Failed COMLEX level 1 twice. Can I still get into an IM residency?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
I

Ishaboi32

New Member
2+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2019
Messages
3
Reaction score
2
Current 4th year in dedicated for level 2. Like the title says, I failed level 1 twice and passed on the third try after focusing on the OMM aspect of the exam. I have been a below the average student up until third year where I became a bit more average passing all my shelf exams and getting a high pass (in surgery for some reason?). What do you guys recommend to get to an IM residency acceptance from my current predicament?
Members don't see this ad.
 
Yes, focus on old DO programs, DO friendly and community programs. Plan to apply very broadly (100+ programs).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
And Most importantly focus on passing level 2 on your first try before residency applications are released to programs. That will give you a better chance at getting interviews. OMM is still a big part of level 2 as well just fyi.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 users
Members don't see this ad :)
DrStephenStrange said:
And Most importantly focus on passing level 2 on your first try before residency applications are released to programs. That will give you a better chance at getting interviews. OMM is still a big part of level 2 as well just fyi.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for your advice, I really appreciate it!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Eat breathe and live level 2/step 2. I don't want you to have a left a single question on Uworld undone, a single chapter on B&B unreviewed, first aid step 2 not finished, etc.

And when interview season comes around rotate at DO programs that match mostly DOs. Make friends. Make friends who can vouch for you. Work harder than anyone else. Have your PD and faculty at your program make calls for you to people they know.

That being said I think being realistic, a match is a match. You want something in your hand. At this point FM or ER should on your radar for considerations.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5 users
Yes you can get into an IM residency
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
There are a lot of toxic/undesirable IM programs that go unfilled every year. you will be fine
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
I appreciate all your advice! Thank you, everybody
 
voxveritatisetlucis said:
Can I ask why IM over FM given that both likely open the same doors at this point
Click to expand...
I'm an IM resident and admittedly biased. I would still do community IM over FM. Things like endocrine, rheum, allergy (yes the latter two aren't a walk in the park), despite the more time commitment/similar salaries to FM, are worth it to me for the ability to not deal with PCP inboxes and saying these sweet words - you should talk to your PCP about this
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
Prehealth1011 said:
I'm an IM resident and admittedly biased. I would still do community IM over FM. Things like endocrine, rheum, allergy (yes the latter two aren't a walk in the park), despite the more time commitment/similar salaries to FM, are worth it to me for the ability to not deal with PCP inboxes and saying these sweet words - you should talk to your PCP about this
Click to expand...

Alternatively I hate to say it, but with multiple board failures a lot of fellowship programs aren't going to necessarily jump for joy at your application either.

You basically really need to be able to enter into fellowship with a very high chance of passing ABIM. If you're not then you're going to need to try again and potentially fail. And going forward you push out passing or doing well in fellowship / studying for fellowship boards.

The board exams don't stop and they don't get easier in IM.

Really the one safe guard right now is that not great test takers can do ABOIM and ABOIM subspecialty boards. But most fellowships are going to not realize that you're eligible for this and see you as potentially high risk for affecting their board pass rate - and with programs with 1-3 fellows one fail is a bad metric.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Drrrrrr. Celty said:
Alternatively I hate to say it, but with multiple board failures a lot of fellowship programs aren't going to necessarily jump for joy at your application either.

You basically really need to be able to enter into fellowship with a very high chance of passing ABIM. If you're not then you're going to need to try again and potentially fail. And going forward you push out passing or doing well in fellowship / studying for fellowship boards.

The board exams don't stop and they don't get easier in IM.

Really the one safe guard right now is that not great test takers can do ABOIM and ABOIM subspecialty boards. But most fellowships are going to not realize that you're eligible for this and see you as potentially high risk for affecting their board pass rate - and with programs with 1-3 fellows one fail is a bad metric.
Click to expand...
I am extremely biased toward IM too.

My experience is that FM is usually not strongly trained due to their attempt to do everything. Even if they go to unopposed institutions, they are not taken as seriously. OB/Gyn knows you won't be one of them, so you get limited exposure AND most places won't really hire you to do OB unless it's rural. If your inpatient is ran by IM, you won't be taken as seriously because they see you as the outpatient person. You do peds, and the exposure is usually quite poor because you're not rotating at real children's hospitals. There's also a lot of redundant rotations like ENT, surgery, ophtho, anesthesia, etc. that give you limited exposure.

On the other hand there's IM. You will be able to ignore all the OB and pediatrics. You are required to do 1/3 of your residency outpatient plus certain clinic hours, so you don't come behind to FM for the most part. I will say that usually FM does have stronger dermatology and procedures than your average IM, but if you're looking to become outpatient, you can focus your electives to cover this. Finally, there's fellowships. You can easily match Nephrology, ID, Hospice, and Geriatrics with board failures. Endo is possible but a bit harder. Finally, if you match at a place with in-house fellowships, you could end up doing better. For example, Valley Hospital in LV, NV is extremely easy to match IM with failures, and they have in-house PCCM and GI. You impress people there, and you can go from failed comlex 1 to GI doc
 
  • Like
Reactions: 6 users
AlbinoHawk DO said:
I am extremely biased toward IM too.

My experience is that FM is usually not strongly trained due to their attempt to do everything. Even if they go to unopposed institutions, they are not taken as seriously. OB/Gyn knows you won't be one of them, so you get limited exposure AND most places won't really hire you to do OB unless it's rural. If your inpatient is ran by IM, you won't be taken as seriously because they see you as the outpatient person. You do peds, and the exposure is usually quite poor because you're not rotating at real children's hospitals. There's also a lot of redundant rotations like ENT, surgery, ophtho, anesthesia, etc. that give you limited exposure.

On the other hand there's IM. You will be able to ignore all the OB and pediatrics. You are required to do 1/3 of your residency outpatient plus certain clinic hours, so you don't come behind to FM for the most part. I will say that usually FM does have stronger dermatology and procedures than your average IM, but if you're looking to become outpatient, you can focus your electives to cover this. Finally, there's fellowships. You can easily match Nephrology, ID, Hospice, and Geriatrics with board failures. Endo is possible but a bit harder. Finally, if you match at a place with in-house fellowships, you could end up doing better. For example, Valley Hospital in LV, NV is extremely easy to match IM with failures, and they have in-house PCCM and GI. You impress people there, and you can go from failed comlex 1 to GI doc
Click to expand...
Agree although FM are eligible for both hospice and geriatrics
 
We have a large FM program, and none of them want anything to do with OB/Peds. I don't know how typical this is but our FM residents also have to do inbox management basically all the time even when they're inpatient. Sure our's might be an exception but you should really consider these things before choosing FM over IM
 
Prehealth1011 said:
We have a large FM program, and none of them want anything to do with OB/Peds. I don't know how typical this is but our FM residents also have to do inbox management basically all the time even when they're inpatient. Sure our's might be an exception but you should really consider these things before choosing FM over IM
Click to expand...

Wait till you're in fellowship...
I spend around 30 minutes a day minimally on my inbox. And honestly I spend at a few days on the weekend catching up. Some days it's an hour or greater when I have to call a patient and discuss medical management.

The inbox is the many-faced god and he always wants more.
AlbinoHawk DO said:
I am extremely biased toward IM too.

My experience is that FM is usually not strongly trained due to their attempt to do everything. Even if they go to unopposed institutions, they are not taken as seriously. OB/Gyn knows you won't be one of them, so you get limited exposure AND most places won't really hire you to do OB unless it's rural. If your inpatient is ran by IM, you won't be taken as seriously because they see you as the outpatient person. You do peds, and the exposure is usually quite poor because you're not rotating at real children's hospitals. There's also a lot of redundant rotations like ENT, surgery, ophtho, anesthesia, etc. that give you limited exposure.

On the other hand there's IM. You will be able to ignore all the OB and pediatrics. You are required to do 1/3 of your residency outpatient plus certain clinic hours, so you don't come behind to FM for the most part. I will say that usually FM does have stronger dermatology and procedures than your average IM, but if you're looking to become outpatient, you can focus your electives to cover this. Finally, there's fellowships. You can easily match Nephrology, ID, Hospice, and Geriatrics with board failures. Endo is possible but a bit harder. Finally, if you match at a place with in-house fellowships, you could end up doing better. For example, Valley Hospital in LV, NV is extremely easy to match IM with failures, and they have in-house PCCM and GI. You impress people there, and you can go from failed comlex 1 to GI doc
Click to expand...

I have some disagreement here. At my program the FM residency clinic was far better funded, had less are being refused by every other clinic or need palliative care consultation patients, and had a far more broad base of diseases because their population included the whole of 18 to 99s.

I felt like my outpt medicine experience was terrible as an IM resident and I talking to many other IM graduates they feel similarly.

Do I think FM is probably a lil out of date? A bit. But I think there are good FM programs where you can get trained working better hours and lifestyle to do an outpt generalist gig from the get go. The FM residents worked better hours than the IM residents and none of them are struggling in their PCP jobs.

Fundamentally I just think it's important to be reasonable expectations.

Can you go from 2 COMLEX level 1 failures to being a PCCM? Sure.

But as someone who has seen plenty of good applications for fellowships land nowhere , it's not an easy road up there.
 
Drrrrrr. Celty said:
I felt like my outpt medicine experience was terrible as an IM resident and I talking to many other IM graduates they feel similarly.
Click to expand...
My outpatient experience is really just When can I go home so I can work on useless research for my fellowship apps. None of us are into it and if it wasn't mandatory, we wouldn't go
 
Failed Comlex level 1 twice lol. Still matched into IM. Currently finishing PGY1. Already have two offers. One from ED director who directly offered me a EM position if I'll do 1000 hours of EM shifts - doable if I do 4 of my selectives in PGY3 (we have total of 6 selectives in PGY3). Another from Crit.care doc who urges me to apply to his fellowship. EM is in our hospital, critical is in another city 40 min away. Ironically I tend to just keep forming into hospitalist. I find it more and more life style vs anything else out there. :giggle:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
ASGD1983 said:
Failed Comlex level 1 twice lol. Still matched into IM. Currently finishing PGY1. Already have two offers. One from ED director who directly offered me a EM position if I'll do 1000 hours of EM shifts - doable if I do 4 of my selectives in PGY3 (we have total of 6 selectives in PGY3). Another from Crit.care doc who urges me to apply to his fellowship. EM is in our hospital, critical is in another city 40 min away. Ironically I tend to just keep forming into hospitalist. I find it more and more life style vs anything else out there. :giggle:
Click to expand...
Too bad IM doesn't allow more than 2 EM rotations or you become ineligible to graduate
 
Drrrrrr. Celty said:
Wait till you're in fellowship...
I spend around 30 minutes a day minimally on my inbox. And honestly I spend at a few days on the weekend catching up. Some days it's an hour or greater when I have to call a patient and discuss medical management.

The inbox is the many-faced god and he always wants more.


I have some disagreement here. At my program the FM residency clinic was far better funded, had less are being refused by every other clinic or need palliative care consultation patients, and had a far more broad base of diseases because their population included the whole of 18 to 99s.

I felt like my outpt medicine experience was terrible as an IM resident and I talking to many other IM graduates they feel similarly.

Do I think FM is probably a lil out of date? A bit. But I think there are good FM programs where you can get trained working better hours and lifestyle to do an outpt generalist gig from the get go. The FM residents worked better hours than the IM residents and none of them are struggling in their PCP jobs.

Fundamentally I just think it's important to be reasonable expectations.

Can you go from 2 COMLEX level 1 failures to being a PCCM? Sure.

But as someone who has seen plenty of good applications for fellowships land nowhere , it's not an easy road up there.
Click to expand...
It's more than just outpatient general clinic. You have to do specialty clinics, too, or did your program skip that?

FM can do fine if your goal is simply clinic, but i feel you're really shooting yourself in the foot by not getting the inpatient experience and having more career paths open
 
Prehealth1011 said:
My outpatient experience is really just When can I go home so I can work on useless research for my fellowship apps. None of us are into it and if it wasn't mandatory, we wouldn't go
Click to expand...

Most IM outpt is just that. Low flow and pain. And then run home early so you can sleep.

AlbinoHawk DO said:
It's more than just outpatient general clinic. You have to do specialty clinics, too, or did your program skip that?

FM can do fine if your goal is simply clinic, but i feel you're really shooting yourself in the foot by not getting the inpatient experience and having more career paths open
Click to expand...

We did specialty clinic while on specialty rotations. It was limited.

I agree. If you want to do specialty medicine or want to do inpatient medicine. I think I wouldn't have been able to go do outpt medicine straight out of IM residency. I barely know how to prescribe birth control, suture, or how to do age appropriate vaccinations and screening discussions or well person exams. Hell any time a rash comes into the office everyone in the office panicked.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: 1 user
Drrrrrr. Celty said:
Most IM outpt is just that. Low flow and pain. And then run home early so you can sleep.



We did specialty clinic while on specialty rotations. It was limited.

I agree. If you want to do specialty medicine or want to do inpatient medicine. I think I wouldn't have been able to go do outpt medicine straight out of IM residency. I barely know how to prescribe birth control, suture, or how to do age appropriate vaccinations and screening discussions or well person exams. Hell any time a rash comes into the office everyone in the office panicked.
Click to expand...
Wow, that sucks that your clinic was that bad. We had a woman's health rotation just to learn birth control. We did all the vaccines and other stuff. We had roughly 8 patients per half day. Only thing i seriously lacked was derm but that was because i chose not to do the elective
 
AlbinoHawk DO said:
Wow, that sucks that your clinic was that bad. We had a woman's health rotation just to learn birth control. We did all the vaccines and other stuff. We had roughly 8 patients per half day. Only thing i seriously lacked was derm but that was because i chose not to do the elective
Click to expand...

I has 6-10 pts per half day. Usually >55, with an active dx of CHF, Pulm Htn, insulin dependent DM, and or CKD progressing on ESRD.

But I can't complain, ambulatory was chill so I could sleep off my sleep debt from ICU months and call.

And don't get me wrong. I'm good at outpt now. But I doubt i'd have been able to do outpt primary care from IM residency. And almost all of my friends have similar thoughts.
 
AlbinoHawk DO said:
I am extremely biased toward IM too.

My experience is that FM is usually not strongly trained due to their attempt to do everything. Even if they go to unopposed institutions, they are not taken as seriously. OB/Gyn knows you won't be one of them, so you get limited exposure AND most places won't really hire you to do OB unless it's rural. If your inpatient is ran by IM, you won't be taken as seriously because they see you as the outpatient person. You do peds, and the exposure is usually quite poor because you're not rotating at real children's hospitals. There's also a lot of redundant rotations like ENT, surgery, ophtho, anesthesia, etc. that give you limited exposure.
Click to expand...
This is highly variable depending on the FM program. We had standalone inpatient and OB/newborn services. We rotated through the Childrens hospital for inpatient peds (in addition to our own peds on the floors and in newborn), NICU, and Peds EM. We did MICU/SICU. Volumes were high, high complexity due to truly independent patient populations (anyone who had an FM PCP came to us, and our FM outpatient was much larger than the IM outpatient). We were not at an unopposed program but rather a large tertiary center with huge referral base, and large and well respected FM department.

Of our average class, 1-2 would graduate and do FMOB, 2 would become hospitalists, 2 outpatient PC only, and 2-3 would go to fellowship (usually 1 sports, 1 geri, sometimes faculty development/MedEd). I did not do Anesthesia, but we covered a lot in the ICUs. Only did ENT clinic as part of a mix of a couple subspecialty surgery clinics during. I did surgery inpatient, but focused on floor management, post-op, consults, etc.

FMOB people were either rural or went to cities with training institutions/FM residencies that had OB. Every few years someone would do an OB fellowship so they could get credentialed for C-sections. You really have to want to do this in FM, because it take a lot to maintain volume and stay fresh with it. That said, most of the outpatient only people did prenatal care, even if they weren't delivering.

Anyway my point is that training in FM is highly variable, some programs train much more well rounded graduates. Others very much do not. It depends.
 
hallowmann said:
This is highly variable depending on the FM program. We had standalone inpatient and OB/newborn services. We rotated through the Childrens hospital for inpatient peds (in addition to our own peds on the floors and in newborn), NICU, and Peds EM. We did MICU/SICU. Volumes were high, high complexity due to truly independent patient populations (anyone who had an FM PCP came to us, and our FM outpatient was much larger than the IM outpatient). We were not at an unopposed program but rather a large tertiary center with huge referral base, and large and well respected FM department.

Of our average class, 1-2 would graduate and do FMOB, 2 would become hospitalists, 2 outpatient PC only, and 2-3 would go to fellowship (usually 1 sports, 1 geri, sometimes faculty development/MedEd). I did not do Anesthesia, but we covered a lot in the ICUs. Only did ENT clinic as part of a mix of a couple subspecialty surgery clinics during. I did surgery inpatient, but focused on floor management, post-op, consults, etc.

FMOB people were either rural or went to cities with training institutions/FM residencies that had OB. Every few years someone would do an OB fellowship so they could get credentialed for C-sections. You really have to want to do this in FM, because it take a lot to maintain volume and stay fresh with it. That said, most of the outpatient only people did prenatal care, even if they weren't delivering.

Anyway my point is that training in FM is highly variable, some programs train much more well rounded graduates. Others very much do not. It depends.
Click to expand...
I'm really glad to hear that your experience has been this strong. Don't get me wrong. There are IM programs out there that sound outright scary to me where it seems that all they do is consult and basically shadow during elective months. For anyone reading, I hope they keep in mind that I'm talking about the average IM program vs the average FM program. Clearly there are better programs in both directs (ie, IM>FM or FM>IM). I do think in the future we would benefit from slowly getting rid of traditional FM and making both IM and "new" FM more robust. Let me explain:

1. Ideal IM program will have the strength of FM clinics that the majority of FM have. They will also address gynecology needs
2. FM programs in rural or smaller cities will transition to 4-year "rural medicine" programs. Ideally you'd do as close to 10 months IM, 10 months EM, 10 months peds, 10 months ob/gyn and the other 6 months would be specialty electives where the residents could travel to other centers. Say you have an interest in Endocrinology. You can go to an endocrinology fellowship and complete 6-months there to have "advanced credentials." You could do the same with nephro, neurology, cardio, etc. This would make much stronger rural doctors that would help bridge the gap where there aren't enough specialists. I think the fact they'd be 4-year programs would make more people with genuine desire to live in these areas to attend
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
AlbinoHawk DO said:
I'm really glad to hear that your experience has been this strong. Don't get me wrong. There are IM programs out there that sound outright scary to me where it seems that all they do is consult and basically shadow during elective months. For anyone reading, I hope they keep in mind that I'm talking about the average IM program vs the average FM program. Clearly there are better programs in both directs (ie, IM>FM or FM>IM). I do think in the future we would benefit from slowly getting rid of traditional FM and making both IM and "new" FM more robust. Let me explain:

1. Ideal IM program will have the strength of FM clinics that the majority of FM have. They will also address gynecology needs
2. FM programs in rural or smaller cities will transition to 4-year "rural medicine" programs. Ideally you'd do as close to 10 months IM, 10 months EM, 10 months peds, 10 months ob/gyn and the other 6 months would be specialty electives where the residents could travel to other centers. Say you have an interest in Endocrinology. You can go to an endocrinology fellowship and complete 6-months there to have "advanced credentials." You could do the same with nephro, neurology, cardio, etc. This would make much stronger rural doctors that would help bridge the gap where there aren't enough specialists. I think the fact they'd be 4-year programs would make more people with genuine desire to live in these areas to attend
Click to expand...
Or decimate rural physicians even more lol. I would agree it would increase the strength of these physicians but we are also asking them to complete another year of training compared to just doing IM then going out there afterwards.
 
DO2015CA said:
Or decimate rural physicians even more lol. I would agree it would increase the strength of these physicians but we are also asking them to complete another year of training compared to just doing IM then going out there afterwards.
Click to expand...
That's the thing. There would be a massive increase in IM programs from FM programs without rural track converting over. If your interest is just hospitalist or PCP, you'd do IM. If your interest is everything in rural communities, you'd do rural

You'd also see a massive shift in funding and hiring. Big cities would have no reason to hire rural doctors, so even if those positions were all filled by IMG, they'd stay in those communities
 
AlbinoHawk DO said:
That's the thing. There would be a massive increase in IM programs from FM programs without rural track converting over. If your interest is just hospitalist or PCP, you'd do IM. If your interest is everything in rural communities, you'd do rural

You'd also see a massive shift in funding and hiring. Big cities would have no reason to hire rural doctors, so even if those positions were all filled by IMG, they'd stay in those communities
Click to expand...
But rural places would still hire those city IM grads because they need docs. I think this would have an effect like the 3yr vs 4yr ER programs. Most people’s first choice would be 3 year IM except for the few interested people then the weaker applicants fall down their rank list to the 4 year programs. You don’t think city outpatient jobs would hire the rural medicine graduates? Many cities are still hurting for outpatient PCPs. I think an unintended consequence would still be rural medicine taking outpatient city PCP jobs but just taking an extra year for residency and all the costs that comes with that to society.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
DO2015CA said:
But rural places would still hire those city IM grads because they need docs. I think this would have an effect like the 3yr vs 4yr ER programs. Most people’s first choice would be 3 year IM except for the few interested people then the weaker applicants fall down their rank list to the 4 year programs. You don’t think city outpatient jobs would hire the rural medicine graduates? Many cities are still hurting for outpatient PCPs. I think an unintended consequence would still be rural medicine taking outpatient city PCP jobs but just taking an extra year for residency and all the costs that comes with that to society.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they would hire them, so there would be more doctors and better prepared available all around. I don't think rural medicine doctors would necessarily be a choice to hire if there are sufficient IM and other doctors. Having a 4th year would also likely help those rural communities even if those doctors left

People still do rural FM usually as backup or lower in rank list unless really interested
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
AlbinoHawk DO said:
Yeah, they would hire them, so there would be more doctors and better prepared available all around. I don't think rural medicine doctors would necessarily be a choice to hire if there are sufficient IM and other doctors. Having a 4th year would also likely help those rural communities even if those doctors left

People still do rural FM usually as backup or lower in rank list unless really interested
Click to expand...
Without an increase in IM spots there will still be not enough PCP docs imo. It’s just shuffling spots. Also, the curriculum you proposed would lead to a really well trained generalist (lol). If im hiring PCPs, I would take that trained person over an IM person for a PCP position
 
DO2015CA said:
Without an increase in IM spots there will still be not enough PCP docs imo. It’s just shuffling spots. Also, the curriculum you proposed would lead to a really well trained generalist (lol). If im hiring PCPs, I would take that trained person over an IM person for a PCP position
Click to expand...
Only if you don't understand the point of the training. You don't need someone with extensive OB and EM for PCP. You also don't need someone with extensive peds. Almost every major city and nearby city has enough peds now that they can't even do hospital medicine without a fellowship.

I mean, look how they hire NPs and they have a fraction of the training
 
AlbinoHawk DO said:
Only if you don't understand the point of the training. You don't need someone with extensive OB and EM for PCP. You also don't need someone with extensive peds. Almost every major city and nearby city has enough peds now that they can't even do hospital medicine without a fellowship.

I mean, look how they hire NPs and they have a fraction of the training
Click to expand...
The peds issue of hospital medicine is a systemic healthcare admin problem. All pediatricians leaving residency are qualified to be hospitalist but due to the low number of peds hospitals (which there aren’t enough. I’ve had to transfer an RSV bronchiolitis 2 states away because of no beds almost every winter) the stupid healthcare admins who don’t understand training think it’s a good idea. I will say unless you are in one of the 5ish true major cities in the country (all of which have multiple peds residencies to draw from) there is still a comfortable outpatient peds job market. I still routinely check the job boards in case I ever want to bail subspecialty training/care and there are an abundant postings in most cities. This could be explained as a catch up market as most peds hiring was halted with covid but idk too soon to say.

I spill that rant to say I agree with you lol. But I will say it is not uncommon for parents to choose FM docs so they can have a 1 stop shopping for their pcp needs. Of course this can be alleviated by multidisciplinary clinics.
 
Drrrrrr. Celty said:
Most IM outpt is just that. Low flow and pain. And then run home early so you can sleep.



We did specialty clinic while on specialty rotations. It was limited.

I agree. If you want to do specialty medicine or want to do inpatient medicine. I think I wouldn't have been able to go do outpt medicine straight out of IM residency. I barely know how to prescribe birth control, suture, or how to do age appropriate vaccinations and screening discussions or well person exams. Hell any time a rash comes into the office everyone in the office panicked.
Click to expand...

At my program, the outpatient IM experience can depend on who you recruit to the clinic. Usually, the people that end up in the hospital are there because they have a bad (or lack of) PCP. Fill up your schedule with patients you want to see.

Did they give you that option in your clinic?
 
DO2015CA said:
ut I will say it is not uncommon for parents to choose FM docs so they can have a 1 stop shopping for their pcp needs. Of course this can be alleviated by multidisciplinary clinics.
Click to expand...
Its great for younger families who have relatively little medical problems and healthy children.
 
getfat said:
Its great for younger families who have relatively little medical problems and healthy children.
Click to expand...
Even for not healthy kids. You’d be surprised how many of my chronic kids have a non-pediatrician as PCP. One could argue that I’m managing the complicated disease so anyone could do the pcp portion but you can’t screen for associated things if you arent familiar with the syndrome. Parents prefer convenience over best care for their kids.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Take Step 1 and try to pass it on first try. If you do that, can you just apply using Step 1 and not report Level 1 failure as a DO? or will it show up automatically because you are a DO?
 
MDMechEngr said:
Take Step 1 and try to pass it on first try. If you do that, can you just apply using Step 1 and not report Level 1 failure as a DO? or will it show up automatically because you are a DO?
Click to expand...
Everyone knows you must take COMLEX as a DO to graduate med school. A PD won’t match you if they don’t know for sure that you will graduate.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
MDMechEngr said:
Take Step 1 and try to pass it on first try. If you do that, can you just apply using Step 1 and not report Level 1 failure as a DO? or will it show up automatically because you are a DO?
Click to expand...
Won’t show up automatically.
 
Drrrrrr. Celty said:
I spend around 30 minutes a day minimally on my inbox. And honestly I spend at a few days on the weekend catching up. Some days it's an hour or greater when I have to call a patient and discuss medical management.
Click to expand...
In true "hang-a-shingle," private practice, do you spend that much time on your inbasket? I would just demand patients come in for results and questions. You don't get reimbursed for in-basket messages?

I've always wondered if perceived in-basket burden is because we mostly train at academic or quasi academic institutions that open themselves to it.
 
BlueBleck said:
In true "hang-a-shingle," private practice, do you spend that much time on your inbasket? I would just demand patients come in for results and questions. You don't get reimbursed for in-basket messages?
Click to expand...
people don't want to come in for that.
 
getfat said:
people don't want to come in for that.
Click to expand...
Nor should they unless there is something that needs to be done.

@BlueBleck Giving reassuring results and asking questions over the phone does take a non-zero amount of time. It certainly adds up even if you’re sending my chart messages saying everything looks great for every result.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

anonymouspremeduser001
Passed STEP 1 but Failed Level 1
Replies
3
Views
561
Cornfed101
Cornfed101
El-Rami
Ready for COMLEX Level 1?
Replies
4
Views
1K
DOhustle
D
W
Failed Level 1, passed. Can I still apply neurology?
Replies
4
Views
1K
BlueBleck
BlueBleck
A
Comlex 1 Preparation Advice
Replies
2
Views
463
yougotquestions
Y
futuredoc1317
Bad comlex level 2. Help!
Replies
4
Views
756
futuredoc1317
futuredoc1317
Top