Double residency?

[Dave Chester]

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[gutonc]

What is the specialty and your motivation for the second residency?

Otherwise this question has been addressed multiple times here.

 

[Perrotfish]

If you're interested in two specialties (one of them is FM), I wonder what's the best way to do this...
I think I'll have to do one residency first then go back for another residency? How hard is it to go back into residency when you have spent 4-5 years working as a physician? Is it harder for D.O. to do this than MD?

There are many existing dual residencies and even triple residencies out there. Some of the more popular combinations include IM/Peds, Peds/Anesthesia, Peds/EM, Peds/Neuro/PedsNeuro, and of course Psych/anything,.

If you're interested in a combination not currently offered you can theoretically apply at the end of your first residency, or any time afterwards. The only field where this is commonly done is Derm, which frequently selects applicants who have completed residencies in either IM or Pediatrics. Otherwise its so rarely done no one will be able to give you any statistics on it. You will be at multiple disadvantages in your second match. The biggest disadvantage is that you will be unfunded: Medicare (or Medicaid, for Peds) pays your hospital 70K plus your salary for every year you're in residency, but only the first time around. Second time around you only get a small percentage of that. You will also be at a disadvantage because you are farther out from medical school (and therefore considered less trainable) and because everyone will question your motivations.

The best way to do this is not to do it. You can only work one job: if you are interested in two fields, you choose one, because you can only work in one. Very, very few residencies have the kind of real synergy that allows you to actually practice both so that the whole job is greater than the sum of its parts (IM/Psych doctors running an inpatient psych ward is the only example I know of that actually seems to pan out). Residency is also way too long as it is. When you finish, at the (best case) age of 29 I promise you are not going to want to start over. If you are a glass is half full kind of person there is a chance that you won't be working on an early retirement strategy, but that's about it.

 

[organdonor]

If you're interested in two specialties (one of them is FM), I wonder what's the best way to do this...
I think I'll have to do one residency first then go back for another residency? How hard is it to go back into residency when you have spent 4-5 years working as a physician? Is it harder for D.O. to do this than MD?

The above post speaks the truth. I will add that you need to keep your income in mind. During residency you will make ~$55,000 a year. Once you are an attending that will at least double and likely triple. There are very few people willing to purposely cut their salary by over $100,000 by returning to a residency once you are out practicing.

Only other thing I'll add is that I can see no possible way that being a DO or MD would make the process any more/less difficult. It'll be your lack of funding, your years after graduation, and hopefully your economic good sense standing in your way.

 

[Dave Chester]

Thank you for the answers.🙂

 

[Mad Jack]

What was the other residency you were looking at? Combined residencies with FM are doable- FM/EM, FM/psych, FM/IM, and FM/peds are the ones I know of off the top of my head. The reality of these programs is that the vast majority of people that graduate from them only end up practicing in one field or the other, because maintaining your skills in both is quite difficult. Unless you have a very, very, VERY good reason for doing a combined program, don't do one.

 

[DermViser]

What was the other residency you were looking at? Combined residencies with FM are doable- FM/EM, FM/psych, FM/IM, and FM/peds are the ones I know of off the top of my head. The reality of these programs is that the vast majority of people that graduate from them only end up practicing in one field or the other, because maintaining your skills in both is quite difficult. Unless you have a very, very, VERY good reason for doing a combined program, don't do one.

Someone who wants to do something like IM/EM, FM/EM, FM/IM, etc. should just be screamed at and say, "PICK ONE!!!" If GME is going to get cut, these programs need to go.

 

[Perrotfish]

Someone who wants to do something like IM/EM, FM/EM, FM/IM, etc. should just be screamed at and say, "PICK ONE!!!" If GME is going to get cut, these programs need to go.

I think the FM dual residencies rely on peoples' insecurity. People aren't sure that they want to practice in rural areas, but they think that maybe they might, and they worry (correctly) that a 3 year FM residency won't get them to the point where they'll be comfortable independently practicing psych, running the ER, doing C-sections, or whatever. So they sign on for these awful dual residencies because they're worried they'll commit malpractice down the road.

However I think the family doctors have a much better solution for that in the form of their fellowships. All one year fellowships, all designed to increase your comfort level in a specific area that you're practicing but don't feel comfortable in. So you can wait until you're done with training to see if you actually want to be a small town Ob/Gyn, ED doc, geriatrics doctor, or sports medicine specialist before committing to the training pathway, and then you invest only a very reasonable 12 months in what is likely a much more benign enviornment.

 

[deuist]

The only field where this is commonly done is Derm, which frequently selects applicants who have completed residencies in either IM or Pediatrics.

Preventive medicine also typically takes people who have performed a residency in another field first.

 

[Doctor Bob]

If you want to do something completely different than your first residency it may be hard to find a job that lets you blend the two. Plus there will be skill atrophy from the first residency while you are working on the second.

If you want to do something related or something that focuses on a subset of the first field, well... that's what fellowships are for. At least that way you limit skill atrophy, and jobs are easier to find.

 

[SoyMilk]

If you're interested in two specialties (one of them is FM), I wonder what's the best way to do this...
I think I'll have to do one residency first then go back for another residency? How hard is it to go back into residency when you have spent 4-5 years working as a physician? Is it harder for D.O. to do this than MD?

Probably best approach is to get through M1, MS2, and MS3 years. After that you won't want to do a dual residency.

 

[futuredo32]

I'm a pgy4 in psych and I LOVE psych (I love psychotherapy) but miss medicine. I am not willing to move and with the funding issues didnt get a lot of invites for interviews. I would be amazed if I matched. If you are willing to move, it's totally more likely. My goal was to one day practice both with two completely different sets of patients. If it happens, I will be one happy girl, if not, it wasn't meant to be.