Leaving one residency for another?

[Timmythemic22]

Hey All,

After 6 months of my residency I realized I have made a huge mistake. I'm not cut out for my current field, and I want to change. I also realize that for this application cycle, most of the interviews have gone out already. My plan is the following:

-find a paid research position in the field i'm pursuing for a year
-get my license (take step III) so I can hopefully moonlight
-apply the following year for residency

How feasible is this path? I've been talking to advisors and mentors that have assured me it's possible but difficult. Where would I go to start looking for research? How would I approach the faculty. Where do I start?

I'm very confused and very stressed right now. I'm just trying to transition. Any help would be great.

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[deleted6669]

you realize that this is the pa/np forum.... questions about md residency should probably be in the physician general residency section.
now if you were a pa resident or fellow I could help you but that presents another set of issues....

 

[Timmythemic22]

Ugh...is my face red. Mods, please move this to appropriate forum. Sorry everyone. Good luck!

 

[smq123]

Moving to Gen Res.

 

[smq123]

Hey All,

After 6 months of my residency I realized I have made a huge mistake. I'm not cut out for my current field, and I want to change. I also realize that for this application cycle, most of the interviews have gone out already. My plan is the following:

-find a paid research position in the field i'm pursuing for a year
-get my license (take step III) so I can hopefully moonlight
-apply the following year for residency

How feasible is this path? I've been talking to advisors and mentors that have assured me it's possible but difficult. Where would I go to start looking for research? How would I approach the faculty. Where do I start?

I'm very confused and very stressed right now. I'm just trying to transition. Any help would be great.

I'm very sorry to hear that intern year has not turned out as you hoped. Sometimes these things happen; I just wish that getting out of these situations were easier.

It's a little hard to give specific advice given that you don't specify which field you'd like to transition into, but here are a couple of thoughts:

- You don't specifically say that you weren't going to complete your intern year, but I would agree with others that you need to finish this year out. I'm sure you'd rather gouge your eyes out with a pencil, but I feel that you would have more options if you complete PGY-1 than if you don't. At the very worst, you have to repeat intern year in your new field.

- If you're not hoping to transition into anything particularly competitive (i.e. rad onc, rads, etc), you COULD consider applying for the NRMP for the sole purpose of being able to participate in the scramble. Again, worst case scenario, you waste some money and you're no worse off than you were before. You might get lucky and get a spot somewhere.

- Before you decide, make 100% sure that you can moonlight. If you're still in NJ, as your location indicates, you might not be able to - from what I remember when interviewing for residency, NJ does not allow people to apply for an unrestricted license unless they have completed two years of residency. If you are close enough to one of its neighboring states (PA, NY), you might be able to apply for an unrestricted license in those states, but NJ might be more difficult.

- Consider reaching out to the dean's office at your old medical school, and/or a faculty member at your old med school who is in the field you are considering. They may be able to help you find a research position.

- Finally, as others have said, make sure that it is the specialty and not the program. One of my very close friends considered switching specialties. He wasn't able to do that, but did end up switching programs. He's happier than he was at his old program - they weren't worked as hard, he had more free time, the attendings were nicer.

Good luck. I hope it all works out for you.

 

[Dral]

Based on what you say, it sounds like you're trying to switch out of something into a competitive field. Depending on the situation, one deciding they wanted to get out of gas (for example) to go to FP would not typically do a research year...they'd probably finish out intern year, work in something like emergent care, and reapply.

If someone for instance was going from surgery to rads/rad onc/derm, etc, then they'd probably be doing a research year.

It's totally possible. As someone suggested, finish out intern year, and move forward. I think you have the correct plan.

 

[dragonfly99]

I think we need to know what specialty he wants to get in to, and maybe which one he is bailing out from...
if he is trying to switch from IM to something like derm or radiology, success is not guaranteed even with one or more research years. I would say proceed with caution.

 

[peppy]

Looking at some of his other posts, it sounds like this poster is a surgery intern.
From what I've observed, it seems to be very common for surgery residents to be unhappy and think about quitting. Are you sure that the problem is the specialty and not just the residency you're at or the process of being an intern?

Even though I think most of us would agree that surgery is a difficult way of life, every residency has its low points and can be very stressful at times. If you still have the passion for surgery maybe it would make sense to stick it out a little longer.
I wouldn't want you to end up switching into something you don't have a passion for in the hope that it would be easier, only to come to the realization that you're still not happy because the work isn't satisfying to you.
Good luck with working this out.

 

[adagio]

I'm very sorry to hear that intern year has not turned out as you hoped. Sometimes these things happen; I just wish that getting out of these situations were easier.

It's a little hard to give specific advice given that you don't specify which field you'd like to transition into, but here are a couple of thoughts:

- You don't specifically say that you weren't going to complete your intern year, but I would agree with others that you need to finish this year out. I'm sure you'd rather gouge your eyes out with a pencil, but I feel that you would have more options if you complete PGY-1 than if you don't. At the very worst, you have to repeat intern year in your new field.

- If you're not hoping to transition into anything particularly competitive (i.e. rad onc, rads, etc), you COULD consider applying for the NRMP for the sole purpose of being able to participate in the scramble. Again, worst case scenario, you waste some money and you're no worse off than you were before. You might get lucky and get a spot somewhere.

- Before you decide, make 100% sure that you can moonlight. If you're still in NJ, as your location indicates, you might not be able to - from what I remember when interviewing for residency, NJ does not allow people to apply for an unrestricted license unless they have completed two years of residency. If you are close enough to one of its neighboring states (PA, NY), you might be able to apply for an unrestricted license in those states, but NJ might be more difficult.

- Consider reaching out to the dean's office at your old medical school, and/or a faculty member at your old med school who is in the field you are considering. They may be able to help you find a research position.

- Finally, as others have said, make sure that it is the specialty and not the program. One of my very close friends considered switching specialties. He wasn't able to do that, but did end up switching programs. He's happier than he was at his old program - they weren't worked as hard, he had more free time, the attendings were nicer.

Good luck. I hope it all works out for you.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hey All,

After 6 months of my residency I realized I have made a huge mistake. I'm not cut out for my current field, and I want to change. I also realize that for this application cycle, most of the interviews have gone out already. My plan is the following:

-find a paid research position in the field i'm pursuing for a year
-get my license (take step III) so I can hopefully moonlight
-apply the following year for residency

How feasible is this path? I've been talking to advisors and mentors that have assured me it's possible but difficult. Where would I go to start looking for research? How would I approach the faculty. Where do I start?

I'm very confused and very stressed right now. I'm just trying to transition. Any help would be great.

As others have said you really need to finish intern year if that wasn't your plan. As far as the switch, go sit down with the attendings/PD of the field you are interested in at your hospital and have a heart to heart, maybe a brainstorming session. I know of plenty of folks who made jumps from one specialty to another, and in every case it started with a sit down with someone in the target specialty, who advised them and ultimately made a phone call. Just applying in the match blind as a PGY1 is extremely low yield to get what you want -- it's often just a way to jump from one bad situation to another.