Lost residency position - advice?

[MD5348904]

I am an AMG. After medical school graduation, I was hospitalized several times for bipolar psychosis before receiving the correct diagnosis and treatment, which ended up costing me my residency (after my program found out I was admitted to a psych unit they insisted I see an outside psychiatrist who confirmed the initial diagnosis; because of this the program did not renew my contract). I did not complete intern year.

Fortunately I am now in full remission. After consultation with an attorney specializing in licensing matters I have decided not to further pursue residency training due to anticipated difficulties with completing training and attaining a medical license, such as having to disclose complete medical records to the Board, potentially having to inform any future program of my illness and therefore being placed under a microscope, or the potential need for ongoing compliance with onerous Board recommendations.

As a physician who has not completed intern year, what options are out there for work? There is one thread out there in this board that has some ideas but I would appreciate further discussion or anecdotes on this topic.

Any other general advice for someone in my position from those on this forum? I'm happy to answer additional questions but will need to preserve my anonymity.

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[deleted480308]

Sales, consultation?

 

[Gastrapathy]

Maybe get a clinical informatics masters and try to work for a EHR company?

 

[austintr]

Some of the grads w/o residency that I've known have done:
Transplant coordinator

Pharmaceutical rep/phase 1 trials coodinator

Medical science liaison (some may require board eligible, but many don't)

Device sales/technical rep

Medical writing

Tutoring MCAT, Step 1, etc.

Teaching community college anatomy/physiology, etc

There are opportunities out there, but I think you have to be pretty flexible and cast a broad net

 

[Piebaldi]

I can respect if you don't want to pursue residency training - just putting this out there - have you thought about something like occupational medicine? lots of non clinical options after graduation and residency is pretty benign.

with that said, if you absolutely don't want to do any clinical training, think about maybe working for epic, try management consulting for example, have you thought about cosmetics?, maybe setting up your own clinic and hiring providers in the future, perhaps have more an admin type position in a hospital? etc.

 

[Goro]

I am an AMG. After medical school graduation, I was hospitalized several times for bipolar psychosis before receiving the correct diagnosis and treatment, which ended up costing me my residency (after my program found out I was admitted to a psych unit they insisted I see an outside psychiatrist who confirmed the initial diagnosis; because of this the program did not renew my contract). I did not complete intern year.

Fortunately I am now in full remission. After consultation with an attorney specializing in licensing matters I have decided not to further pursue residency training due to anticipated difficulties with completing training and attaining a medical license, such as having to disclose complete medical records to the Board, potentially having to inform any future program of my illness and therefore being placed under a microscope, or the potential need for ongoing compliance with onerous Board recommendations.

As a physician who has not completed intern year, what options are out there for work? There is one thread out there in this board that has some ideas but I would appreciate further discussion or anecdotes on this topic.

Any other general advice for someone in my position from those on this forum? I'm happy to answer additional questions but will need to preserve my anonymity.

Teaching

 

[deleted1022594]

Any chance you will reconsider to try again for clinical training which can open up many different doors?
I just find it sad that physicians are held to such high standards that the medical board will give you hard time about a treatable mental disorder. I am sorry that the program never gave you another chance. This is the reason why physicians don't get the help they need for substance abuse or psych disorders. The stigma is saddening.

 

[deleted480308]

Any chance you will reconsider to try again for clinical training which can open up many different doors?
I just find it sad that physicians are held to such high standards that the medical board will give you hard time about a treatable mental disorder. I am sorry that the program never gave you another chance. This is the reason why physicians don't get the help they need for substance abuse or psych disorders. The stigma is saddening.

I highly doubt it was the diagnosis itself as much as work performance , the semantics there actually matter

 

[OccptlMed]

I can respect if you don't want to pursue residency training - just putting this out there - have you thought about something like occupational medicine? lots of non clinical options after graduation and residency is pretty benign.

As an Occ Doc, I would not consider occ med as a route for those not clinically inclined. It requires an internship, is clinically based, and does not yet seem to me to yield any significant non clinical opportunities for those that have little to no clinical experience. Piebaldi, do you have some specifics I might be unaware of?

 

[Piebaldi]

As an Occ Doc, I would not consider occ med as a route for those not clinically inclined. It requires an internship, is clinically based, and does not yet seem to me to yield any significant non clinical opportunities for those that have little to no clinical experience. Piebaldi, do you have some specifics I might be unaware of?

There are a number of positions in occupational med that in my opinion are less clinically based, particularly at companies at large. for example i recently received a job posting from AA for an occ med doc. a lot of these jobs do things involved in employee clinic/safety/education/wellness, etc.
a lot of them work in companies where employees might face some sort of environmental harzard, etc etc. so largely non-clinical particularly when u compare with the heavily clinical jobs like IM, surgery, etc. etc.

 

[TableMD]

Can you, now that you are in treatment, perform your role as a medical trainee/resident in a consistent manner? If so, I don't think you should give up on becoming a board certified physician. Perhaps there is a role you could play at your prior program, in an observed clinical manner where you could eventually solicit some letters/phone calls on your behalf. Sure there is this glut of graduates for fewer spots, but you ought to be able to go somewhere. Since you are an AMG, have you considered working with your school?

I'm a sports med doc, did my residency in family med, and I recall a patient I saw in clinic who was misdiagnosed as "depressed" for years and basically fed SSRIs, benzos, and adderall for adult ADHD. Needless to say, getting this person a proper diagnosis with a psychologist (bipolar), a safe taper off those meds and treatment on the appropriate agent (Lamictal) was a life changer. I think the fact that you were able to have a barrier to learning like bipolar and still make it this far speaks to your motivation and capacity to do the work. Perhaps the stress of intern year after all that, along with not having the appropriate diagnosis and treatment was too much for your reserves. In any event, good luck wherever life takes you.

 

[FlowRate]

Unfortunately, the biggest hurdle is your dismissal from residency and the subsequent diagnosis, not the diagnosis itself. Seems like it would still potentially be worth trying to do a residency, because then you're much more hireable, even in non-clinical roles. And it would still be worth trying to get licensed (in the most lax state you can find, granted.)