How easy is it to switch specialties?

[Mahliah]

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If a physician practices specialty A and later on in their career would like to switch to specialty B, would they have to do refresher courses or would be able to apply to a residency without a problem?

If one already had a pediatric residency and specialized, later in their career could they open a pediatric office or would they have to go through a ped residency again?

 

[shadowfox87]

As easy as changing genders - i.e. not easy.

 

[DeadCactus]

The federal government pays for your residency training through Medicare and they will only cover you for a certain amount of time. When you try to do a second residency, you're basically asking a program to pay out $100k/year when they could take another applicant for free.

It's not impossible, but it's not the same as going back to college for a new degree...

 

[weightyheart]

what i don't understand is why residency spots cost so much money and require any sort of subsidy. aren't residents basically producing a lot more "societal goods" than they are being paid for? by treating patients, aren't residents recouping far more money for the hospital than it costs to employ them?

 

[lockjaw]

If one already had a pediatric residency and specialized, later in their career could they open a pediatric office or would they have to go through a ped residency again?

This can definitely be done without having to repeat residency, although it may be tough to do if you've been away from general practice for a while or working in a subspecialty that is very different from general practice (like neonatology).

Switching specialties altogether is much more difficult for the reasons that others have already mentioned.

 

[DeadCactus]

what i don't understand is why residency spots cost so much money and require any sort of subsidy. aren't residents basically producing a lot more "societal goods" than they are being paid for? by treating patients, aren't residents recouping far more money for the hospital than it costs to employ them?

Because supervision, didactics, skills labs, resident salaries and benefits, malpractice insurance, administration, and the loss in productivity that comes with taking time to teach all costs money...

 

[MossPoh]

what i don't understand is why residency spots cost so much money and require any sort of subsidy. aren't residents basically producing a lot more "societal goods" than they are being paid for? by treating patients, aren't residents recouping far more money for the hospital than it costs to employ them?

As noted above,there are lots of other things that are factored in. You can also include things like health and dental (which goes in the benefits category and is expensive), in addition to the fact that many specialties or aspects in training that don't really have you operating solo for a while, so it is essentially assigning two people for a one person job.