Indecision and PGY-1

[FSU2013]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I have a bachelor's in physics and came to med school thinking radonc is where I would end up. After 2/3rds of my MS3 year, I realized that I love surgery. I won't be able to do a rotation in radonc until MS4. I have to have my MS4 schedule finished in a few weeks and I don't want to throw everything I have into pursuing radonc before I do a couple months of work in the field.

I realize there is a required PGY-1 year outside of radonc and I was curious if anyone had any thoughts about the idea of starting in a GS residency. If I loved it, I would/could stay. If I didn't, I would attempt to match into a PGY-2 radonc spot (and either do a 2nd year of GS or do a year of research before it began due to the 1yr layover).

Has anyone done something similar? Would this make it harder to match into the field? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Gfunk6]

I know someone who went PGY-3 into surgery before switching into Rad Onc. I've seen similar situations with IM and Diagnostic Rads.

It will make it more difficult to get into Rad Onc compared to going through the Match the first time. One problem is that your program selection will be limited to those who happen to be taking PGY-2s in advanced slots. I'm not sure but I guess you could also withdraw from your GS program and re-enter the Match.

 

[napoleondynamite]

If you decide to do radonc, consider a surgery prelim year and you will get the "best" of both worlds (for you anyway).