Well, for me anyway. I’ve always enjoyed going wherever the wind blows and making the most of new experiences. But the month of October was really tense when my applications were sent to various programs and the only thing I could do from then on is wait idly by my email waiting for a response.
So how do rotations work for DMU D.P.M. students? The first two years of our education is all classroom work. We take classes with our fellow D.O.s in the first year, we might even see them in our second year, but by third year, most of them are out on rotations. For D.P.M.s, we stay in Des Moines for third-year rotating with our very own faculty on campus, and travel to the VA, local hospitals, Pella, Greenfield, etc., for additional exposure. By now, we have already split up into groups of 8-10 students that we will have the opportunity to get very comfortable with. We do have classes in our third year including Community Health, Problem Based Learning, Trauma, among others. What I liked about that is I still see my classmates.
Now for setting up fourth year, I think we have it relatively easy. There’s a list of programs from all over the states that we can apply to and we just submit an application when it becomes available. We also have a core rotation where we stay for an entire four months. Then the rest of the months are filled with internal medicine, private practice, dual degree project/elective/international health rotation, and a free month if you want. Next thing you know, it’ll be graduation! (Can hardly wait!)
