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How much do Observerships help?
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Smurfette
Gargamel always had a thing for blondes.
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How did you decide on anesthesia? Have you done anything anesthesia related since quitting residency? An observership is unlikely to add much to your application. You have multiple "flags": 8 years since med school graduation, less than stellar step 2CK and 3 with 2 fails on CS, and a history of quitting clinical medicine before completing residency. You have an uphill battle to find an anesthesia spot. Realistically, you need to apply to every program possible rather than limit yourself geographically and still may not yield many more interviews. Your best chance is to use connections you have (if any) to talk to some PDs on your behalf, and that will still be a tough sell. You also should inquire whether your intern year would be credited to you; if so, you could try for an advanced position.
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Observerships are unlikely to overcome your application's problems.
Even if your intern year will count towards your training, I'd be worried about starting in a PGY-2 position. The real question is whether you'd be ready for that. If not, any program is not likely to simply give you 6+ months to get caught up -- instead they are more likely to terminate you.
The real problem here seems to be your lack of insight into the problem. Your application is problematic, you're many years out, you're applying to a competitive field. Answer us this: If you never get an anesthesia spot, would you walk away from medicine?
Even if your intern year will count towards your training, I'd be worried about starting in a PGY-2 position. The real question is whether you'd be ready for that. If not, any program is not likely to simply give you 6+ months to get caught up -- instead they are more likely to terminate you.
The real problem here seems to be your lack of insight into the problem. Your application is problematic, you're many years out, you're applying to a competitive field. Answer us this: If you never get an anesthesia spot, would you walk away from medicine?
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I think this is the problem he is referencing...
I addressed that in my personal statement
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After I posted that response, I realized it was perhaps a bit to harsh and didn't come out the way I meant it, and I apologize if that was the case. So let me try again and answer your other questions.
As has been mentioned, you have several "red flags" on your application. You failed CS twice, and this was back when the failure rate was lower than it is now. You completed an internship (that's good), hopefully you have supporting letters from that internship that stated you did well, and that they would have kept you had you wanted to stay. Your CK and Step 3 scores are low. You've had a long break from medicine, and now want to return.
So your plan is to apply to anesthesia, and you applied to 36 programs, and have two interviews, and now you're trying to decide what to do next.
Thoughts:
1. Anesthesia has become more competitive since you were in medical school, although we're (perhaps) starting to see some leveling off / early decline over concern that there won't be anesthesia jobs in the future due to CRNA's etc. This thread is not the right place for that discussion, there are plenty on the anesthesia board. Regardless, your chances of getting an anesthesia position with your background is simply not good. My statement that you didn't have good insight was referring to the fact that you only applied to 36 programs and seem surprised that you have only 2 interviews. I don't find that terribly surprising, would have advised you to apply to many more programs and focus on those that are community based / less attractive locations. Of course, it only takes one to match, so with 2 interviews you have some chance.
2. Your most useful resource is your prelim PGY-1 position. If the PD is still there, or if you can contact him/her, having them advocate for you would be a big plus. I'm assuming that you obtained an LOR from them -- if not that's a huge problem. This assumes that your performance at your PGY-1 was fine. If they were "happy to see you go", then you're in much bigger trouble.
3. The fact that you walked away from medicine once is both a strength and a weakness. On the one hand, it makes you a more interesting candidate since you have some real world experience (although it depends what you were doing when away from medicine). On the other hand, the thing that PD's try to avoid is hiring someone who 2-3 months in decides to quit because it's not what they want -- and you've done that once already (not exactly, but close enough).
4. If you've had no clinical activity in the last few years, that will also be a problem. You absolutely must repeat at least some of a PGY-1. You're really asking for trouble by trying to jump directly into a PGY-2. Your skills are likely to be rusty enough that you'll be way behind your peers. If so, you could easily find yourself remediated, or terminated, and then your chances of getting anything are slim.
5. I asked you to answer the question: if you can't have anesthesia, would you walk away from medicine? I ask that because your chances of getting an anesthesia spot are not good. Clearly they are not zero -- you have two interviews. But there is a reasonable chance you will not be able to secure one. You seem to be discarding IM and FP as careers -- and that's totally fine. As long as you understand that you may be discarding your medical career completely. There are other choices which are less competitive -- Psych, Path, and PM&R come to mind. None of them are similar to anesthesia. Note that PM&R is a PGY-2 position, but I think you could do that without repeating a PGY-1.
6. As for the question about emailing PD's directly, you really have nothing to lose at this point. I think it's unlikely to be helpful, but perhaps it will bring some closure if you simply get rejected. And if it does generate another interview, then that's a win.
So, plan:
Plan A is matching into anesthesia. You need to be on your A game for your interviews. You want to have researched the programs so you can speak intelligently when you are there. You should assume that you will be at the bottom of their rank list, and it's your job at the interview to fix that. You want programs to say "Wow, he was much different than I thought" (in a good way). You might as well contact a few programs and see what happens, but I wouldn't expect much. I think it's too late to apply to more programs, but you could certainly do so if you have money to burn. One additional option is contacting your prior prelim program to see if they would consider you for another prelim year. If you did well the first time, they might. You'd then rank all the anesthesia spots first, and the prelim spot last. You could expand that to other prelim programs (and might as well, since applyiung to 1 and 12 costs the same) but your app is late and I wouldn't count on other programs being interested at this late date.
Plan B is SOAP. If you're in SOAP, you'll need to decide whether you want to apply for the few anesthesia spots open -- probably a bad idea. In general people who didn't match in ortho, derm, and rads are applying for those spots, and you won't compete well against them. Hence why you'll have wanted to answer my question above, because your SOAP apps might be better directed towards IM/FP/Path?psych/PMR if you're interested at all.
Plan C is contacting your past prelim program. If your prior PD is still there and you did well, there is some chance they will take you -- perhaps off cycle, or perhaps just for 1-3 months. This would give you hands on clinical work, and would lead to Plan D.
Plan D is preparing for next year's match, where you'll apply more broadly. In the interim, clinical work would be helpful. You're an AMG with an internship completed. If you had satsifactory credit for the intern year, you will qualify for a medical license in many states -- although your long hiatus from medicine may be a problem. You could apply for a license. If you get one, then you can work with patients -- even if you're doing volunteer work, you'd be able to examine patients, write notes, etc.
Plan E is to step away from medicine permanently. There's a fork at Plan C to Plan D and E, and only you know what's the right step.
Hopefylly that's more helpful.
As has been mentioned, you have several "red flags" on your application. You failed CS twice, and this was back when the failure rate was lower than it is now. You completed an internship (that's good), hopefully you have supporting letters from that internship that stated you did well, and that they would have kept you had you wanted to stay. Your CK and Step 3 scores are low. You've had a long break from medicine, and now want to return.
So your plan is to apply to anesthesia, and you applied to 36 programs, and have two interviews, and now you're trying to decide what to do next.
Thoughts:
1. Anesthesia has become more competitive since you were in medical school, although we're (perhaps) starting to see some leveling off / early decline over concern that there won't be anesthesia jobs in the future due to CRNA's etc. This thread is not the right place for that discussion, there are plenty on the anesthesia board. Regardless, your chances of getting an anesthesia position with your background is simply not good. My statement that you didn't have good insight was referring to the fact that you only applied to 36 programs and seem surprised that you have only 2 interviews. I don't find that terribly surprising, would have advised you to apply to many more programs and focus on those that are community based / less attractive locations. Of course, it only takes one to match, so with 2 interviews you have some chance.
2. Your most useful resource is your prelim PGY-1 position. If the PD is still there, or if you can contact him/her, having them advocate for you would be a big plus. I'm assuming that you obtained an LOR from them -- if not that's a huge problem. This assumes that your performance at your PGY-1 was fine. If they were "happy to see you go", then you're in much bigger trouble.
3. The fact that you walked away from medicine once is both a strength and a weakness. On the one hand, it makes you a more interesting candidate since you have some real world experience (although it depends what you were doing when away from medicine). On the other hand, the thing that PD's try to avoid is hiring someone who 2-3 months in decides to quit because it's not what they want -- and you've done that once already (not exactly, but close enough).
4. If you've had no clinical activity in the last few years, that will also be a problem. You absolutely must repeat at least some of a PGY-1. You're really asking for trouble by trying to jump directly into a PGY-2. Your skills are likely to be rusty enough that you'll be way behind your peers. If so, you could easily find yourself remediated, or terminated, and then your chances of getting anything are slim.
5. I asked you to answer the question: if you can't have anesthesia, would you walk away from medicine? I ask that because your chances of getting an anesthesia spot are not good. Clearly they are not zero -- you have two interviews. But there is a reasonable chance you will not be able to secure one. You seem to be discarding IM and FP as careers -- and that's totally fine. As long as you understand that you may be discarding your medical career completely. There are other choices which are less competitive -- Psych, Path, and PM&R come to mind. None of them are similar to anesthesia. Note that PM&R is a PGY-2 position, but I think you could do that without repeating a PGY-1.
6. As for the question about emailing PD's directly, you really have nothing to lose at this point. I think it's unlikely to be helpful, but perhaps it will bring some closure if you simply get rejected. And if it does generate another interview, then that's a win.
So, plan:
Plan A is matching into anesthesia. You need to be on your A game for your interviews. You want to have researched the programs so you can speak intelligently when you are there. You should assume that you will be at the bottom of their rank list, and it's your job at the interview to fix that. You want programs to say "Wow, he was much different than I thought" (in a good way). You might as well contact a few programs and see what happens, but I wouldn't expect much. I think it's too late to apply to more programs, but you could certainly do so if you have money to burn. One additional option is contacting your prior prelim program to see if they would consider you for another prelim year. If you did well the first time, they might. You'd then rank all the anesthesia spots first, and the prelim spot last. You could expand that to other prelim programs (and might as well, since applyiung to 1 and 12 costs the same) but your app is late and I wouldn't count on other programs being interested at this late date.
Plan B is SOAP. If you're in SOAP, you'll need to decide whether you want to apply for the few anesthesia spots open -- probably a bad idea. In general people who didn't match in ortho, derm, and rads are applying for those spots, and you won't compete well against them. Hence why you'll have wanted to answer my question above, because your SOAP apps might be better directed towards IM/FP/Path?psych/PMR if you're interested at all.
Plan C is contacting your past prelim program. If your prior PD is still there and you did well, there is some chance they will take you -- perhaps off cycle, or perhaps just for 1-3 months. This would give you hands on clinical work, and would lead to Plan D.
Plan D is preparing for next year's match, where you'll apply more broadly. In the interim, clinical work would be helpful. You're an AMG with an internship completed. If you had satsifactory credit for the intern year, you will qualify for a medical license in many states -- although your long hiatus from medicine may be a problem. You could apply for a license. If you get one, then you can work with patients -- even if you're doing volunteer work, you'd be able to examine patients, write notes, etc.
Plan E is to step away from medicine permanently. There's a fork at Plan C to Plan D and E, and only you know what's the right step.
Hopefylly that's more helpful.
