What is a good strategy for planning fourth-year electives?
Often medical students are not exposed to anesthesiology until the fourth year of medical school. If your school does not offer third-year required or elective anesthesiology rotations, sign up for a fourth-year elective as soon as you can in your fourth year. While on other rotations (e.g. surgery), it’s not out of the question to spend some time with the anesthesia team (don’t do this at the expense of your surgical rotation, however). As a profession, you’ll find us very accommodating to students. This is often the time when students are first exposed to anesthesiology. Other helpful fourth-year electives once you’ve decided to pursue anesthesiology include cardiology, pulmonary medicine, nephrology, and critical care (surgical ICU).
