Building a strong fellowship app

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Hi all! I’m planning to apply this year and thrilled to finally pursue what I always wanted to do. The HPM website feels a bit spotty to me so I wondered if you all could give me advice on how to build a really strong application (with only a few months left)?

For context, I come from a humanities background. I have a history of hospice volunteering before med school, produced a conference on death and dying in med school, did an HPM elective during MS4, currently doing a minifellowship on suffering and death during residency, and will add an additional (reading) elective in HPM in residency before apps open. I have a history of service in underprivileged groups (rural track in med school, national service on a Native reservation, co-director of a transgender health clinic.) I’ve published very little but have given a national award winning talk on issues of pain. I have a PGY2 job moonlighting running codes in a SNF/crit care facility.

Hoping all that contributes, but I’m worried my lack of publishing in the field will be a problem?

I know my PD and my APD will both write me strong letters of recommendation.

Is there anything else I can do to increase my chances of a strong match to an academic program in the next few months?

Specific questions:

• How many LORs do I need?
• Does it matter which field the writers come from?
• My hospital’s palliative department is run by an NP. Is there any value in this multidisciplinary field in a letter from a non-doc?
• Does publishing non-scientific literature (say, editorials or popular press articles) add anything to my CV?
• Are there any quick-churn opportunities to publish in the field that would matter before apps open?
• Is it possible to get involved in hospice as a moonlighting job in residency?

Thanks for any help you can offer! I’m excited and nervous.

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Additional question: would an away rotation help? I only have two week elective blocks. Are those even worth doing?

 

[throway134]

Hi all! I’m planning to apply this year and thrilled to finally pursue what I always wanted to do. The HPM website feels a bit spotty to me so I wondered if you all could give me advice on how to build a really strong application (with only a few months left)?

For context, I come from a humanities background. I have a history of hospice volunteering before med school, produced a conference on death and dying in med school, did an HPM elective during MS4, currently doing a minifellowship on suffering and death during residency, and will add an additional (reading) elective in HPM in residency before apps open. I have a history of service in underprivileged groups (rural track in med school, national service on a Native reservation, co-director of a transgender health clinic.) I’ve published very little but have given a national award winning talk on issues of pain. I have a PGY2 job moonlighting running codes in a SNF/crit care facility.

Hoping all that contributes, but I’m worried my lack of publishing in the field will be a problem?

I know my PD and my APD will both write me strong letters of recommendation.

Is there anything else I can do to increase my chances of a strong match to an academic program in the next few months?

Specific questions:

• How many LORs do I need?
• Does it matter which field the writers come from?
• My hospital’s palliative department is run by an NP. Is there any value in this multidisciplinary field in a letter from a non-doc?
• Does publishing non-scientific literature (say, editorials or popular press articles) add anything to my CV?
• Are there any quick-churn opportunities to publish in the field that would matter before apps open?
• Is it possible to get involved in hospice as a moonlighting job in residency?

Thanks for any help you can offer! I’m excited and nervous.

No offense, but your post is kind of a caricature of an sdn applicant 😉 . It sounds like you’re going to have a strong application already. For context, I’m currently matched to start in July. I’m hardly an expert but I did just go through this.

I worked as an attending from a less traditional hpm specialty for three years, then began applying.

I had strong step scores. Don’t know how much that matters.

My letters were from my program director from residency, my current department head who I work with regularly, and a colleague from hpm who I work with and who I shadowed for a few days I was off.

I never did any research in the field. I didn’t do an elective in residency, which was silly in retrospect.

I applied to 25 or so programs, and got an interview from 18. I turned down 6 after realizing I cast too wide a net.

I think pre-med school experience can be used to tell the story of how you developed an interest in the field, but I didn’t include my own preclinical experience as part of my application.

Your experience with underserved and other populations will help in places that are looking to focus in those areas. Other programs will still like it, but it may not have as much weight.

• How many LORs do I need? 3 is fine, four is ok too
• Does it matter which field the writers come from? At least one from palliative seems recommended.
• My hospital’s palliative department is run by an NP. Is there any value in this multidisciplinary field in a letter from a non-doc? Yes. Some programs will be happier than others, but all of them will be fine with this. Even a rn or social worker who can speak to your interest and interpersonal skills is helpful in this field. I would try to get a letter from a hpm doc too.
• Does publishing non-scientific literature (say, editorials or popular press articles) add anything to my CV? Probably, but I don’t know how much it matters outside of academic heavy places. If you want to go to a place that publishes constantly it probably matters more
• Are there any quick-churn opportunities to publish in the field that would matter before apps open? Can’t help here
• Is it possible to get involved in hospice as a moonlighting job in residency? Can’t help here either

One thing I would emphasize is that it seems like programs in this field care more about why you see yourself in the field. Crafting a clear, brief personal statement with a solid reason why you want to do this is probably a better use of your time than a crappy quick turn around application fodder article. Other threads have common interview questions. A lot of questions will center around “tell me a time when…” questions, and so coming up with experiences to draw on during interviews is also a good use of time.

The exception is if you are planning to target a research heavy program, but even there j don’t know if publications from hpm are really needed (though certainly helpful). Showing you can be productive is probably the main thing. I didn’t care about this at all, and didn’t really apply to many research heavy programs, and I was open about that.

 

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No offense, but your post is kind of a caricature of an sdn applicant

lol I know! IknowIknowIknow... I can't help myself!
pls #ratemyapp? #hotornot?

I've found through this whole actually-ten-year process (for GODS sakes) it has been a little awkward saying at each step of the way, "I'm trying to become a hospice and palliative care doc." I mean, you can *own* a hospice without graduating from college. It is not a particularly competitive fellowship. I know all that. The closer I get to the end goal, the weirder this gets. I guess the process has been it's own reward? For the sake of sanity, I'll have to go with: yes.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to respond (and chide). That was v helpful + grounding.

 

[throway134]

lol I know! IknowIknowIknow... I can't help myself!
pls #ratemyapp? #hotornot?

I've found through this whole actually-ten-year process (for GODS sakes) it has been a little awkward saying at each step of the way, "I'm trying to become a hospice and palliative care doc." I mean, you can *own* a hospice without graduating from college. It is not a particularly competitive fellowship. I know all that. The closer I get to the end goal, the weirder this gets. I guess the process has been it's own reward? For the sake of sanity, I'll have to go with: yes.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to respond (and chide). That was v helpful + grounding.

Not so much chiding as refusing to add to the anxiety of the eventual applicants who look at this, which is the most likely audience.

It’s great to have people who took such an early interest in the field around! I didn’t really consider it until I was an intern, and began seriously exploring it as an attending. Happy for you that you’re ahead of the game