A little help please

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I have recently decided to switch from emergency med to anesthesiology. I am a DO student, top 1/4 of my class, 234 step 1 and good clinical grades. However, I have not done an official anesthesia rotation, only shadowed during a recent break from schoool. I also have no lor from an anesthesiologist, and will not have the opportunity to get one until october, from an attending at a community hospital without a residency program. Am I completely screwed, do I have a chance at any respectable university based programs? Has anyone matched with a story similar to mine? What should I be doing right now to improve my chances? Any advice is welcome

 

[NYC_anest_2004]

I have recently decided to switch from emergency med to anesthesiology. I am a DO student, top 1/4 of my class, 234 step 1 and good clinical grades. However, I have not done an official anesthesia rotation, only shadowed during a recent break from schoool. I also have no lor from an anesthesiologist, and will not have the opportunity to get one until october, from an attending at a community hospital without a residency program. Am I completely screwed, do I have a chance at any respectable university based programs? Has anyone matched with a story similar to mine? What should I be doing right now to improve my chances? Any advice is welcome

Are you screwed? By no means. Though, how have you decided on anesthesiology, without doing the rotation? Was your shadowing sufficient to give you a full idea of the field? If not, I'd be cautious about comitting to anesthesiology, before you truly understand the nature of the field. That being said, your grades and step I scores are more than sufficient to match at a decent program. The only hindrance, as you mention, is NOT having ANY anesthesia letters for your ERAS application. October is certainly not too late to get a letter though. If I were you, I would speak with the chairman at your school. Tell him about your interest in the field. Chairman's letters are often relatively impersonal (and that is expected). See if he/she would be willing to write you a letter. That could be used for your ERAS application (just to get an anesthesia letter in) and then you could get a 2nd letter from the rotation in Oct which is more personal. Just my $.02. But, please be sure that you truly understand the field before you commit to it. Why, may I ask, have you reconsidered EM?

 

[dbg]

Thanks for the reply NYC_anest_2004,
I know that it sounds a little bit shady to be changing to anesthesia after only 1 week of shadowing, but here are my reasons
I Thought I would love EM, until I did my first rotation in it. I really tried to like it, but it just doesn't fit my personality. I need more order, I would like to focus on one patient for more than 3 minutes at a time, plus the shift work is driving me crazy. I just feel like I will be kicking myself 10 yrs down the road if I go into EM.
My reasons for anesthesiology. I really like the OR setting, I like the numerous proceedures available, enjoy the brief, but important encounter with pt's in preop, as I have been a pt before and really appreciated my anesthsiologist efforts to alleviate my anxiety. Plus I enjoyed the basic sciences, and appreciate the practical application of pharm and physio seen in anesthesia. Lastly, I like medicine, but I view it as a job, not a way of life. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. I'm not saying that I m picking this soley for it's life style as I feel that if that were the issue I could have stuck with EM.

 

[timtye78]

With your grades, I think you would have no problem matching in anesthesiology. Gas isn't only a grades driven specialty, and I am not entirely convinced about exactly how much doing a rotation at specific places actually helps you get in to that place, but there were questions at my interviewssuch as "have you done anesthesia rotations, etc." Mainly it seemed to confirm your confidence in that gas is the specialty for you. I matched at a place that I didn't do a rotation, which was a suprise to me.

If you want anesthesia, write an incredible personal statement (and it sounds like you have noted what you like about it), get the best letters you can, and try to schedule a rotation or two, that way you can say at your interview that you fell in love with it on a week with a gas doc, and that you can't wait till your full month/2 month rotation that you have scheduled!

Do not be afraid. Many people I know changed to gas in very similar situations. Anesthesiology sometimes seems to be a field of default, somestimes chosen to the exclusion of others. (Dont say this at your interviews 🙂 If you are serious about gas, I would recommend a healthy number of places to apply to. BTW OU Gas recently got off probation if you are interested. Any other questions feel free to email me directly at
[email protected]

P.S. I think programs also realize that with the heavy emphasis being placed
increasing the numbers of primary care physicians, they realize that sometimes people's exposure to anesthesiology can be brief and random. Also, emergency medicine-type people aren't that different from the type that like anesthesia. As for being a DO, since you mentioned it like it might be an issue, I would recommend you apply wherever the he11 you think you might like to go. DO NOT let some other med student or intern somewhere tell you where you will and will not get in. Anesthesia is what we in the DO-community refer to as "DO-friendly." There are plenty of my friends in heavily competitive programs. 😎


Good luck!