IM resident seeking to do MFM elective?

[makethemostofit]

Long story short, I miss ob/gyn. Is there a way I could somehow take MFM as an elective during my senior years? How should I frame it so that it is accepted by program leadership?

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[gutonc]

1. Ask your PD
2. Ask the MFM PD

Seems highly unlikely but you'll never know unless you ask.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Could easily be wrong, but I would think you'd also need to explain why and missing OB doesn't seem a super compelling reason.

 

[sunshinefl]

Could easily be wrong, but I would think you'd also need to explain why and missing OB doesn't seem a super compelling reason.

Maybe they could say they want to do women‘a health focused primary care?

 

[smq123]

Maybe they could say they want to do women‘a health focused primary care?

Not a bad idea, but MFM is so specialized that you’re rarely going to refer to them unless you do general OB. Even women’s health won’t have any overlap with MFM.

 

[rokshana]

Not a bad idea, but MFM is so specialized that you’re rarely going to refer to them unless you do general OB. Even women’s health won’t have any overlap with MFM.

They plan on going endocrinology as a fellowship and will have high risk pts that will need to be co managed with mfm?

 

[smq123]

They plan on going endocrinology as a fellowship and will have high risk pts that will need to be co managed with mfm?

Since the OP originally applied to OB/gyn twice and didn’t match, and is now in IM as a backup, I wonder if he/she would want to do an additional IM fellowship. But that raises the question - is there a niche in endocrinology where you can see mostly pregnant patients with glucose and thyroid dysfunction? Or not really?

 

[makethemostofit]

Since the OP originally applied to OB/gyn twice and didn’t match, and is now in IM as a backup, I wonder if he/she would want to do an additional IM fellowship. But that raises the question - is there a niche in endocrinology where you can see mostly pregnant patients with glucose and thyroid dysfunction? Or not really?

Um I never applied to ob the first time. I applied once as a m4 to IM only. I figured that maybe I could use as research block for MFM but everyone seems to think this is impossible...

 

[smq123]

Um I never applied to ob the first time. I applied once as a m4 to IM only. I figured that maybe I could use as research block for MFM but everyone seems to think this is impossible...

Oops, my apologies. I must be thinking of another poster.

 

[Crayola227]

I've heard of someone doing something like this at my own program. I don't know anything besides that. And it was years ago.

It was coupled with a convo with the ICU depth head, who was going off on the horror stories of when exactly someone IM trained/hospitalist might find themselves doing a helluva lot more ob/gyn than they might otherwise expect. Sadly I don't remember the details of that convo.

Essentially, you need to ask this question, and find out, because it does happen. That would probably need to be the basis of you seeking this training, and as others pointed out I don't know that this would include MFM or some other niche in ob/gyn or IM.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

There's no rule preventing this. In IM, 3 of your 36 months can be non-IM. Ultimately it's up to your program, and whether OB will allow it. If you can make an argument about how it would help your career it would be easier, but not necessary.

 

[AMEHigh]

1. Ask your PD
2. Ask the MFM PD

Seems highly unlikely but you'll never know unless you ask.

Does IM not get electives?

At my program for our electives we could do anything we wanted as long as we had an attending physician as our supervisor.

Not exactly the same but when I worked more in academics we had IM residents who were interested in primary care and reproductive health do rotations in our procedure clinics where we did a lot of repro health things like IUD, vasectomy, miscarriage management, etc.

 

[obgyny]

Long story short, I miss ob/gyn. Is there a way I could somehow take MFM as an elective during my senior years? How should I frame it so that it is accepted by program leadership?

What is your reason for wanting to do an MFM elective? Do you just find the subject matter interesting? Or are you interested in incorporating it into your career somehow?

Obviously switching into an OB subspecialty without doing an OB residency isn’t an option. But if you’re interested in possibly working with pregnant patients within your IM specialty, then that may be possible. If you work within an IM subspecialty (Cards, Endocrine, Rheum, etc) at an institution with MFMs and let them know you have interest and knowledge about co-managing medically complicated pregnant patients.

For example- at my residency program, we had a “go to” cardiologist that the MFMs would refer their maternal cardiac patients to as he was comfortable/interested in taking care of pregnant patients. But obviously pregnant patients were a very small portion of his job.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Um I never applied to ob the first time. I applied once as a m4 to IM only. I figured that maybe I could use as research block for MFM but everyone seems to think this is impossible...

I don’t think it’s impossible, you are allowed 3 off service rotations per ACGME. Having mfm would be useful as IM. OB still love to call us during codes and being familiar with the mother baby stuff would be helpful. Heck if OB can come rotate with us as interns in ICU, I am sure we can do the same with them.