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Just curious about what current Ophtho residents think - does it ever happen?
Is it possible to transfer into Ophtho residency from another specialty?
- Thread starter CaptKirk
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If you've done a PGY1 year you can theoretically get accepted to a PGY2 spot if the program is willing to take you (either program did not fill (VERY rare) or someone dropped out). I know of one such case in a smaller 2-resident/year program. One of the surgical residents in the same hospital got the spot. Overall, these are rare exceptions and I would not have this as my primary plan.
Good luck.
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Thanks. I have done a PGY1 year, although it was not geared towards entering Ophthalmology - did not do any surgery rotations. My desire not to pursue my current specialty was... unanticipated. :-( If I decide to pursue Ophtho I know I'll be going through the match again; but I'll be applying for positions starting two years from now. I understand that, would just choose to avoid it if possible. lol
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Surgery rotations are certainly NOT a requirement. Many ophtho residents did a medicine prelim, and a few even did a peds prelim. The main requirement is the number of clinical months and patient contact months. I dont know the specifics of this, so maybe contacting the SF Match to find out if they have those specifics could be helpful.
Additionally, since that question has come up a number of times, if you do find out what the specific requirements of internship are then maybe you could post this for the others to see as well.
Sporadic openings in ophtho, though rare, do pop up from time to time. The larger question is, have you done any ophtho rotations or ophtho research, and do you have LORs from academic ophtho faculty? If not, it would be a long shot for you since you will be competing with a pool of ophtho applicants who do not match every year, many of whom presumably are still plugging away and doing things to improve their application.
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Yeah, that's a big problem as well. I decided relatively early in medical school (halfway through third year) what I wanted to do. Now that I'm having second thoughts, it's quite difficult to consider Ophtho since I have not done a rotation, nor do I have any letters or research. Ophtho was among the areas I had seriously considered in medical school but since I decided so early pursue the field I chose, I didn't ever pursue Ophtho. I just never anticipated being this unsatisfied in my chosen specialty. *sigh* I guess I could maybe try to use some of my vacation to do an Ophtho rotation, but my program does not like us to use more than one week at a time. I can try to get around that but I'd almost have to explain why to my current program which could get hairy as well...
Curious, what specialty are you currently in? I would recommend you talk to the ophtho department where you currently are in residency. You may be able to tag along on a project or something within your specialty that is related to ophthalmology and get the an ophtho attending to be one of the authors.
That way, you can get letters and research without having to do a formal rotation. Vacancies open up every once in a while. You're at an advantage because you can start right away... that is if your current program would let you out of your current contract.
The other option would be to tough out your current residency while concurrently applying. That way, you'll be done with 2 specialties and possibly moonlight while in residency.
That way, you can get letters and research without having to do a formal rotation. Vacancies open up every once in a while. You're at an advantage because you can start right away... that is if your current program would let you out of your current contract.
The other option would be to tough out your current residency while concurrently applying. That way, you'll be done with 2 specialties and possibly moonlight while in residency.
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Currently in diagnostic radiology. Yeah, I will probably end up talking to the Ophtho program here, at least to get some advice. I'm at a decided disadvantage and timing is completely against me. If I have to delay applying for a year in order to get letters and research experience, I would only have one year of radiology left when I would be starting Ophtho... and at that point it seems like it'd be better to finish radiology and then do Optho, since I'd be so close anyway. I may basically be a resident forever.
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May I ask what you find unsatisfying about radiology?
Can you pursue a subspecialty of radiology to satisfy your need?
The grass always seems greener on the other side. Economically,
it will not make any sense. It will take you 6-8 years (general
ophthalmology) after residency to match the starting salary of
a radiologist. IMO, a job is just a job. For the moment, radiology
seems to offer a good lifestyle with great compensation. I wished
I would have considered radiology during med school. But,
as they say, the grass always seems greener on the other side.
I would rethink this decision - multiple times.
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i'm not sure what you're necessarily unhappy about with radiology, but certainly life outside of residency is different than what you're experiencing now.
then again, if you decide to switch, it kind of makes for a nice interview story...because it makes the faculty think "wow he must really be dedicated to ophthalmology because he switched fields in the middle of residency." i guess that's just a small bonus in the whole mess.
good luck
then again, if you decide to switch, it kind of makes for a nice interview story...because it makes the faculty think "wow he must really be dedicated to ophthalmology because he switched fields in the middle of residency." i guess that's just a small bonus in the whole mess.
good luck
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Yeah, the grass is always greener, I agree with you. As far as what about radiology I find dissatisfying (I guess it's good practice to throw my thoughts out on this forum before I try it in front of a program director eh?)...
First, throughout my internship I worked with a lot of different types of clinicians from general internists (wards), pulmonary/CC docs, surgeons, orthopods, urologists, ENT's, even the occasional Ophtho as a consultant, etc. Everyone pretty much reads their own imaging. One of my friends is doing his fellowship in retina and I talked with him about this yesterday. He reads all his own stuff. Another of my friends is dating an Ortho attending, he always reads his own joint MRI's and frequently calls the rads who read it to redo the report, because he finds things they miss. Throughout my entire month of pulm/cc, we only went down to radiology to get an opinion on a chest CT once... and the radiologist was less then helpful (basically said what my attending already knew). I guess I'm just really looking at my field from the other side and seeing that, other than churning out a report for the chart, much if not most of the time, we don't seem to add a great deal of info.
Second, I do like people. I don't like admitting the alcoholic cirrhotic with another upper GI bleed at 3am, or the entitled drug seeking chronic headache r/o CVA, etc. But I do like having contact with people in some form of continuity. Could I interact with people in radiology? Sure... mammo or perhaps interventional. IR would not have any continuity or at last very little. Mammo actually wouldn't be bad and that may end up being my best option.
Third, learning a very specialized skill set that sets me apart and allows me to offer something unique and valuable to people is very appealing. Vision is pretty fundamental and I think I would really enjoy feeling like I can offer something that helps and benefits people in a really fundamental way. Could I get some of that through IR? Yeah, I guess... but just as often I would be draining abscesses and putting in PICC's because no one else wants to. I don't mean to minimize those things as they are important and benefit people directly, it's just not what I want to do with my life.
Finally, and this is my bad, I went to med school because I didn't want to do something without purpose and meaning. I was a software developer before med school, my degree is in computer science. I left that world because I didn't want to sit at a computer all day. I like computers and technology, and I managed to convince myself during med school (after hating IM, peds, etc) that rads would be a great fit for me - helping people, technology, etc. But now I find myself back at my computer and it's thoroughly dissatisfying. I have moments where I'd almost rather do family medicine then finish out rads.
Yeah, the money in rads is great, no doubt. But I'm not gonna starve no matter what kind of doctor I become. And I'd rather make 150k per year and be happy with what I do and how I see myself than make 350k per year or more being miserable.
First, throughout my internship I worked with a lot of different types of clinicians from general internists (wards), pulmonary/CC docs, surgeons, orthopods, urologists, ENT's, even the occasional Ophtho as a consultant, etc. Everyone pretty much reads their own imaging. One of my friends is doing his fellowship in retina and I talked with him about this yesterday. He reads all his own stuff. Another of my friends is dating an Ortho attending, he always reads his own joint MRI's and frequently calls the rads who read it to redo the report, because he finds things they miss. Throughout my entire month of pulm/cc, we only went down to radiology to get an opinion on a chest CT once... and the radiologist was less then helpful (basically said what my attending already knew). I guess I'm just really looking at my field from the other side and seeing that, other than churning out a report for the chart, much if not most of the time, we don't seem to add a great deal of info.
Second, I do like people. I don't like admitting the alcoholic cirrhotic with another upper GI bleed at 3am, or the entitled drug seeking chronic headache r/o CVA, etc. But I do like having contact with people in some form of continuity. Could I interact with people in radiology? Sure... mammo or perhaps interventional. IR would not have any continuity or at last very little. Mammo actually wouldn't be bad and that may end up being my best option.
Third, learning a very specialized skill set that sets me apart and allows me to offer something unique and valuable to people is very appealing. Vision is pretty fundamental and I think I would really enjoy feeling like I can offer something that helps and benefits people in a really fundamental way. Could I get some of that through IR? Yeah, I guess... but just as often I would be draining abscesses and putting in PICC's because no one else wants to. I don't mean to minimize those things as they are important and benefit people directly, it's just not what I want to do with my life.
Finally, and this is my bad, I went to med school because I didn't want to do something without purpose and meaning. I was a software developer before med school, my degree is in computer science. I left that world because I didn't want to sit at a computer all day. I like computers and technology, and I managed to convince myself during med school (after hating IM, peds, etc) that rads would be a great fit for me - helping people, technology, etc. But now I find myself back at my computer and it's thoroughly dissatisfying. I have moments where I'd almost rather do family medicine then finish out rads.
Yeah, the money in rads is great, no doubt. But I'm not gonna starve no matter what kind of doctor I become. And I'd rather make 150k per year and be happy with what I do and how I see myself than make 350k per year or more being miserable.
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Have you taken any vacation--one where you can relax, not one where you feel obligated to visit family or other less than stress-less event?
This is not the sort of decision you should make in just any frame of mind. Finding the time to relax and be objective in the middle of residency when it seems every attending has a dunce hat for you to wear is not easy.
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This sounds like you should probably invest a couple of bucks in a career counsellor and possibly even a session or two with a therapist or a life coach of some kind. You have too much, for lack of a better word, wunderlust. You'll likely never be happy with what you're doing NOW because you're always looking for something different to do.
Maybe you should join the priesthood. lol.
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I've thought about it. 🙂
I'm sure we'd all benefit from career advice and counseling at times. And this probably is one. I spoke with a friend today who is a program coordinator in an unrelated program (not one I am interested in). So, no ulterior motive and it was certainly helpful.
Whether or not it's wanderlust, the timing of the situation means that I will be doing at the very least 1-2 years of this. So, plenty of time for counseling, introspection and discernment.
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Academic medical centers will always skew your view. In private practice, you may think differently about your usefulness. I would imagine that most older, general ophthalmologists rely on radiologist quite often. The newest generation have been exposed more to CT/MRI scans, so they may feel more comfortable reading those studies. Unless there is something grossly abnormal, I still rely on radiologists to read the MRI scans - particularly with subtle findings.
Second, about interacting with people. Sure, it is nice getting compliments after cataract surgery. But, I hear at least 10 times more complaints than compliments. I think this is true for many businesses. When things go right, you never hear about it. When things go bad, you always hear about it.
Third, cataract surgery (in the United States) is becoming more and more similar to refractive surgery. It is incredible what some patients desire nowadays. They want to see close, near, intermediate, far away, to infinity and beyond without glasses. God forbid glasses help them see better - the need for spectacle glasses after surgery is becoming more unacceptable (unfortunately). Even though our practice is pretty conservative with surgery selection and we do push many refractive/accommodative lenses, the expectations are high.
IMO, the ophthalmologists truly restoring vision are those practicing in underserved areas or in third world countries - operating on those count fingers or hand motion (dense white or black) cataracts.
At the end of the day, I go home to my family and don't think much of the compliments or complaints. Sure, it is exciting the first time you restore someone's vision from count fingers to 20/20 and see them cry. The excitement, unfortunately, does wane. But, maybe, I am a jerk. Like any repetitive task, it is just a job - and, is no more 'useful' or 'purposeful' than catching a tumor on a CT scan or diagnosing pneumonia on an CXR.
If you don't find radiology useful, use the 12 weeks of vacation per year to do something else... haha.
Second, about interacting with people. Sure, it is nice getting compliments after cataract surgery. But, I hear at least 10 times more complaints than compliments. I think this is true for many businesses. When things go right, you never hear about it. When things go bad, you always hear about it.
Third, cataract surgery (in the United States) is becoming more and more similar to refractive surgery. It is incredible what some patients desire nowadays. They want to see close, near, intermediate, far away, to infinity and beyond without glasses. God forbid glasses help them see better - the need for spectacle glasses after surgery is becoming more unacceptable (unfortunately). Even though our practice is pretty conservative with surgery selection and we do push many refractive/accommodative lenses, the expectations are high.
IMO, the ophthalmologists truly restoring vision are those practicing in underserved areas or in third world countries - operating on those count fingers or hand motion (dense white or black) cataracts.
At the end of the day, I go home to my family and don't think much of the compliments or complaints. Sure, it is exciting the first time you restore someone's vision from count fingers to 20/20 and see them cry. The excitement, unfortunately, does wane. But, maybe, I am a jerk. Like any repetitive task, it is just a job - and, is no more 'useful' or 'purposeful' than catching a tumor on a CT scan or diagnosing pneumonia on an CXR.
If you don't find radiology useful, use the 12 weeks of vacation per year to do something else... haha.
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Most medical students that I've talked with try to get the easiest residency possible. To me it makes them look like they have poor work ethic. Either that or they are very tricky and calculative.
There's nothing with wanting a cush residency. Cush does not mean you don't care or have poor work ethic.
It's all relative. With that thinking, the surgery residents would think ophthalmology residents have poor work ethic. Choosing eye surgery over real surgery. 😉
