Infectious Disease and Public Health (Preventive Medicine department)

Location

Illinois Department of Public Health

# Weeks

2

Hours/week on site

31-40

Open to M3s?

yes

Scheduled through OASIS?

yes

On Rush schedule?

yes

# other students

1

Prerequisites

none

Interviewing/Step 2 flexibility

I don't know but it's flexible

Overnight call?

no

Work weekends?

no

Weekend call?

no

Is there an exam at the end of the rotation

no

Students required to give a presentation

yes

Teaching hours/day

0-1

Teaching style

Lecture given by resident or attending, Student presentations

Suggested reading/pocket contents

None.  You can check out the IDPH website for info if you want to do something before you start.

Structure of rotation

One-on-one with attendings/residents

Amt/quality of time residents/attendings

Approximately 1 hr/day with attending.  The rest of the time is filled with meetings, conference calls, independent study and work on your project/presentation.

Proportion of time evaluating pts alone

0-25%

# pts evaluated/day

0-2

Procedures

never

Typical day

As an M3 on a 2 wk rotation hours were 9-5 at the ILDPH.   I was given an office to share with another student where we had internet access to research our projects and a phone for the multiple daily conference calls with the Springfield DPH and the CDC. There are also occasional meetings and field trips. I went to the Quarantine center at O'Hare Airport one day and observed a restaurant inspection on another.  Each student is assigned a project or outbreak (if you are there for 4wks) and you must present something at the end of the rotation.  I submitted my work for possible publication at the end of the 2wks.  If you do this as a 4th year and/or a 4wk rotation you have much more flexibility as it seems you do about the same amount of work but over twice the amount of time.  

Usefulness for any residency

4 of 5 stars

Usefulness for this residency

5 of 5 stars

Useful for other specialties

Any with Research Component, esp. Preventive Med, Infectious Disease, Medicine, Family Medicine.

Overall rating

5 of 5 stars

Recommended to other students

5 of 5 stars

Other comments

I really enjoyed this rotation but it clearly isn't for everyone.  For me, sitting in an office reading, writing and doing research was a welcome and enjoyable break from the floors.  Dr. Conover is very accommodating.  I told him I was more interested in Public Health Policy than the ID aspect of the rotation so he gave me the freedom to work on writing practice guidelines for IL docs.