is it possible to go from family med to peds?

[hereiam12]

Hey guys
I am an IMG and I matched in family medicine. However, I wanted to be in pediatrics. I am going to start my resideny in FM. I want to know if I can still reapply in the up coming match for PL-1 in pediatrics while I am doing my PGY-1/intern year in family medicine.
Also, would I have to tell my program director about me entering the match again?
Thanks!

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[gutonc]

Hey guys
I am an IMG and I matched in family medicine. However, I wanted to be in pediatrics. I am going to start my resideny in FM. I want to know if I can still reapply in the up coming match for PL-1 in pediatrics while I am doing my PGY-1/intern year in family medicine.
Also, would I have to tell my program director about me entering the match again?
Thanks!

Yes and yes. But you have to ask yourself how likely you are to match in Peds. Did you fail to match in Peds this year or just not apply? If you didn't match this year, what are the chances you'll match next year?

And do you want Peds because you want to do a subspecialty? Or because you want a Peds only practice? If it's the former, you're stuck. If the latter, why not just do FM, do a bunch of Peds electives and then do an adolescent med fellowship and practice primarily peds and adolescent stuff?

 

[hereiam12]

thanks for your reply!

Well I applied to 5 peds programs. I got 2 interviews from well respected places. The reason for not matching might have been lack of electives in pediatrics in medical school. I've emailed the PD from one of the peds programs, he told me my application wasnt week; however, I needed more peds experience.
Also, I really love peds hem/onc. Which is why I am very much interested in going through this change. I am very fortunate to match in the first place, but it would be my dream to somehow get to peds hem/onc.
Do you think its possible for me to switch to peds and do fellowship later on?
thanks a lot for your time and help!

 

[umean2tellme]

If you do reapply for Peds you definitely should apply to more than 5 programs. Apply broadly and to many more programs to increase your chances of matching.

 

[gutonc]

If you do reapply for Peds you definitely should apply to more than 5 programs. Apply broadly and to many more programs to increase your chances of matching.

I thought this was strange as well. 5 programs. For the specialty you really want to do?

I've got money on the OP not telling us something rather important about his/her application.

 

[hereiam12]

Well guys its not that I am hiding anything. Its just that I wasnt comfortable applying in pediatrics. I myself knew that lack of peds electives and an average LOR from core rotations wasnt going to get me anywhere. I graduated in summer of 2012. After which i started doing externship in ADULT GI. I couldnt find anything in peds. Now you may ask, y didnt I do peds electives? Well if I wait for certain electives to be open, it would have prolonged my graduation time. So I stick with whatever my school had to offer.
As the application time came, I knew I was a better candidate for medicine or family medicine. Mid way into the season like sometime in november, I applied to peds and just wanted to see if i get any respond.
So this is pretty much my story. I really hope u guys can give me a good advice. I really want to go into peds and move on to do hem/onc. Please advice me if there is anything that I can do.
so far I want to do my PGY-1 family medicine and apply for pediatrics.
thanks for your time and help!

 

[Sheldor]

Well guys its not that I am hiding anything. Its just that I wasnt comfortable applying in pediatrics. I myself knew that lack of peds electives and an average LOR from core rotations wasnt going to get me anywhere. I graduated in summer of 2012. After which i started doing externship in ADULT GI. I couldnt find anything in peds. Now you may ask, y didnt I do peds electives? Well if I wait for certain electives to be open, it would have prolonged my graduation time. So I stick with whatever my school had to offer.
As the application time came, I knew I was a better candidate for medicine or family medicine. Mid way into the season like sometime in november, I applied to peds and just wanted to see if i get any respond.
So this is pretty much my story. I really hope u guys can give me a good advice. I really want to go into peds and move on to do hem/onc. Please advice me if there is anything that I can do.
so far I want to do my PGY-1 family medicine and apply for pediatrics.
thanks for your time and help!

If you applied to 5 and got 2 interviews, your application wasn't that week. This time, apply to 80, like you should have done before, go on 15 interviews, match, and go in to peds.

 

[BigRedBeta]

Well guys its not that I am hiding anything. Its just that I wasnt comfortable applying in pediatrics. I myself knew that lack of peds electives and an average LOR from core rotations wasnt going to get me anywhere. I graduated in summer of 2012. After which i started doing externship in ADULT GI. I couldnt find anything in peds. Now you may ask, y didnt I do peds electives? Well if I wait for certain electives to be open, it would have prolonged my graduation time. So I stick with whatever my school had to offer.
As the application time came, I knew I was a better candidate for medicine or family medicine. Mid way into the season like sometime in november, I applied to peds and just wanted to see if i get any respond.
So this is pretty much my story. I really hope u guys can give me a good advice. I really want to go into peds and move on to do hem/onc. Please advice me if there is anything that I can do.
so far I want to do my PGY-1 family medicine and apply for pediatrics.
thanks for your time and help!

Weak or not, you should have applied where your interest was.

As for now, yes you do need to tell your current program director, and if you landed at an FM program where there is also a Peds residency, you'd be wise to talk to the Peds program director early. Movement within an institution is likely to be easier. If nothing else, perhaps that pd would be able to offer some insight into peds places where you have a realistic chance of matching next year.

 

[mcl]

Weak or not, you should have applied where your interest was.

As for now, yes you do need to tell your current program director, and if you landed at an FM program where there is also a Peds residency, you'd be wise to talk to the Peds program director early. Movement within an institution is likely to be easier. If nothing else, perhaps that pd would be able to offer some insight into peds places where you have a realistic chance of matching next year.

Agreed that communication will be key to making this specialty switch while still fostering good will. Many years ago, I had a resident who had quickly become disenchanted with our specialty and approached the PD about finishing the year and re-entering the Match to pursue another specialty. We were all very sad, but supportive and tried to arrange his rotation schedule to maximize the time he could be available for interviews. However, just a couple of weeks later an intern from that second specialty contacted our PD because she had determined that she had made a mistake in choosing her specialty and had already submitted her ERAS application for consideration in our next intern class. Bottom line, we ended up just switching the residents within the institution (after each interviewed with the other department of course), and no one had to finish a year going through the motions in a specialty they no longer wanted to pursue.

 

[tartesos]

Make the most of what you have now.
Be open minded. Maybe since you haven't had electives in Peds you think you will like it?
Try using this family med year to explore Peds and other areas, and it should do well to get some good lor from some Peds docs or dwell deeper into the field like you never had a chance to before, who knows, it might change you( we all change course at least once from med school to residency).
And apply broadly as said before. Save as much as you can this year.

Good luck!

 

[gutonc]

This should go without saying, but whatever approach you take (and mcl's is, as usual, a good one) you need to absolutely shine in your FM program. Do not, even once, mention to anybody that you're disappointed in matching to that program/specialty. While you should definitely talk to your PD early, you also need to ensure that you have a month or 3 of rotations with stellar evaluations in your pocket before you bring up the idea of switching.

 

[hereiam12]

Thanks guys for your help and time!

 

[Law2Doc]

Well guys its not that I am hiding anything...!

Taking what you are saying at face value, It sounds like you were in such a rush to apply and didn't want to wait and do the electives you needed to get peds, making it hard to believe that was ever your dream career. More likely you applied mostly to FM and are now having buyers remorse -- you never really demonstrated much interest in peds until it seemed like a nice alternative compared to what you got. As mentioned above a FM doc can focus on younger patients if he wants. Now if you had done a few peds electives and applied to a dozen programs my take would be different.

 

[DSK]

Thanks guys for your help and time!

Hi,
How did everything turn out for you? I'm an FM intern (in an osteopathic residency program) and interested in switching into a pediatric residency because I realized a bit late that I really enjoy pediatrics and I may want to specialize further. I am very willing to repeat intern year if it means I can specialize in pediatrics. Can you give me some insight on how you went about this process? I am nervous because I am just starting intern year and applications are starting to open up soon so I don't know how that leaves time for new solid recommendation letters or any new additions to my application. In addition, I have not had a chance to build a solid relationship with my current PD yet and I don't want to violate the match rules, so I don't know when the appropriate time to discuss this with my PD would be. I'm certain the programs I apply to would want a supportive letter from my PD, but would it be too late in the application cycle to get a letter from her in October/November?

Any help/advice would be very much appreciated! Thanks

 

[candbgirl]

OP hasn't posted in two years so you might not get a response. Start your own thread.


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[mvenus929]

Hi,
How did everything turn out for you? I'm an FM intern (in an osteopathic residency program) and interested in switching into a pediatric residency because I realized a bit late that I really enjoy pediatrics and I may want to specialize further. I am very willing to repeat intern year if it means I can specialize in pediatrics. Can you give me some insight on how you went about this process? I am nervous because I am just starting intern year and applications are starting to open up soon so I don't know how that leaves time for new solid recommendation letters or any new additions to my application. In addition, I have not had a chance to build a solid relationship with my current PD yet and I don't want to violate the match rules, so I don't know when the appropriate time to discuss this with my PD would be. I'm certain the programs I apply to would want a supportive letter from my PD, but would it be too late in the application cycle to get a letter from her in October/November?

Any help/advice would be very much appreciated! Thanks

And kindly stop posting this in dozens of different threads. Those of us who frequent these forums check most, if not all the posts, and you don't need to post the same message in 6+ threads to get a response.