At a crossroads and making the decision

[mommy2three]

I am posting here because I find myself at a crossroads and I am not quite sure what to do.
I have known since I was a fourth year medical student that I wanted to do sports medicine - I have always loved sports and it gives me a chance to use OMT. I fell in love during an elective rotation which solidified that this is what I wanted to do
Fast forward to residency - some struggles in my first year (failed rotation for lack of efficiency) left me with more of a focus on my program and addressing my deficiencies than worrying about sideline coverage. I did a little first and second year but not much. Then early second year I was hit with an intensive inpatient experience out of the bay which again left little time for extras. Then a mutual decision between my program and I to part ways due to poor fit career wise and personality wise. So I transferred programs with my directors blessing this past year. Because of that I wanted to get settled in before I thought about committing to something.
I basically figured transferring programs was probably the kiss of death and I would not be able to get a fellowship but I do not know if that is true.
I still very much want to pursue a fellowship. Sports medicine is where my heart lies. I graduate next December so I ah e some time to do more sideline stuff now. And instead of looking for a job I could plan on doing locums work for six months which may be better anyway as it would put me with all other grads for start date
I guess my question is if I would have a chance at a spot with transferring programs or if I should just shut this door and move on?
TIA


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[TableMD]

Hey

I just went through the process now. My rank list is "computating" and I will see where/if I match on January, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. On the interview trail, the biggest things I was asked about were my reasons for going into sports, career goals, and some of the projects I have done.

As far as switching programs, I am biased because I had a hard time my second year of medical school, so I feel everyone should get a second chance if they face adversity and over come it. I think there is a big difference between "fit" and "professionalism." As a fellow applicant, I would be inclined to support someone who had to make a residency change because they weren't happy with where they were. I think the most important thing you can do is to be successful at your current residency and get a STRONG letter from your new program director. As the sports docs on here will tell you, your biggest selling point is your skills/joy of primary care which will make you a successful fellow/PCSM doc.

I eased into the PCSM stuff heavily my second year, as intern year was very hard and my goals were to get the job done and sleep and then take care of my wife and son. Good luck!

 

[n3xa]

I just wanted to say good luck to you! I remember meeting you when I interviewed for medical school and you were totally nice and awesome.

 

[mommy2three]

I just wanted to say good luck to you! I remember meeting you when I interviewed for medical school and you were totally nice and awesome.

Shhh no giving away my secret identity

But thank you for the well wishes and the kind words
I hope things are going well for you



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[hsmooth]

Hey! I remember chatting with you here and there on SDN over the past few years, and reading about your journey to get through med school and residency.

I'll give you my own perspective as a practicing physician. I too had interest in sports medicine and I'm a DO too -- but I didn't do a fellowship. You can still do a ton of sports medicine and OMM in your practice without being a certified 'sports medicine' physician. You can cater your practice to what you want in the real world.

If I wanted to fill my schedule with joint injections and OMT appointments, I have the option to do so. I can volunteer my time to help with the local high schools that may need a sports physician.

Something also pragmatic to think about is ..don't forget about lost income of doing a fellowship for 12-18months vs having an attending salary for that time. Not sure what your family / financial / loan situation is, but I sure appreciate having that extra income go towards paying down my loans drastically, house downpayment, and saving towards early retirement.

I don't regret doing fellowship at all at this time of my life.

 

[mommy2three]

Hey! I remember chatting with you here and there on SDN over the past few years, and reading about your journey to get through med school and residency.

I'll give you my own perspective as a practicing physician. I too had interest in sports medicine and I'm a DO too -- but I didn't do a fellowship. You can still do a ton of sports medicine and OMM in your practice without being a certified 'sports medicine' physician. You can cater your practice to what you want in the real world.

If I wanted to fill my schedule with joint injections and OMT appointments, I have the option to do so. I can volunteer my time to help with the local high schools that may need a sports physician.

Something also pragmatic to think about is ..don't forget about lost income of doing a fellowship for 12-18months vs having an attending salary for that time. Not sure what your family / financial / loan situation is, but I sure appreciate having that extra income go towards paying down my loans drastically, house downpayment, and saving towards early retirement.

I don't regret doing fellowship at all at this time of my life.

Just a few questions if you do not mind.

Did you seek out joint injections during residency or would you recommend a course after to become certified to do them?

And working with a local high school team would be perfect. Did you find that more challenging not having the sports medicine additional qualification or has it not been a challenge? From my understanding to work with anything above high school the fellowship is virtually required, what have you seen in practice?

Thanks for any help you can give



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[hsmooth]

Just a few questions if you do not mind.

Did you seek out joint injections during residency or would you recommend a course after to become certified to do them?

And working with a local high school team would be perfect. Did you find that more challenging not having the sports medicine additional qualification or has it not been a challenge? From my understanding to work with anything above high school the fellowship is virtually required, what have you seen in practice?

Thanks for any help you can give



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Yep - I made sure my attendings knew I wanted to learn X, Y, Z procedures. So if they ever came across those, they'd ask and see if I'd want to do them. For my elective rotations, I chose outpatient ortho, derm, etc, and asked those specialists if I could do any / all procedures they were comfortable supervising me do.

After you are done with residency, you can still learn procedures through conferences, but it becomes much harder.

I'm not sure about what college level or higher institutions would look for when having a phsyican help... but if you ask around to enough high schools I'm sure you'll find some that won't care too much if you don't have a sports med fellowship.

 

[septoplasty]

Shorter input.. college level is uber competitive.

In short, a reputated academic D1 Top 25 program will help you eventually get to a D1 College SM Job.

This is what i've seen the graduates of my program get to (not trying to flaunt, but mine is a D1, top 25 program).

 

[meerkat111]

My two cents. You don't need the fellowship. I would start making the $$$.

 

[yeasports]

My two cents. I deal with non fellowship trained M.D.'s who cover local high school sports. You don't know what you don't know. If you want to be a sports doc do a good fellowship. I had a ton of sports training in residency including D1 coverage and thought I knew everything------until I got to fellowship.