FP switch to Gen Surg.

Wow, that is quite a career switch. Your numbers are good for GS and I am sure that having completing a residency in FM will help. My old chief resident was an internist who decided to go into surgery. He was definitely one of the better chiefs-never took a day off, good in the or, loved what he was doing. Good luck.

In your favor:

- average scores for general surgery
- surgeons love residents who "see the light" and leave other specialties for surgery (we get tired of hearing about how everyone abandons surgery for other fields)

Working against you:

- you've used up your funding (ie, all 3 years) so surgery programs will have to take you without all the CMS funding
- being seen as flaky type who can't decide what they want
- experience doing C-sections (just joking...sort of. Many surgeons don't consider it surgery, so I wouldn't brag about that during interviews. Scopes are good though and many die hard surgeons are tired of candidates saying they don't do their own scopes and let GI do them all).

Surgery is pretty traditional so non-trads aren't are common as they are in other disciplines. However, that shouldn't stop you. There is another SDNer who is doing the same thing - in FM and trying to get into Gen Surg (leukocyte is his user name, I believe). You and he might want to compare notes.

In the end, it only matters how competitive you are at ONE program. No one can tell you whether or not you'd match and even if we did, would you not try?

I say its worth it - see if you can get some letters from surgeons for your app, and make sure you have a Plan B (ie, what to do if you don't match).

blackandtan said:

Have a question: what implications can the lack of CMS funding have on me. I've heard of this problem before with other grads of my program that have switched to ER and other specialties, but they matched and are pursuing their dreams.

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The implications are obvious: FM is a 3 year residency and General Surgery is 5 years (at least). Thus, you have only been funded for 3 years, so any general surgery program will have only 50% DME and 0% IME funding for the 5 years of surgery residency.

Clearly people still do it, EM is shorter than surgery so programs have less funding to "eat", than in surgery, but if a program really wants you AND has other funding sources they may be willing to overlook the loss of funding. Your colleagues may have also gotten some time cut off their EM residency by some of the FM rotations; that would be unlikely in surgery.

At any rate, its a point you need to be aware of as some programs will not consider applications from people who have already completed a residency or whom have no IME funding.

Hey there,

I'm actually a board-certified Family doc who 'saw the light' and now 9 months into my categorical surgical intern year in NY! I'm loving the change and would def. encourage you to switch!

BTW, I had no problems getting a spot despite doing 3 years of a FP residency (in regards to CMS funding) and my program feels my medical background is actually an assett!

Winged Scapula said:

The implications are obvious: FM is a 3 year residency and General Surgery is 5 years (at least). Thus, you have only been funded for 3 years, so any general surgery program will have only 50% DME and 0% IME funding for the 5 years of surgery residency.

Clearly people still do it, EM is shorter than surgery so programs have less funding to "eat", than in surgery, but if a program really wants you AND has other funding sources they may be willing to overlook the loss of funding. Your colleagues may have also gotten some time cut off their EM residency by some of the FM rotations; that would be unlikely in surgery.

At any rate, its a point you need to be aware of as some programs will not consider applications from people who have already completed a residency or whom have no IME funding.

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Umm 50% DGME and 100% IME according to this:
http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/library/gme/dgmebroc.pdf

I would defer to Aprogdirector whom I assume will be along shortly.

core0 said:

Umm 50% DGME and 100% IME according to this:
http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/library/gme/dgmebroc.pdf

I would defer to Aprogdirector whom I assume will be along shortly.

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You're right...my response above was a typo.

However, I would not wait for aPD as I don't recall him ever responding to a post in the Surgery forums.

blackandtan said:

what is the best way to get "reality based" info about work hours, operative experience, clinical teaching, "malignancy", etc?

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The best way ... there is none. Most of this is very subjective, can change substantially over the course of a residency, and is based on the likely flawed assumption that you would know how to act on the information if you got it.

Surgery residency is pretty close to an arranged marriage. The better you can take whatever comes, the better you'll do.

That sounds really fatalistic - and it mostly is - but my more practical point is that you should not concentrate on figuring out what the great programs are and trying to match there, but figuring out where the (rare) truly bad ones are and avoiding them.