Tag: VSLO

Finding Audition Rotations (Sub-I’s)

Hello hello!

Long time no post. I know. I’m not sorry either, simply because my mental health has swiveled down the drain fourth year. And here I was thinking I was stronger mentally than that.

Oh well. Life is a bitch. And medical school has seriously worn me down.

But, back to what we were talking about!

So, you may or may not have ready my entry “Applying to VSAS”. There are still some good tidbits there. However, I am more aware now of some programs and how they operate than I was when I wrote that during my mid-third year. And to be honest, my school was absolutely no fucking help. Like at all. Basically they told us we needed 3 sub-I’s to graduate and after that they pretty much just got annoyed when I didn’t have my scheduled filled out on time for them to check their boxes and cross their to do list off.

Alright. I need to calm down. It’s like I’m starting to let ya’ll feel the hatred I have… I mean dislike I have for academic policies and their pencil pushers.

Back to why you are here!

What is a sub-I?

A Sub-internship, or sub-I, is the same thing as an audition or acting internship (AI). They all mean the same thing. Basically, it is where a residency program (of your choice) allows fourth year students to be there for a month and basically work as an acting intern. It is where you get to show your skills and learn all sorts of new stuff that will make you feel indefinitely inadequate (as medicine tends to do), and at the same time you are trying to get to know the program and try to get them to give you an interview. Interviews = increased chances at a residency slot.

So long story short, you work you ass off at a residency program and hope it is enough to impress some people into liking you to give you an interview and hopefully a residency spot.

No, you are not guaranteed an interview even if you do an audition. However, you are more likely to be put on a favorable list to get an interview if you do show up in person, take your time at their program, and try your little booty off in front of them. Although some places are just dicks and don’t care that you spent time and money trying to get into their program. C’est la vie.

Moving on.

How to find sub-I’s?

So, I promise this isn’t a shameless plug. But seriously all the links are in that VSAS post and I’m too fucking lazy to repeat it. Finding a list of residences through ACGME is one way. I do recommend this so you can at least see which programs are not doing well and are at risk of being pulled from being a residency or are on watch. You don’t particularly want to go to a residency if they are at risk of being pulled by the ACGME. But I digress.

Secondly, get you a FREIDA account. It gives you access to several different residencies and information on each. If they aren’t able to get you that information, it will at least give you the bare minimum and the site’s website so you can explore on your own. I’m talking how many spots they give, salaries, scores for boards and if you need both or not as a DO, childcare access, vacation days, how many DO, MD, and IMG’s they take, where they are located, average hours a week you work; all that fun stuff. They also give you the program director (PD) and their program coordinator/assistant’s information. YOU WANT THIS.

So, you do your research. By both specialty and location or just specialty. There are a lot of programs for some specialties, so you may need time for this. I’m a dumbass and always fly by the seat of my pants and it has definitely bit me in the ass more than once during fourth year BECAUSE I DIDN’T RESEARCH. But also, I’m a firm believer in the universe will put me where I need to be. I may or may not have leaned on that ideology too much. Oh well.

DO YOUR RESEARCH. FIND YOU THOSE PROGRAMS.

How to GET those sub-I’s?

Okay, so now you did your research like a good little medical student and you have programs you want to reach out to. Because most of ya’ll are super prepared and not at all like me. I will commend you for your work younglings.

Get that coordinator’s information off of FREIDA. Sometimes they have information on the ACGME list, but either way, contact the coordinator. NOT THE PD. The PD is the big guns. Contacting the PD directly could immediately make you lose your chance. They are busy, and usually have large egos (as one does accumulate if you are in charge of an entire residency program). So don’t head to the PD first.

Email the coordinator and ask about openings/auditions/sub-I’s/AI whatever term you want. Tell them you are interested in their program and would like to set something up for your fourth year. If they aren’t the ones you need to contact they will put you in contact with the right person. The following will be their response:
– Absolutely, here are the months open OR what month/dates are you available?
– Absolutely! We use VSAS, and recommend applying on there when it opens on XYZ date.
– No.
– We are not taking students for the next year yet. Please contact me/us at XYZ date to revisit this.

Now, DON’T LOSE THEIR INFO. Keep it. You want the names and emails and program of the person you spoke to and their responses. If you are able to start setting up auditions early in the year (so mid- third year, in January or February) fan-fucking-tastic! I’m proud of you. I was stupid and didn’t do this early. Not like my board scores would be helpful anyways.

I suggest making a document of some sort for this. I think I reached out to 30 programs this way. Because I did it later (like April or May or something) a lot of their responses were no or that they used VSAS and then denied me on there. Some I was able to start the process with and then once they saw my application materials outright rejected me.

THE AUDACITY. How could they? JK. Yea it stung but I’ll just talk about it in therapy or whatever.

Overall, I ended up with 2 out of my 3 sub-I’s this way. It is work, but since VSAS isn’t open that early (or at least they be slacking since COVID hit and they all use it as an excuse to not work) you can at least get your feet wet this way.

Again, save your responses and information in a document. You don’t need to enter your rotations yet for your school, but you will want to make sure you know your dates and where you will be going if you are able to secure a sub-I early.

Otherwise, you can use clinician nexus or whatever that program is and VSAS when programs open up to apply and try to find other sub-I’s. Most big academic institutions use VSAS. I find them stuffy but it was worth a shot. If you are able to secure the amount of sub-Is you want via email early then even better. You don’t even have to deal with VSAS. See that post for how to do that shit.

Google Doc For tracking. This is BASIC. I know. But if you want somewhere to start this is what I used. Please copy it to your drive and then you can edit your own version. NO I will not give you edit access to this one. Plus once you’ve copied it you can re-arrange it for how you like.

KCU students: How to enter your shit into e-value

  • Login to the portal and go to the e-value link.
  • Open e-value and and click zee schedules tab
  • You should find the link at the bottom of the small page titled “manage schedule requests”. Click that bitch.
  • The only thing you need to do, is under the first drop down (curriculum) change it to 4th year/student use.
  • Under clerkship is where you will add the elective. I.e. if it is a surgical elective versus a sub-I. It is actually pretty easy to navigate this. I know, I’m surprised too. Normally everything is unnecessarily difficult. Find your clerkship.
  • Then put your dates.
  • Next, put your site. There are A LOT. But it goes by state abbreviation and then alphabetically within the state.
  • Then put your preceptor name. I usually put UNKNOWN if it was for a sub-I and then filled out a form for unknown preceptor later. If it is at your home institution you should know who your preceptor is.
  • And then submit. It will need to be approved, but that is it. If you need to add a comment you can, but you don’t need to.

FOR FLEX TIME

  • Same as above, except for site you will put FLEX. It is there, I promise. It is under “F” alphabetically and just titled flex time.
  • For site, I just put my campus (i.e. Kansas City University-Joplin Campus)
  • For preceptor you put in FLEX, no preceptor. All you have to do is just put in flex and search and it will pop up.
  • You are welcome to put in why you are requesting flex in the comments but honestly, they don’t need to know.
  • You should be able to use 2 weeks of straight flex time (weekends don’t count as flex time) if you need to. But no more can be coupled. I used it like this to give myself more time for boards at the beginning of the year. Most students actually use it for traveling between sub-I’s/rotations, and also for holiday time around Christmas/New Year’s, etc.

FOR ONLINE ROTATIONS

I mean, I did this plenty of times since I had senioritis so bad fourth year. But you don’t have to use online rotations. It also helped give me a “rotation” in between actual in-person rotations since no one’s schedule lines up perfectly with yours. It is a pain in the ass to schedule shit in fourth year because everyone is on their own fucking timeline. But I digress. Plus, you can do it at home in your PJ’s.

  • CLMD 412 is the online course code
  • site is online course. It is under the O’s and squished between the states.
  • preceptor is online course. You will need to upload the certificate of completion when you are done with the course.

ALSO…

Your schedule requests will show up at the bottom of this screen. All of them that are either pending or accepted. You can look at things here too, especially if you forget how to enter flex/online course and you did one already. It also helps so you can see if you have any schedule gaps that you didn’t note on your own.

This is how it looks when you’ve filled out schedule requests.

Anywho, hope this was helpful. Tell your friends if you think it was, I could use the views boost. Toodles!

Applying to VSAS

Hello!

I hope ya’ll are doing well. Ya know, keeping your head above water, staying afloat, balancing how much caffeine gets you through the day and how much alcohol gets you to calm down at night…

Those sorts of things. 🙂

I’m currently trying to wade through third year of medical school. And while not a disaster, is still exposing many difficult and new areas that a student has to navigate through. Not to mention, there are a few additional things to be aware of while going through it; particularly how to get audition rotations for residency.

Towards the middle of your third year you will start hearing about something called VSAS, or visiting students application service. You may also hear VSLO which is visiting students learning opportunities. It is ran by AAMC, but all students (both MD and DO) use this site to connect with hospitals around the US to visit, audition, and try electives in their fourth year that may not be available to them at their home institution.

Your home institution (or at least mine has) will have a certain amount of schools that you will be able to rotate through with on here. This is not the only site you can use to help you find elective rotations or audition rotations. But it is the most commonly used amongst residency programs and hospitals that host students.

My school gave us access to VSAS pretty early on. However you need to be aware that most sites don’t open to taking students during your fourth year until the Spring of your third year. So some sites might not be up there when you look or they have already taken down the application. Some sites are still taking fourth year students for the end of their fourth year. It’s a rolling type of application service, and things change constantly. And since I’m doing mine during the second year of COVID, I’m sure things will get even weirder.

With that in mind, VSAS tends to give students the ability to start uploading their application pretty early once you get access through your school. This is a good thing. A stressful thing, but a good thing. Many classmates I know are putting it off because their plate is just too full.

I understand that 100%, I do. But it is not advisable.

VSAS is a first come, first serve type of service. So even though it is stressful to look up potential residency sites that you want to audition at and start putting together your application, the sooner you have it done, the easier. That way, when your sites open up you can just click the sites you are applying for and pay instead of finishing your application once they open.

Additionally, my school requires 3 sub-I’s/audition rotations to graduate. So my class needs at least 3 auditions to be qualified to graduate. Make sure you check your home institutions requirements.

Now you can do more. You can also choose electives for 2 weeks or just electives in general at another hospital. And you would use VSAS for this as well.

Approximate timeline:

As early as possible:

  • When you get the login information from your school, no matter how early, set it up. It is just easier than remembering to do it down the road. Make sure you can login and everything the school has down for you through the site is correct. Better to have plenty of time to fix it now than during crunch time later!

Third year, October-December:

  • Start looking at potential residency sites that you may be interested in. You don’t need to find all your potential interested residencies in one day! But start making a list.
  • Go to ACGME.com to find the accreditation status of residency programs in your specialty that you are interested in. Here you can cross off anything military (if you aren’t military) and see any residency programs that are on probation or have any issues. You usually don’t want to deal with programs struggling to get re-accredited, are on warning, or on probation.
  • Use FRIEDA to help find more information about programs. This usually gives you the general stats and a contact person. Do not go overboard with contacting the sites. I basically just emailed the sites I was interested in to find out when they would be posting on VSAS and if they were planning on taking students in 2021-2022 year.
  • You can also use Clinician NEXUS and residency explorer tool to look into programs.
  • Start breaking down the list of things you need to upload to VSAS into smaller, more manageable chunks. If there is something quick and easy you can do, then do it if you can.

Third year, January-February:

  • You should be narrowing down a potential list of programs you may want to do residency at. Pick a few of your top choices to try to rotate their. Just remember, you may not get a spot, so be prepared to apply to more places to try to get auditions.
  • You need to be uploading what you can to VSAS. List will be down lower in the post.
  • You should be reaching out to people for letters of rec. Most specialties do not require a letter of rec for visiting students. But some specialties do. When doing your research on programs, this is something to look for. If required, it will need to be from a specialty that you are trying to rotate in, not a letter of rec from anyone.
  • Same with letter of interest. Some sites/specific specialties want a letter of interest of why you want to audition in that specialty. Start thinking about formulating this.

Third year, March:

  • If you haven’t finished uploading everything to my documents, you need to do that.
  • Any sites of interest that have opened up by this point you should apply to.

Third year, April-beginning of fourth year:

  • The rest of this time will be sites opening up for application. You can star places to find them more easily.
  • You will be using this time to find out when the sites accept you, when they are available for you to visit, or reject you.
  • You will use this information to build your fourth year schedule.
What do i need to upload to Vsas?
  • Immunization form and proof of immunizations.
  • Background check
  • Urine drug screen (UDS)
  • ALS certification
  • BLS certification
  • CV
  • Board scores
  • official transcript
  • letter of interest (dependent on specialty)
  • letter of rec (dependent on specialty)
  • COVID vaccination (not currently required, but likely highly recommended)

How do I find the immunization form?

Immunization form can be found here. This is the 2021 version, but if you go to the VSAS site and type in “immunization form” into the search bar it should come up. I doubt it will really change much.

You need to fill this out. Now, there are 2 options: You can fill it out and have a provider sign it so you can upload it (MUCH FASTER), or you can send it in to your clinical coordinator who will sign it and upload it for you (CAN TAKE WEEKS TO MONTHS). I went the provider route. Also, I had to split this document with the proof of my immunizations in two uploads because it wouldn’t upload that big of a file. Just an FYI.

How do you get a copy of your immunizations, drug screen, and background check?

As KCU students, you should have sent everything to be uploaded via SentryMD. They basically keep track of that for the school and send reminders when you are due for things. You should have gotten most of your immunizations before medical school. The background check, UDS, and anything else you will get before starting your third year. At least at KCU you will as these are your clinical years. I’m assuming its the same or similar for other medical schools.

You basically just email SentryMD for a copy of everything and they will send it to you. If you are anal like me you would have a copy of that already on your computer.

How do I get a copy of my transcript sent to VSAS?

Well, you have to go through your school for this one. KCU kids I gotchu, everyone else I hope it is a similar process for ya’ll.

Step 1: Go to the kcu login page. You will need to login with your student ID number and password.

Step 2: Click on the KCU intranet icon.

Step 3: Click the menu on the left hand side of the screen. Select Forms. Then select Registrar forms.

Step 4: Under this, choose student forms. At the very bottom you should find “VSLO transcript release”. Fill this out and submit the form.

Step 5: It took a month for me to recheck to see if this was uploaded. It was not and I requested the upload as soon as I came back from Winter break in early January. What I didn’t know is until you try to send your application to a site, they won’t send a transcript. But it is never a bad thing to reach out and make sure it is uploaded. I just couldn’t see it on my end!

How do I upload a letter of rec to VSAS?

There is a way to do it through ERAS, but you I haven’t figured that out. If you are more savvy than me give it a shot.

Otherwise, you have the person email it to your clinical coordinator and they will upload it for you to VSAS. Make sure you are keeping on top of when your letter of rec writer sent it into your coordinator so you can badger them to do their job and upload it.

What takes the most time to get together?

Honestly, getting your letter of rec uploaded and your official transcript uploaded. And if you choose to have the school fill out your immunization form. Otherwise, everything else you yourself can upload, so you have control over how long it is going to take to get this information on their.

Last thing!

Make sure you’ve also filled out the about me spots and uploaded a picture of you to the VSAS website. It will ask for when you’ve completed your core rotations, when you completed ALS, BLS, and PALs (if you have), and for DO students they ask for your AOA number.

KCU students, if you go to your student 360 portal your AOA number will be on the first page along with the information about you. Otherwise, you can call the AOA line and they will send it to you if you are a DO student and don’t know it. I for sure had no idea I had one.

Anywho, hope this helps on your journey through medicine!

Cheers~