I have a friend who has a big dilemma. She has matched IM and now realizes , because she did an elective in a surgical specialty, that she wants to switch into this surgical specialty. She obviously will complete her year of IM, but her question is whether or not to tell her new IM dept. that she is actively looking for a spot in that different specialty. Any advice would be appreciated.
Chose the wrong specialty
- Thread starter drchris71
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Its pretty poor form to not tell your program that you are leaving...regardless of specialty change or desire to work in another program. Not to say that she has to tell them right when she starts...but certainly a few month prior to the match. A program needs some time to fill the void that is left...and leaving a program shorthanded can put extra strain on the remaining residents. It may work out...as it has in my program, that a prelim medicine person might want to go categorical...therefore, she may want to take the prelim spot, thus problem solved. Anyways, a year in internal medicine might not be a bad thing, since most of the surgeons and surgical subspecialists I have dealt with of late lack even basic understanding of medical diagnosis and therapeutics, which compromise complete patient care.
I would tell them early on. It should help the program plan for the loss, and if the PD is nice, they may help with scheduling electives around her interview time.
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