Can anyone help guide me on programs I should consider?

[SLC]

3rd (soon to be 4th) year DO student.

USMLE step1 = 227
COMLEX part1 = 538

High pass in most rotations, with a pass in Surgery. My school has a vague system for preceptors to grade us with, the preceptors give us a 1-5 in various areas of performance and the school then takes the average and makes a grade out of that. And the evaluation is weighted much heavier than the shelf exams. I honored all shelves except surgery (low pass) and psych (pass); and got high-pass on all evals except surgery (where I got honors). It is what it is.

Top 40% class rank in pre-clinical years.

Excellent EC's revolving heavily around primary care and addressing health disparities. Mostly prior to med-school though.

I'm interested in staying out west. I already plan on applying to the programs in Utah; but are there any others out here that would be good options for someone like me?

I switched plans to Family Med from Internal Med during the past few weeks and so I haven't had much time to research programs.

If it helps (and matters), I may be interested in the opportunity to do a palliative care fellowship after residency; but most likely would want to practice full scope Family Med.

Thanks in advance.

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[NurWollen]

3rd (soon to be 4th) year DO student.

USMLE step1 = 227
COMLEX part1 = 538

High pass in most rotations, with a pass in Surgery. My school has a vague system for preceptors to grade us with, the preceptors give us a 1-5 in various areas of performance and the school then takes the average and makes a grade out of that. And the evaluation is weighted much heavier than the shelf exams. I honored all shelves except surgery (low pass) and psych (pass); and got high-pass on all evals except surgery (where I got honors). It is what it is.

Top 40% class rank in pre-clinical years.

Excellent EC's revolving heavily around primary care and addressing health disparities. Mostly prior to med-school though.

I'm interested in staying out west. I already plan on applying to the programs in Utah; but are there any others out here that would be good options for someone like me?

I switched plans to Family Med from Internal Med during the past few weeks and so I haven't had much time to research programs.

If it helps (and matters), I may be interested in the opportunity to do a palliative care fellowship after residency; but most likely would want to practice full scope Family Med.

Thanks in advance.

I'll be watching this thread with interest. I'm just a rising MSII but I'm interested in learning more about FM and how training works and how different programs can prepare you for different practice environments.

 

[KnuxNole]

I recommend unopposed programs(where family medicine is the only residency) as a great way to train for full scope FM.

Although opposed programs are great and can also do this, personally, I like unopposed programs for FM training. There are a lot of good programs in the West Coast, and your board scores are solid.

 

[rachmoninov3]

Go where you will be most happy. If that is where your family is, wherever has the best weather, or closest to the slopes it doesn't matter. You want to be happy because residency is very difficult. Also, residency is about what you put into it. If you sleep on night float, or if you're hanging out in the ER/ICU/NICU it's up to you and will determine what you learn.
Unfortunately or fortunately residencies change year to year so one that was great for the past few years can change with changes in program/medical directors. So don't go by what a lot of people on this board say without doing your own research.
Typically good "full scope" programs are: Santa Rosa, CA; Klammath Falls, OR; Spokane-Colville, Washington.

 

[apoptoaster]

Similar location to the ones you mentioned, and good full-scope programs to check out:
Grand Juncion CO, Pueblo CO, Boise (FMRI) and the two associated RTTs, Pocatello ID, Billings MO, and there were a couple in WY that would be worth looking at.

 

[Bacchus]

I'd say mine, but I'm on the East coast.

 

[SLC]

I'd say mine, but I'm on the East coast.

I'm not completely opposed to the east coast, but there seem to be many more options out west in FM than there were in IM. Both my family, and my wife's family are out west, so that does carry some weight. But we were ready to apply to IM programs in Pennsylvania, Florida, West Virginia, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa etc.

Perhaps you can PM me about your program? I probably need more than what I can find strictly out west to have a solid chance at matching.

 

[primadonna22274]

Awesome underrecognized unopposed FM in Florence, SC at McLeod Regional Medical Center. Just started orientation today. an hour from Myrtle Beach. Cheap cost of living and pays better than anyone else in the state

 

[NurWollen]

Hey SLC, obviously I know a lot less than you but what have you heard about some of the Phoenix area programs? Scottsdale Healthcare and Phoenix Baptist are both unopposed, I believe.

 

[Bacchus]

I wouldn't necessarily write off opposed programs. My network has surgical residents, OB/GYN residents, medicine residents, podiatric residents, emergency medicine, orthopedic and pharmacy residents.

On our medicine (hospital service) rotations and night float we admit for our family practice, the other family health center as well as several private attendings. Some nights are slow, but is not always the case and we're often carrying a good amount on our census (6-10 patients). Obviously, we won't be carrying as much as medicine or the hospitalist service, but I feel my education isn't lacking. More oft than naught, I'm not getting much rest when I'm on night float.

We learn a TON on night float. There are no pediatric residents, but we have a very active pediatric floor. The attendings are on home call. We're the only residents. We're often busy in the hospital and can't always get to the pediatric admissions in a timely manner so they have hired a few midlevels to help, but to my knowledge they won't be working completely through the night. We're the first line of defense for any children that get sick. In addition, our other 5 campuses transfer to the main campus (where we are) because they don't have pediatric floors. Although it sucks at times (its not uncommon to do >5 pediatric admissions), I feel I'm fairly comfortable with a lot of the pediatric complaints. To add to this, we also cover any office patients who come into L&D triage and cover an entire obstetrics office in addition to those patients (with OB back up).

We don't do surgery at the main campus, but rather have a nice (50/50) mix with the head of surgery at one of the nearby campuses. I get valuable procedural skills (tying, cutting, removing, etc.) and a good amount of office time which translates into a wealth of information I take back when I see my patients in the FM office. It's nice to not be "competing" with the surgical residents. I have no desire to do a Whippel and won't have to on this rotation. But I will learn plenty of lump and bump removals which is valuable education for generating RVUs .

My only possible complaint would be my OB experience, but I feel this is because of another intern (OB/GYN) I had the unfortunate mishap of working with for 4 of my 8 weeks on the floor. That said, I'm leaving intern year with 30 deliveries. I need 40 by graduation.

I worked on ICU with ANP Fellows, emergency medicine residents and medicine residents. I was treated as an equal. Just because I was FM didn't mean I couldn't have done lines/intubations/etc if I wanted to. I did a few, but then let others do them because its more pivotal to their scope of practice. Just because I was FM, that doesn't mean my load was lessened any. I had several times where I was the only resident on the floor for the weekend and had to manage a very active ICU or MICU.

If you really like a program (like I did) don't discount it because its opposed. You can still get a very thorough and valuable education.