ONE of the trickiest tasks in advising EM-bound medical students is coordinating and contextualizing the information they get–from word of mouth, the internet, and other advisors. To help solidify the message and lay a clear, evidence-based foundation for conversations between EM advisors and the medical school-wide advising teams, ASC-EM has put together the Advising UP! guide, meant for distribution to deans and other non-EM advisors. Along with a lot of other helpful information, Advising UP! clearly summarizes the pathway to residency for advisees, offers information on how to judge competitiveness in our specialty, and explains what kind and number of away rotations in EM is appropriate for the EM-bound student.*

On a similar note, at this time of year, both EM-specific and school-wide advising teams need to field questions about finding away rotations. ASC-EM’s guide on “How to Get an Away Rotation” can help–send it to your students, your registrar, your dean–they’ll all be grateful. If you haven’t already, you can also send them the CORD/EMRA Student Advising Guide, with a focus on Chapter 5 for more info on away rotations.

*Please note that just after this guide was created, the announcement was made that USMLE Step 1 will now be pass/fail, rather than reported as a full score. This transition will have implications for advising for the the 2021-22 academic year, particularly regarding the timing of Step 2. So be ready to send ASC-EM’s updated version next year.

Author: Shannon Moffett, MD @BrickCityEM; Emergency Medicine Clerkship Director at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Director of Undergraduate Medical Education for the Department of Emergency Medicine at University Hospital–Newark, on behalf of the CORD Advising Students Committee in Emergency Medicine (ASC-EM)