Help, in need of serious advice!!

[leece]

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I recently graduated med school in May, and decided to take the year off to be with my daughter (born december) before starting residency in July 08. Everything was going fine until BAM I find out I am pregnant again (a little bit of a surprise) and the baby will be due end of May 08.
So here is the dilemma, I am feeling so incredibly torn about what I want to do now. I have searched the internet for alternative nonclinical careers in medicine, but feel this is just a waste of time. I have come to the conclusion that I will suck up one year of residency as an intern and then apply for licensure. My main priority is to ultimately be the main person who raises my children. I cannot stand thinking of someone else doing it.BTW, I mean no disrespect to anyone who is in this situation, I just emotionally cannot handle it, and wish I was someone who could.
My question to anyone who can help is, what sort of jobs exist for someone who only completed pgy1? Money is not the issue here, my husband will be starting his anesthesiology residency and will be the breadwinner in our family, I just need to work for a while in order to pay back the huge gorilla (my loans) on my back.
Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[NotAProgDirector]

There are many threads on this topic. A reasonable one is here.

The bottom line is that it is idfficult to get regular work without completing a residency. You might be able to moonlight -- but that will be night and weekend work. Some urgent care centers might be willing to hire you, but most insurance companies will not reimburse you at all. You may find it difficult to get malpractice coverage, and as time goes forward I expect these positions to become more scarce, although you describe this as being a short term plan only.

Good luck

 

[Saluda]

Learn from my mistakes! My advice would be not to start residency until you are absolutely positively sure you are mentally ready. Sure you have loans, but hopefully they can be deferred a bit more. Remember that 1 kid + 1 kid= 11

Also I would look at all the programs where your husband is and try to find the one that would provide you with the most time with your kids. If that is a field that is something you could stand doing, go for it. Path, derm, optho, gas, PM&R etc all come to mind.

Probably by the time you have a one year old and a 2 1/2 year old you will be more ready to go back. It will be hard to leave them, but I think it is actually harder when they are older (5, 6, 7). Or you could wait until they are teenagers, when a 30 hour shift might seem like a mommy holiday.

I hope you have family that can help/ move nearby/ etc. As your husband climbs the ranks in gas he should have more time to help out, too.

Babysitting/ nannying, teaching community college, TA-ing med school, tutoring are all things my MD friends have done to make ends meet until they can go back to residency. It is going to be tough, but people do it all the time.

 

[johankriek]

suck it up and do your residency. there are plenty of women who have kids and are residents.. WHen i was a resident there was someone a woman with three kids. She was a awesome person and well b alanced.. Yeah life is gonna suck for a while but hey this is the path of a physician.

 

[Faebinder]

I recently graduated med school in May, and decided to take the year off to be with my daughter (born december) before starting residency in July 08. Everything was going fine until BAM I find out I am pregnant again (a little bit of a surprise) and the baby will be due end of May 08.
So here is the dilemma, I am feeling so incredibly torn about what I want to do now. I have searched the internet for alternative nonclinical careers in medicine, but feel this is just a waste of time. I have come to the conclusion that I will suck up one year of residency as an intern and then apply for licensure. My main priority is to ultimately be the main person who raises my children. I cannot stand thinking of someone else doing it.BTW, I mean no disrespect to anyone who is in this situation, I just emotionally cannot handle it, and wish I was someone who could.
My question to anyone who can help is, what sort of jobs exist for someone who only completed pgy1? Money is not the issue here, my husband will be starting his anesthesiology residency and will be the breadwinner in our family, I just need to work for a while in order to pay back the huge gorilla (my loans) on my back.
Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are an AMG, well congrats, Uncle Sam is on your side. Just go ahead and get the license after 1 year with step 3 and moonlight (moonlight doesnt mean work at night).

If you are a US citizen or Permanent Resident FMG then tough luck. You need to move to Wisconsin or Guam or Puerto Rico to be able to moonlight with 1 year of internship (and step 3 of course).

If you are a DO, well 1 year is enough in even more states than for AMGs (assuming you get Complex III). (Heck Tennessee will give you a license without residency and yet demand a year from an AMG and 3 from an FMG. That fresh graduate is of course considered more competent than yer good old 3rd year surgery resident🙄)

I'm sure the medical boards are working on making it even harder to moonlight in the future. They keep raising the requirements as if medical doctors who pass step 3 are totally incompetent and don't care if they lose their license due to errors. I remember Idaho or was it Iowa that 2 years ago was okay with giving license to FMGs after 1 year residency, not anymore. Now we got states like South Dakota who wont give you a license until you complete residency (I guess you dont trust that 5th year surgery resident and that 7th year neurosurgery resident eh? Not that that state has a neurosurgery resident or a general surgery resident in it, but hey someone might be crazy enough to try and moonlight in that state).

I am pretty much convinced that the medical boards are controlled by some ancients who have no idea what it means to be in residency now a days.

 

[leece]

Can you explain to me a bit more on what moonlighting means exactly especially for someone in my position? And yes I am a D.O.
By the way thanks for the reply.

 

[Faebinder]

Here is a link to a moonlighting website. Hope it explains it well. They seem to hook up people to places that need moonlighters. I never tried them.

Moonlighting: Pretty much working in the ER or Urgent Care or even in a department as a House Officer. You have your permanent license of the state and got insurance of course (either through the place or self bought). The institution where you moonlight will pay you an hourly fee for your work. You need to make sure your ACLS/ATLS and maybe PALS is still active cause you arent board certified in a specialty. Generally I heard a payrate of $50 per hour. I dont know what's the variation state to state. Good Luck.