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- Aug 22, 2007
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Hey all, I'm a rising PGY 3 at a busy community style hybrid program. I got in to EM because of my interest in prehospital and wilderness medicine, mainly through my involvement in ski patrol. As third year looms so soon ahead, I'm debating more on what to do after finishing up next June.
Initially my itention when starting residency was to find a wilderness medicine fellowship to complete. I really enjoy the austere medicine component of prehospital stuff, and I like adventure races and medical command and support for these events. I'm lucky to have one of the 10 programs associated with my program, and I would love the chance to stay and be here for the fellowship, but I'm starting to wonder if it will be worth it.
I've been talking with the fellowship director as well as the current fellow and what I've heard from both of them as been positive. I've spoken with some of the fresh attendings that are 1-2 years out of residency in the past few years to get their take as well, and in their opinion they think I would be able to have the same trip experiences, go to the same conferences and as a benefit I'd get to make twice the money. I'm not extremely interested in research necessarily, but I do have some interests that might be fun to further investigate.
I think that the fellowship would be a great time to further learn about a subtopic in me that interests me and I'd get paid to do it. If I don't do the fellowship I'll probably end up being the EM guy you work with that is the local wilderness guru.
My question is for those of you who have completed a fellowship like this one or any of the non accredited ones, has it made a difference in your practice? In your happiness? Was it worth it?
As far as the finances go, I think our fellows work 8-9 days a month, so the ability to moonlight in house or locally would help make up for the pay cut of attending vs fellow. Plus our fellows make half attending pay typically.
I'm leaning towards the fellowship at this point, but getting all these job offers via email almost daily and the thought of moving on and moving back closer to home is very tempting and it's a strong pull. I know the fellowship is only one more year, and that year will be as an attending and not a resident, I'll be working less and will be busy with trips and classes.
But is it worth it?
Initially my itention when starting residency was to find a wilderness medicine fellowship to complete. I really enjoy the austere medicine component of prehospital stuff, and I like adventure races and medical command and support for these events. I'm lucky to have one of the 10 programs associated with my program, and I would love the chance to stay and be here for the fellowship, but I'm starting to wonder if it will be worth it.
I've been talking with the fellowship director as well as the current fellow and what I've heard from both of them as been positive. I've spoken with some of the fresh attendings that are 1-2 years out of residency in the past few years to get their take as well, and in their opinion they think I would be able to have the same trip experiences, go to the same conferences and as a benefit I'd get to make twice the money. I'm not extremely interested in research necessarily, but I do have some interests that might be fun to further investigate.
I think that the fellowship would be a great time to further learn about a subtopic in me that interests me and I'd get paid to do it. If I don't do the fellowship I'll probably end up being the EM guy you work with that is the local wilderness guru.
My question is for those of you who have completed a fellowship like this one or any of the non accredited ones, has it made a difference in your practice? In your happiness? Was it worth it?
As far as the finances go, I think our fellows work 8-9 days a month, so the ability to moonlight in house or locally would help make up for the pay cut of attending vs fellow. Plus our fellows make half attending pay typically.
I'm leaning towards the fellowship at this point, but getting all these job offers via email almost daily and the thought of moving on and moving back closer to home is very tempting and it's a strong pull. I know the fellowship is only one more year, and that year will be as an attending and not a resident, I'll be working less and will be busy with trips and classes.
But is it worth it?