chestsurg21
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Looks like the fellowship program I matched into may close…
- Thread starter chestsurg21
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I think unfortunately you outline the tension here. You can report to the ACGME, but it would likely negatively impact the current fellows.
Ideally, you could keep this "in house" and discuss your concerns with the PD. But that requires a level of trust that it doesn't seem like the program has earned.
There's no easy decision here.
Ideally, you could keep this "in house" and discuss your concerns with the PD. But that requires a level of trust that it doesn't seem like the program has earned.
There's no easy decision here.
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Difficult situation to be in, but I would prepare to apply for fellowship the next cycle as a back up plan. For now, I would just give it some time and hope that the PD will reach out or there would be some changes before next year.
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Is this an ACGME accredited fellowship with ABMS certification at the end of it?
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The tone of this thread suggests that you're in a "no win" situation. In fact, I look at it differently -- you're in a "no lose" situation.
Your options:
1. You can walk away from the fellowship, and practice gen surgery. It will be a match violation but who cares? You will never be in the match again.
2. You can start the fellowship. Maybe it will be fine. Maybe it will suck. Who knows? Sounds like it was better a short while ago. Maybe they will turn it around in the next year. Show up and see how it goes. What's the worst that can happen? If it's horrible, you can just quit. Get a GS job. You're in the same place as option 1, except perhaps with an employment gap (unless you keep your fellowship job while looking for a GS position). You might even be able to moonlight in any gap.
3. You could review the institution's website and see if the exit of the faculty is mentioned (or, see if they are no longer listed). If not, google them and see if they show up somewhere else. Then you could innocently email the PD and mention that you're excited to start but by looking at the institution's website and using google you noticed that many of the faculty you met have left. See what happens.
4. You could start the fellowship and discover there are not enough cases for full time training. Maybe they would be willing to hire you 1/2 time to be a general surgeon, and 1/2 to be a fellow. Might take twice as long to train, but you'd have 1/2 the salary of a gen surgeon.
5. You could start the fellowship and get orphaned by the program closing. In that case, your funding might be able to transition to a new program, and they may be able to get a temporary complement increase to take you. You might end up somewhere better. Worst case, you're back to GS.
The only thing you can't do is look for a new fellowship, assuming this one was in the NRMP match. You'd need a waiver first if you wanted to do that.
From my vantage point, it depends how much you want this field. If you really want it, I see not much downside to starting the fellowship. if it works out, then all is well. If not, you just end up back in GS which is your default option.
Your options:
1. You can walk away from the fellowship, and practice gen surgery. It will be a match violation but who cares? You will never be in the match again.
2. You can start the fellowship. Maybe it will be fine. Maybe it will suck. Who knows? Sounds like it was better a short while ago. Maybe they will turn it around in the next year. Show up and see how it goes. What's the worst that can happen? If it's horrible, you can just quit. Get a GS job. You're in the same place as option 1, except perhaps with an employment gap (unless you keep your fellowship job while looking for a GS position). You might even be able to moonlight in any gap.
3. You could review the institution's website and see if the exit of the faculty is mentioned (or, see if they are no longer listed). If not, google them and see if they show up somewhere else. Then you could innocently email the PD and mention that you're excited to start but by looking at the institution's website and using google you noticed that many of the faculty you met have left. See what happens.
4. You could start the fellowship and discover there are not enough cases for full time training. Maybe they would be willing to hire you 1/2 time to be a general surgeon, and 1/2 to be a fellow. Might take twice as long to train, but you'd have 1/2 the salary of a gen surgeon.
5. You could start the fellowship and get orphaned by the program closing. In that case, your funding might be able to transition to a new program, and they may be able to get a temporary complement increase to take you. You might end up somewhere better. Worst case, you're back to GS.
The only thing you can't do is look for a new fellowship, assuming this one was in the NRMP match. You'd need a waiver first if you wanted to do that.
From my vantage point, it depends how much you want this field. If you really want it, I see not much downside to starting the fellowship. if it works out, then all is well. If not, you just end up back in GS which is your default option.
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I think you're overly worried. Will you get a job right where you want it? That I can't say. But I doubt it would be due to dropping out of a terrible fellowship. It would be because all of the positions have filled. You'll get a job somewhere, and the more flexible you are the less of a problem it will be.
Guess it depends on the fellowship and how committed you are to it. I wouldn't sacrifice years of your life if the fellowship truly is in shambles. I would talk to PD and express your concern. It would be pretty sad if you spent a year or two and then the whole thing closed - so you also have to look out for yourself. My 2 cents.
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I really doubt that you would hurt your job chances at all by leaving fellowship. You would be getting a job in a different field at that point. You can just tell them that the fellowship field ended up not being what you wanted and you know that general surgery is a better fit. They won't care. They might even agree with you, after all, that's what they ended up doing.
Plus there are a ton of general surgery jobs out there.
Plus there are a ton of general surgery jobs out there.
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Hi all, we received a request to delete this thread because the OP posted potentially identifying information. Since several of the posts in this thread are well-thought out and other users might benefit from them in the future, I decided to simply delete all of his posts and any quotes without deleting the entire thread. The thread is now closed.
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