Building advanced degrees into post-graduate training

[sipping_cipro]

Anyone have any sense on programs (residency or fellowship) allowing trainees to take a year or two off for an extra degree? I'd be hoping to get a degree in data science, as a lot of my research interests align with the field and I'm starting to ask research questions I no longer have the tools to answer. I know gen surg in this aspect is kind of nice, as I've heard programs allowing residents to pursue advanced degrees during their 2 scholarly years. However, I'm unaware of this being common in other residencies / fellowships. Thanks.

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[sunshinefl]

I think preventive medicine has an MPH built in.

 

[Lem0nz]

Did my masters in asynchronous night school as a PGY4 and 5 in surgical residency. For funsies. Didn’t take time off. Used the nursing “full time employee” loop hole in our hospital to pay for half of it. Was the first resident to ever do it but after I did and people saw it was possible like 4 more people in my residency jumped on board and did it too in different masters degrees.

 

[Bobblehead]

An MPH (or other research oriented degrees) can be built into internal medicine fellowships during their research years.

 

[sipping_cipro]

Did my masters in asynchronous night school as a PGY4 and 5 in surgical residency. For funsies. Didn’t take time off. Used the nursing “full time employee” loop hole in our hospital to pay for half of it. Was the first resident to ever do it but after I did and people saw it was possible like 4 more people in my residency jumped on board and did it too in different masters degrees.

damn... was it worth it?

 

[Dave1980]

Anyone have any sense on programs (residency or fellowship) allowing trainees to take a year or two off for an extra degree? I'd be hoping to get a degree in data science, as a lot of my research interests align with the field and I'm starting to ask research questions I no longer have the tools to answer. I know gen surg in this aspect is kind of nice, as I've heard programs allowing residents to pursue advanced degrees during their 2 scholarly years. However, I'm unaware of this being common in other residencies / fellowships. Thanks.

Wouldn't recommend it. Your goal in residency and fellowship is to become a decent clinician.

 

[Lem0nz]

damn... was it worth it?

You know, I'm not sure yet. It was definitely a huge plus on my fellowship application that I was able to do that during residency and get straight As in night school and I pivoted the projects into quality improvement stuff that I actually enjoy. So I think it probably was. It still cost me 20k (the hospital paid the other 30) but I matched into an ultra competitive surgical subspecialty and I got a couple more publications out of it so... who cares what it cost.

It's definitely another toolbox. It gave me a foundation in healthcare policy, healthcare governance (at the national and local level, and looking at other cultures like UK/Europe/Asia), broadened my background in safety/quality stuff, and got into the weeds on patient centered technology and programming. But how to use that as a surgeon - still don't know. Not in a rush. I'll figure it out later. It also gives me a great fall back if I break both my hands and/or just want to stop operating. These programs set you up very well to transition into a CMIO role.

I also really enjoyed being in school again, oddly enough, after being out for ~6 years. I don't really count clinical years as school. But it was a @#$* ton of work. Cranking out a 20+ page essay in residency felt weird as hell.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Did my masters in asynchronous night school as a PGY4 and 5 in surgical residency. For funsies. Didn’t take time off. Used the nursing “full time employee” loop hole in our hospital to pay for half of it. Was the first resident to ever do it but after I did and people saw it was possible like 4 more people in my residency jumped on board and did it too in different masters degrees.

I'm interested in hearing about the loophole,

 

[Lem0nz]

My hospital had higher education programs designed for nurses (like many hospitals do) to pursue NP degrees and for nurse managers to pursue project management education.

The wording for it was that full time employees in clinical positions can get X amount of dollars per credit per quarter (I think it was like you can get 5k per quarter) as long as the classes were applicable to your job duties and your supervisor approved.

My chairman was willing to try it so we submitted me under the program and I technically met all the criteria, and my chairman said that informatics was a valuable addition to the residency.

Was definitely not what the program was designed for, particularly for revolving employees, but it worked.

You got more if it was from an approved school list in the city but you could do any school for the lower reimbursement (which was still 20k ish a year). Had GPA requirements and pretty strict deadlines but those were not that hard to meet.

Was not advertised to us by HR. I got the idea sitting next to a nurse browsing her benefits in the SICU one night.