away rotations are actually pretty awesome for the most part. you get to see somewhere different and most of the people you meet are good to be around. You will work so hard and sleep so little that you shouldn't miss your home/bed too much.

do you still live with your mommy or something??
if you cant handle a new situtation for a month, what are you gonna do when residency comes around? Thats a lot more stressful than living somewhere unfamiliar for a month! Seriously though, your experience will vary widely depending on where you do you away rotation. Some places out you up with one of their residents, others have a apartment that rotators can stay in, and others just have you find your own place. I think doing aways is definatly worth it if you are truly interested in orhto b/c it lets you check out a place and improves your chances there (assuming you dont go and insult everyone while your there)

geez, you sound like you're not up to doing what you have to do......bottomline. we did 2 or 3 aways, don't be such a baby.

As a resident, you may have to do away rotations for trauma, etc. I would suggest for you to do an away rotation and to find out if ortho is actually what you want to do. Being on call is sort of like living off a suitcase, only smaller.

i think you are really psyching yourself out. the thought of it is worse than it actually may be. once you actually start your rotation it will not be that big of an issue because you'll have bigger things to concentrate on. you'll be doing yourself a big disservice if you don't at least give it a try - you might surprise yourself.

if all else fails - there's always hypnosis.

good luck.

Hey bonedoc, you got something against those of us who live with our mommies? You @#$%&*(.
:evilgrin:

As a 4th year, I did 3 straight orthopaedic rotations, 1 at my home institution and then the final 2 away. LIVING OUT OF A SUITCASE DOES SUCK. My first away rotation I actually lived in the University Hospital! There was a wing dedicated to away rotators/special programs. The first 2 weeks I drove to the nearby trauma hospital...not too bad, but the last 2 weeks I never really left the hospital as I was on the spine service. There's something kind of strange/interesting about rolling out of bed, walking down the hall to the O.R., sneaking back to YOUR "apartment" between cases, EVERYDAY of a rotation.
By the time I was done with that rotation I couldn't wait to get out of the hospital.
My second rotation had me living in graduate student housing 2 blocks away from the hospital. Better than living in the hospital but still, living out of a suitcase is no fun.
ANYHOW, Orthopaedics is NO JOKE. To optimize your chances of matching, you have to be willing to endure some pain. You'll do it as an away rotator, an intern, as a junior/senior resident and even as an attending life is not necessarily all peaches and cream.
One other option may be to only do away rotations locally if you live in a place with multiple programs not affiliated with your home institution. The problem with that is the flood of applications they WILL receive from all the other LOCAL medical students. Face it most people will apply in geographic proximity to their medschool in additon to all over the country if they want to optimize their chances of successfully matching ortho surg.