anesthesia resident hoping to switch to Obgyn
Started by chudat
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First of all, I think < 1 month into a residency is far too early to be making huge decisions like this. But you'll have time to really think about it (see below).
You'll have to talk about this with your program director, because their letter/input will matter a lot and you cannot be a successful applicant if you are on bad terms with them
You'll have to finish this year, first of all because none of your current faculty's letters will have any merit if they can't even discuss a full year's performance. And secondly, because quitting in the middle of the year is a red flag that will close a lot of programs to you.
Even after finishing this year, you'll have to enter the match anew and start over as a PGY1. No other intern years will count for Ob/Gyn.
With your anesthesia program director's blessing, maybe you can meet and chat with ob/gyn attendings at your current program, and maybe get involved in some research to fill your gap year while you are applying. That can be where your ob letters come from.
If you do all of the above, applying as someone who decided to switch specialties (as opposed to someone who got fired) you'll have a decent shot at matching somewhere.
You'll have to talk about this with your program director, because their letter/input will matter a lot and you cannot be a successful applicant if you are on bad terms with them
You'll have to finish this year, first of all because none of your current faculty's letters will have any merit if they can't even discuss a full year's performance. And secondly, because quitting in the middle of the year is a red flag that will close a lot of programs to you.
Even after finishing this year, you'll have to enter the match anew and start over as a PGY1. No other intern years will count for Ob/Gyn.
With your anesthesia program director's blessing, maybe you can meet and chat with ob/gyn attendings at your current program, and maybe get involved in some research to fill your gap year while you are applying. That can be where your ob letters come from.
If you do all of the above, applying as someone who decided to switch specialties (as opposed to someone who got fired) you'll have a decent shot at matching somewhere.
If you are interested in pursuing a fellowship, may I suggest you just go double boarded and do an obgyn residency after. I know a few people who have done the reverse, obgyn then anesthesia as sort of pseudo fellowship. They were able to cut out their first year of anesthesia residency and the total length equaled the same as most obgyn + fellowships at 7 years. You may not be so lucky because of your order and need an extra year. It would enable you to stick with your current program and would probably elevate you into a higher tier of residency program than potentially you would for just going into fellowship. Either way, I think they made interesting and intelligent decisions for their careers and puts them in a unique position future employment wise. Additionally, once you are done with anesthesia, you could moonlight during your obgyn residency (though you probably won't feel like it) for some extra buckaroos similar to what some fellowship programs allow.
