Find a resident (FAR)

[brilliantlyconfusedMD]

Hey All,
I am a PGY-1 in an internal medicine program in a desirable part of the country but am disappointed with my program mainly for limited fellowship opportunities, so I am thinking about changing programs or even specialty.
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the "find a resident" service offered by AAMC.
I also want to know if your PD will find out when you subscribe with this service and start sending emails to other programs?
Of course I know I will eventually have to talk to my PD but would rather delay this as much as possible.
Thanks

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[brilliantlyconfusedMD]

no one interested?!

 

[Law2Doc]

Hey All,
I am a PGY-1 in an internal medicine program in a desirable part of the country but am disappointed with my program mainly for limited fellowship opportunities, so I am thinking about changing programs or even specialty.
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the "find a resident" service offered by AAMC.
I also want to know if your PD will find out when you subscribe with this service and start sending emails to other programs?
Of course I know I will eventually have to talk to my PD but would rather delay this as much as possible.
Thanks

I'm not sure "mainly for limited fellowship opportunities" is the right threshold for trying to switch residencies. People try to switch to get out of bad situations, either professional or personal. The guy whose family is three states away may want to move. The guy who is in a Malignant residency may want to move. The guy who comes to the realization that he'd rather be an anesthesiologist than an ophthalmologist will want to figure out a transition. But if you re in the field you like, not being abused, and merely want better fellowship opportunities? I think that's a hard sell here as reasonable. You are unlikely to find a better launching pad -- most people are lucky enough to make a lateral move and often have to trade down in pedigree to get out of their current situation. You aren't going to jump from Boonies community hospital to MGH, (usully you trade from Boonies to Outer Boonies) and you are going to be better off with a PD and chairman at Boonies picking up the phone for you and raving about what a great resident you were, over the guy at MGH (or Outer Boonies) who thinks of you mostly as the guy we got when Bob, the guy he personally recruited and was sad to see leave, left us.

You might find that generating more accomplishments while at your current residency will actually be a much better avenue to fellowship -- start getting involved in your specialties' national organizations/committees where you can network, write for your local specialty journal (they probably have some sort of residents/fellows column; if not, start one), do some research and try to get a presentation or poster (or two) at the national meetings each year, again mostly so you can get your name out and network. That's the kind of stuff that gives you a shot at fellowships that otherwise might not have focused on your program. In case you didnt figure it out, networking can be huge -- often as huge as your program's name. Working on a Committee with a guy who helps choose his program's fellows can be as high yield as being a Resident under him.

 

[IMPD]

I'm not sure "mainly for limited fellowship opportunities" is the right threshold for trying to switch residencies. People try to switch to get out of bad situations, either professional or personal. The guy whose family is three states away may want to move. The guy who is in a Malignant residency may want to move. The guy who comes to the realization that he'd rather be an anesthesiologist than an ophthalmologist will want to figure out a transition. But if you re in the field you like, not being abused, and merely want better fellowship opportunities? I think that's a hard sell here as reasonable. You are unlikely to find a better launching pad -- most people are lucky enough to make a lateral move and often have to trade down in pedigree to get out of their current situation. You aren't going to jump from Boonies community hospital to MGH, (usully you trade from Boonies to Outer Boonies) and you are going to be better off with a PD and chairman at Boonies picking up the phone for you and raving about what a great resident you were, over the guy at MGH (or Outer Boonies) who thinks of you mostly as the guy we got when Bob, the guy he personally recruited and was sad to see leave, left us.

You might find that generating more accomplishments while at your current residency will actually be a much better avenue to fellowship -- start getting involved in your specialties' national organizations/committees where you can network, write for your local specialty journal (they probably have some sort of residents/fellows column; if not, start one), do some research and try to get a presentation or poster (or two) at the national meetings each year, again mostly so you can get your name out and network. That's the kind of stuff that gives you a shot at fellowships that otherwise might not have focused on your program. In case you didnt figure it out, networking can be huge -- often as huge as your program's name. Working on a Committee with a guy who helps choose his program's fellows can be as high yield as being a Resident under him.

Everything here is true.

The transition from "school" to "work", which happens at some point between MS3 and PGY3ish, takes many people by surprise and comes as a shock to most. The basic issue is that you start being evaluated as a team member - which means emotional intelligence, work place suitability, history of any red flag behavior far more than any other criteria that we're used to schools evaluating us on.

Fellowships can be pursued from many non-stellar residencies if you are able to put the above advice into effect.

If there is no chance of putting it into effect, then trying to pursue a change makes sense and you're better off talking to your PD now, as anything that smells like going behind his/her back will bite you in the a**.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

I see no problem with this request-- I think you guys are being unnecessarily harsh. It's hard to get a competitive fellowship in cardiology or GI or allergy from a community program, no matter how glowing the recs. There are certainly PGY-2 spots that open up and if he can squeeze into a university program, why not go for it?

If the city you're in is desirable enough, you might be able to arrange a swap with someone who doesn't want a cache fellowship, and needs to be where you are. But probably not-- your best bet is to look for an open PGY-2.

My sister-in-law ended up successfully switching both programs and specialties (from ENT to ophtho) using residentswap. I registered for it a while back, just to see what kind of opportunities came up in surgery, but didn't find much. There were a decent # of IM spots though.

Regarding strategies-- I think your best strategy is to first identify an interested program with an open position. Once you have a fish on the line, so to speak, talk to your PD. You will need his/her glowing recommendation to successfully transfer. Being an ambitious resident eager to pursue certain professional opportunities seems like a gold-star reason to transfer.

 

[brilliantlyconfusedMD]

Thank you for your comments. Matter of fact I am the stellar resident at my program (at least I have been told so by many of the attendings) and as BlondDocteur mentioned I am just ambitious plus I find myself wanting to do more procedures as the average internal medicine resident would like which is why I am thinking about changing specialties. In the mean time I'd appreciate any first hand experience with FAR.