COVID + ABIM Initial Certification -- Too Risky?

[thisampgoestoeleven]

I am not so comfortable with idea of taking the subspecialty board exams this year. Yes, going to the grocery store is also dangerous, but I'm not sitting in a grocery store for 8 hours in an unventilated room. Curious to hear people's thoughts on what their plans are. If Pearson VUE could guarantee I was the only one in the center I'd do it, but not if it was just 6 feet away. By now it's well known that COVID respects our man-made barriers about as well as cigarette smoke stayed in the non-smoking section of the diner.

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[gutonc]

I am not so comfortable with idea of taking the subspecialty board exams this year. Yes, going to the grocery store is also dangerous, but I'm not sitting in a grocery store for 8 hours in an unventilated room. Curious to hear people's thoughts on what their plans are. If Pearson VUE could guarantee I was the only one in the center I'd do it, but not if it was just 6 feet away. By now it's well known that COVID respects our man-made barriers about as well as cigarette smoke stayed in the non-smoking section of the diner.

Are you in a state with universal indoor masking? Does PearsonVUE require masking?

I mean, if you're worried about it, just wait. Unless your job demands that you do it this year, do it next year. It's really not that big of a deal.

I waited a year to take mine and it was much easier with a year of community based practice under my belt than it would have been coming straight out of fellowship. The caveat to this is, if your new job is that you're going to be the person who manages only IDH2 mutated AML, or pancreatic body carcinoma (because they've already got 3 people for HOP and 2 that do tail tumors only), then perhaps taking it before you forget everything else is a good idea.