourth-year medical students carry a huge weight. Medical students hope they leave a lasting impression on GME program directors.
“You are showing these people what you can do and they are showing you what they have to offer,” said Danielle Sader, MS-4 at Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University. “You’re really auditioning for jobs at that point.”
Sader, a Dallas native, traveled to Maimonides Medical Center, UNLV Health, and Baylor, Scott & White Medical Center – Temple for away rotations.
“It’s so exciting to get to explore these new places and build your network even if that’s not where you end up doing residency,” Sader said.
She described her role as the Inpatient Obstetrics & Gynecology Sub Intern in Labor & Delivery as a little bit of everything.
“Any messages that need to be relayed to the rest of the team about medications or anything going on with their labor course,” Sader said. “I’ve also had the opportunities to be in a couple of deliveries and assist.”
The preparation for away rotations for Sader and her classmates came under the watchful eye of Burnett School of Medicine at TCU faculty. Students are paired with physicians from their first day and it spans their entire time in medical school during their Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC).
During their second-year, students get 10 weeks of inpatient hospital immersions and 40 weeks of clinical ambulatory rotations in eight medical specialties: Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Neurology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Surgery. In their third-year, students continue to participate in comprehensive care of patients alongside a dedicated preceptor in those same medical specialties.
“I really got to take some patients from their prenatal visits all the way through their pregnancy to their delivery,” Sader said. “When I got to my away rotations, no part of pregnancy was new to me.”