Long break between medical school and residency?

[DeadCactus]

If you take a two to four year break either between medical school and intern year or intern year and the rest of residency, and do something unrelated to medicine, have you pretty much walked away from medicine as a career? Do you have a realistic chance at getting back into training to finish your education?

I would think your best chance is between intern year and residency as you could at least do some amount of part-time work to keep your license...

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[SouthernSurgeon]

If you take a two to four year break either between medical school and intern year or intern year and the rest of residency, and do something unrelated to medicine, have you pretty much walked away from medicine as a career?

Not necessarily "walked away" but certainly altered your career path and given yourself a much hard road.

Do you have a realistic chance at getting back into training to finish your education?

Maybe, maybe not. You will be "damaged goods" when compared to a current fourth year med student.

I would think your best chance is between intern year and residency as you could at least do some amount of part-time work to keep your license...

No.

 

[Ana1982]

I wouldn't advise it...unless you're doing something like cancer research at NIH or working in a pharmaceutical lab or something.... why don't you do something like that if you REALLY wanna take time off? Like an intern type thing, they're generally 40 hours a week...not too stressful if you get a nice boss/coworkers etc.

 

[Psychiatrypd]

Depends on what you did during those 2-4 years, and why you did that

 

[njbmd]

If you take a two to four year break either between medical school and intern year or intern year and the rest of residency, and do something unrelated to medicine, have you pretty much walked away from medicine as a career? Do you have a realistic chance at getting back into training to finish your education?

I would think your best chance is between intern year and residency as you could at least do some amount of part-time work to keep your license...

It is a very bad idea to interrupt residency training. Unless you are ill (or taking care of a family member who is ill), most residency programs will not give years off. The reason for this is that they are not able to replace you for those years unless you are part of an established research lab that has received funding to cover your salary. You are also expected to complete a major project during those research years as some programs will allow/require you to do research years. In that case they will have taken non designated prelim residents to cover your work (if you are a categorical resident) which will be built into the program when your start. If you are not at a center that does this, your chances of getting back are not going to be good. In addition, there is very little that you can do without finishing residency even with an unrestricted license. Most insurance companies will not reimburse for care by a non BC/BE physician and most hospitals will not give practicing privileges without BC/BE.

 

[iamsoopaman]

Taking time for something unrelated to medicine might send up a red flag to a residency program. I think at that point, you're expected to be as dedicated as you can be given the nature of the work you're undertaking...long hours...bad pay.....and a natural drive to learn in spite of these factors.

jus my 2 cents

 

[Knicks]

oops, nevermind

 

[msdaisy]

Bump

 

[DermViser]

I will be 32 when I graduate medical school and I feel like that would be the best time to have kids for me. I want to dedicate 5 years to being a stay at home mom. Ideally, I would also be able to work something out where I could do some research with flexible scheduling and attend a few conferences, but mostly I want dedicated time for the kids. Luckily I do not have to worry about debt/ loans. I'm interested in PEDs/psych/child psych and want to do my residency in California.

Does anyone have any specific advice/thoughts on taking a five year break to be a stay at home mom between medical school and residency/ internship? Are there some good ways to keep a foot in the door during those 5 years?

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[redpanda]

Perhaps if you would like to spend 5 years raising kids full time, you should do it before medical school? If you take a break between med school and residency, it's very likely going to be a permanent break.

 

[SBR249]

Post is 4 years old...OP probably already did whatever she decided to do.

Edit: oh, hmmm, I just saw that someone edited their own post. nvm. I guess still a fresh necro topic...

 

[DeadCactus]

Man, I didn't even recognize this as my own thread the first time I read it today. What a stupid question... Funniest part is I can't even remember what I had in mind for those 2 to 4 years...

 

[starstarie]

Ya gotta do it pregnancy end of 3rd yr + research gap year or wait till the end of residency and hope to god you still have some good eggs left.

you are premed correct? I'd def think about if you are absolutely set on staying at home for a few yrs. PA might be a better road. You could potentially work 1/2 or 3/4 time as an MD but I'd vote that either you just gotta work around the kids of find a different career that is easier to take a break

 

[DermViser]

Man, I didn't even recognize this as my own thread the first time I read it today. What a stupid question... Funniest part is I can't even remember what I had in mind for those 2 to 4 years...

Having children?

 

[Kaustikos]

Having children?

She did a peds rotation and was like "f.ck that"

 

[Psai]

Man, I didn't even recognize this as my own thread the first time I read it today. What a stupid question... Funniest part is I can't even remember what I had in mind for those 2 to 4 years...

Hmm it doesn't happen often when op comes back years later this is awesome

 

[SBR249]

Hmm it doesn't happen often when op comes back years later this is awesome

But in this case it was rather unsatisfying because the OP can't remember why the post was made in the first place...

 

[DermViser]

But in this case it was rather unsatisfying because the OP can't remember why the post was made in the first place...

What's amazing is that the OP says his original post was "a stupid question". Rarely does any SDNer come back and ever say that (to be fair, I don't think it's a stupid question at all).