Is it possible to switch from internal medicine residency to dermatology?

[irishmedicine]

USMLE scores for both step I and II are over 250

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[Dral]

Not impossible. There are several things to consider:

1. You should be able to prove that you really want to do Dermatology and aren't just jumping ship from IM. This entails doing some derm research and getting involved in derm related things.

2. You may have to coordinate ending your IM residency spot with matching into a derm spot (your IM spot may get filled before the match and if you don't match derm, you're left with nothing).

3. Funding issues could be an issue. You will have to land in a derm residency where (likely) the institution is able to pick up paying you for time left in your designated ACGME funding.

There are probably other fairly important things to consider. I'll let others chime in as well or post more if I think of them.

 

[MOHS_01]

Not impossible. There are several things to consider:

1. You should be able to prove that you really want to do Dermatology and aren't just jumping ship from IM. This entails doing some derm research and getting involved in derm related things.

2. You may have to coordinate ending your IM residency spot with matching into a derm spot (your IM spot may get filled before the match and if you don't match derm, you're left with nothing).

3. Funding issues could be an issue. You will have to land in a derm residency where (likely) the institution is able to pick up paying you for time left in your designated ACGME funding.

There are probably other fairly important things to consider. I'll let others chime in as well or post more if I think of them.

Looking at #1 -- I used to think like this, too, but have evolved some over the years as I no longer see the value of coming to the decision that derm >> IM as a student than as a resident or, God forbid, as a graduate. Let's face it, medicine is hard. It is stressful. It is relatively underpaid -- all of it. Derm may not be Valhalla, but it might be as close as we can get within the house of medicine -- so I don't believe one should have to jump through any additional hoops simply because they came to their senses later rather than sooner.

 

[Dral]

Looking at #1 -- I used to think like this, too, but have evolved some over the years as I no longer see the value of coming to the decision that derm >> IM as a student than as a resident or, God forbid, as a graduate. Let's face it, medicine is hard. It is stressful. It is relatively underpaid -- all of it. Derm may not be Valhalla, but it might be as close as we can get within the house of medicine -- so I don't believe one should have to jump through any additional hoops simply because they came to their senses later rather than sooner.

I've sorta always felt this way. Unfortunately it matters for a lot of people since it seems decisions come down to being made based on who has the nicer tie or shoes (not really) since 98% of interviewed candidates are superstars and have good to great personalities...at least on interview day.