Changing specialties. . . OB to radiology?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

GoGreen04

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2009
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
In med school I was interested in both OBGYN and radiology (I know weird), but decided to go into OBGYN b/c I am a "people person". Unfortunately, I do not like OGYN and am wondering if anyone has any advice for a person wishing to change from OBGYN into radiology. I have one year of OBGYN completed (not sure if that would count for a prelim year or if I would have to complete another one).

I would appreciate your comments!

Members don't see this ad.
 
Since you'd only be one year out of med school, it may still be viable for you to enter the match. I'm not sure if your PGY-1 of OBGYN would qualify as preliminary; I assume this would depend on the programs you're involved with as well as the type of rotations you did or are doing. Obviously, you'll also want to be able to consumately describe your decision to switch from OBGYN to Rads beyond just discovering that you don't really like to work with patients directly.
 
Yeah. My plan is to do a couple of aways while getting my MBA. I would do research, but I've done plenty during med school and I have always wanted my MBA.

I will probably have to do a TY year, unfortunately :(, but no biggie. I'm still young, as long as I end up being happy with what I do day in and day out and can come home and not be a stress ball around my husband and children, I'm all for an additional year.

What are your guys' thoughts on step 3. I am thinking of taking it at the end of July so I can have it out of the way. I did really well on steps 1 and 2, so I'm nervous of taking step 3 and lowering my score. . . but at least I can show programs that I've past it. . .
 
You should take Step 3 when you feel most comfortable with it; even if you score somewhat worse than what would be expected based on 1 and 2, this shouldn't have too much of a bearing on your rankability (as long as you don't fail it, or just barely pass).

Also, have you done any Radiology rotations? You mentioned that Rads was one of your top interests, but I'm not sure how far you got with it before finally settling on OBGYN. Remember, that just because you didn't like your PGY-1 year of OBGYN doesn't mean the rest of residency or your entire career would have you feeling that way. It's just so easy to find yourself in a "grass is greener on the other side of the street"; Radiology is actually one of the most common "switcher" destinations (next to IM and FM) for people who find that they're unhappy in their matched specialty and are looking for something more lifestyle friendly. If you decide that this is what you really want, you're going to have to work fairly hard to demonstrate your desire to train as a Radiologist, including securing LoRs from Radiologists. On the interview trail, IMHO, there's a fairly good chance you'll be hearing the question "You thought you'd be happy in xxxx, but you were mistaken; so what makes you think you'll be happy in Radiology?" Your answer to such a question would have a tremendous bearing on where you end up on that program's rank list compared to MS-4s who picked Rads first.
 
Top