Academic Medicine Open Forum

For institutions with dedicated clinical years, how are students scheduled into their rotations (e.g., Student A goes to Ob-Gyn, then Pediatrics, then Surgery, Student B goes to Surgery then Ob-Gyn, then Pediatrics)? Are you and your students happy with your methods?

We have traditionally leveraged a lottery system grouped into phases where students indicate their preferences and are then placed using an algorithm that attempts to optimize for the most students receiving their preferred schedules. We are currently brainstorming alternative methods such as allowing students to self-register on a first-come, first-served basis, a modified lottery where students are assigned a number indicating the order they are allowed to register in, or another modified lottery where students are assigned a group with an identified registration window. I'm optimistic a method exists that is both easier on staff to implement and less painful for students.

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Noah Pollock
Director of Curriculum Data Management
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
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HI Noah!
We do something similar to what it sounds like you are currently doing. I can't be sure from your post but the one difference may be that we place all required rotations into tracks (eg. Track 1 is Surgery, Peds, IM, Psych, OB, Primary Care, etc.; Track 2 is Peds, Primary Care, OB, Psych, IM Surgery, etc. and so on) and we have students preference the tracks instead of the individual rotations. We are a new school and just started our third class in clinical rotations on May 2. For the first two classes we manually assigned the tracks after student preferencing, but that was a massive amount of work and brought up fairness issues. For the third class we had our curriculum management system build the student preferencing system and selection algorithm that basically attempts to place as many students in as high of a number on their preference list as possible, randomly selecting one student over another where there are conflicts. It worked really well and there were no student complaints. We made sure to drive home the message of how the algorithm worked and even though some students might get their first choice while others got a choice lower on their list, this was the fairest way to make these decisions while still taking into account their preferences. Best of luck!


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Christine Perez
Director of Curricular Affairs, NSU MD
Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-04-2022 15:58
From: Noah Pollock
Subject: Scheduling and Lotteries for Rotations in the Clinical Years

For institutions with dedicated clinical years, how are students scheduled into their rotations (e.g., Student A goes to Ob-Gyn, then Pediatrics, then Surgery, Student B goes to Surgery then Ob-Gyn, then Pediatrics)? Are you and your students happy with your methods?

We have traditionally leveraged a lottery system grouped into phases where students indicate their preferences and are then placed using an algorithm that attempts to optimize for the most students receiving their preferred schedules. We are currently brainstorming alternative methods such as allowing students to self-register on a first-come, first-served basis, a modified lottery where students are assigned a number indicating the order they are allowed to register in, or another modified lottery where students are assigned a group with an identified registration window. I'm optimistic a method exists that is both easier on staff to implement and less painful for students.

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Noah Pollock
Director of Curriculum Data Management
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
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Hi Noah!

We also use the schedule lottery system that operates through our vendor. There are still very manual pieces, as we track how often and which students get first choice/second choice/third choice, etc. for all rotation dates they requested and review for quality assurance of attempted equity. We make administrative adjustments and approve the system's work. After that step, we open up self-registration so students can control any adjustments to their own schedules based on what remains available. 

I am interested in the idea of a modified lottery in terms of registration window (vs. algorithm-assigned). Curious if that would make the same amount of work, just different, for staff and students, or if that would indeed run us through the scheduling process more quickly. Great question!

Best,

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Katherine Forkner
Senior Education Specialist
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-04-2022 15:58
From: Noah Pollock
Subject: Scheduling and Lotteries for Rotations in the Clinical Years

For institutions with dedicated clinical years, how are students scheduled into their rotations (e.g., Student A goes to Ob-Gyn, then Pediatrics, then Surgery, Student B goes to Surgery then Ob-Gyn, then Pediatrics)? Are you and your students happy with your methods?

We have traditionally leveraged a lottery system grouped into phases where students indicate their preferences and are then placed using an algorithm that attempts to optimize for the most students receiving their preferred schedules. We are currently brainstorming alternative methods such as allowing students to self-register on a first-come, first-served basis, a modified lottery where students are assigned a number indicating the order they are allowed to register in, or another modified lottery where students are assigned a group with an identified registration window. I'm optimistic a method exists that is both easier on staff to implement and less painful for students.

------------------------------
Noah Pollock
Director of Curriculum Data Management
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
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