Applying to Multiple Fellowships

[astanley]

It is getting close to decision time and I am having trouble deciding on exactly what fellowship to apply for.

Does anyone have any experience applying to two different sub-specialty fellowships?

I am somewhat geographically strapped so I was thinking applying this way would help me land in the desired location. I remember this was a big no-no for residency so I was wondering if the same goes for fellowship? FYI I am NOT considering pain or critical care fellowships.

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[Maverikk]

Anesthesia is a small world. If you’re geographically strapped you probably couldn’t apply to two programs at the same institution without some eye brow raising.

 

[AdmiralChz]

You won’t be able to pull this off - the letter writers in your department will talk to each other, and you’ll have to defend why you are doing this. There are people out there doing 2 fellowships (cardiac/CCM most common), but you should sit and have an honest assessment with yourself. Maybe see if your program can put you in subspecialty rotations the next couple of months so you can get the exposure to help you make a decision.

 

[DM27]

I agree that pulling this off will be difficult because it can also somewhat hurt the credibility of your letter writers if places you are applying believe they are supporting a "not committed" candidate. I do believe however this could be pulled off mainly if you are applying to a field that doesn't use a match (i.e. regional) and a field that matches later than that (i.e. an NRMP program). This would allow you to basically field the majority of regional offers before it comes time to officially enter the NRMP match for something like peds/pain. If you are trying to mix and match an SF match specialty (ACTA/ICU) it will be more difficult because you will have overlap with regional vs. applying somewhat "late" to an NRMP program.

tl;dr: Regional + NRMP may work and SF + NRMP could work if you're ok applying "late".

 

[ProtonPump]

I know it's not what you asked, but I'm just going to throw it out there: Are you sure you want to do a fellowship at all.

Maybe talk to prior residents and attendings in your program who have connections to the geographical area you are interested in and try and get some information on what the job market is like.

Maybe you can find a job where you get to do all those things you like.

 

[deleted171991]

Repeating ad nauseam: there is exactly one fellowship worth doing in anesthesia, i.e. cardiac. Maybe peds, too, if so inclined, but less and less.

For those who want to give up anesthesia completely: pain and critical care. The combined jobs are not worth it. Also, there are better pathways (career-, not knowledge-wise) to both subspecialties than through anesthesia.

Anything else is, more or less, a waste of time and money, worth doing for very specific and personal reasons. It's a $300K or so investment per year, so think long and hard before wasting those extra years.

 

[pgg]

If one of the fellowships you're thinking of applying to is cardiac, then you'd be applying through the SF match, which is a binding contract. So I'm not sure how it'd be possible to apply to something else in good faith also.

 

[Man o War]

I don’t think this is wise.
Maybe if you post which fellowships you’re considering and what your priorities are we could help you more?

 

[Twiggidy]

Repeating ad nauseam: there is exactly one fellowship worth doing in anesthesia, i.e. cardiac. Maybe peds, too, if so inclined, but less and less.

For those who want to give up anesthesia completely: pain and critical care. The combined jobs are not worth it. Also, there are better pathways (career-, not knowledge-wise) to both subspecialties than through anesthesia.

Anything else is, more or less, a waste of time and money, worth doing for very specific and personal reasons. It's a $300K or so investment per year, so think long and hard before wasting those extra years.

Agree with this. Cardiac gives the best ROI. Maybe peds if you can get s job at a highly specialized children’s hospital (like CHOP, etc) otherwise you’ll just join a group doing “healthy” peds and it’s debatable if you need a fellowship for that.

 

[astanley]

I appreciate the replies.
I figured this was a bad idea, but was just curious if anyone had any other thoughts or experiences.
I am debating between cardiac, peds, and regional.
My indecisiveness with this has also got me thinking that maybe I just go out and do general anesthesiology like someone suggested.
But I'm worried I will regret not doing a fellowship in future.

 

[psychbender]

I am debating between cardiac, peds, and regional.

Ok, here's the question: if you were told that you could never again do cardiac, would you be really upset? If yes, then go do a cardiac fellowship. You can be good at regional without doing regional, and continue to do that in your daily practice. You can do most general Peds cases without an extra year (or two, if some PDs get their way) of Peds training. It is becoming increasingly difficult for new grads to do cardiac without a cardiac fellowship.

If you don't feel strongly about any of them, then don't be guilted (phone keeps trying to autocorrect it to fooled... might be onto something) by your attendings and PD into doing one.

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