Matching in area that's different from your original interest

[YoungJeezy]

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I just SOAP'd and got into a FM residency after I didn't match into peds. Does anybody else have any thoughts about matching in area that's different from their original interest? I know you can gear FM to be more peds oriented, but it still feels weird. The past 4 years I kinda had my sights set on peds and thought I was gonna be a pediatrician. I even had the goal of a pediatric subspecialty. I just never gave much thought to anything else besides pediatrics and given my great stats I was really confident that I'd match somewhere. It's all so sudden

 

[Shikima]

You can always try to transfer and go through the match again. Or complete FM and go into Peds afterwards. Or just see peds mainly as FM. Lots of options, don't give up! You're in, slim!

 

[shopsteward]

Congratulations on matching. You are going to be an attending one day.

It will seem weird at the moment, making such a big change so quickly. But you have a couple of months to adjust your thinking before you start with FM.

When you do start, please give FM and your new program your best shot. Be positive in your approach, think carefully about what you like and don't like and why. Your main aim now is to be successful in your new program: if you get on well and they like you, you are giving yourself the best chance for opportunities to open themselves up to you. That might be getting extra peds experience in your FM program, or it might even be getting the support of your program for a future swap into peds.

 

[gutonc]

Congratulations on matching. You are going to be an attending one day.

It will seem weird at the moment, making such a big change so quickly. But you have a couple of months to adjust your thinking before you start with FM.

When you do start, please give FM and your new program your best shot. Be positive in your approach, think carefully about what you like and don't like and why. Your main aim now is to be successful in your new program: if you get on well and they like you, you are giving yourself the best chance for opportunities to open themselves up to you. That might be getting extra peds experience in your FM program, or it might even be getting the support of your program for a future swap into peds.

Absolutely agree with this. The worst thing you can do is be negative about this. It wasn't your first choice but you got a spot and you can absolutely tailor an FM practice to be peds focused. Good luck and congrats on scoring in SOAP.

 

[Juis]

I just SOAP'd and got into a FM residency after I didn't match into peds. Does anybody else have any thoughts about matching in area that's different from their original interest? I know you can gear FM to be more peds oriented, but it still feels weird. The past 4 years I kinda had my sights set on peds and thought I was gonna be a pediatrician. I even had the goal of a pediatric subspecialty. I just never gave much thought to anything else besides pediatrics and given my great stats I was really confident that I'd match somewhere. It's all so sudden

Congrats on matching! I think you're lucky that FM has some peds in it so at least you can find some job satisfaction. I am a surgery applicant who did not match and SOAP'd into IM. During my SOAP process, I was told that doing a prelim surgery year would be a dead end, especially with my history of having to retake step 1-- so, applying as an MS4 was my best shot and it didn't work out for me. I'm happy to have somewhere to go and be able to practice medicine, but it's dawning on me now that I may never be in an OR ever again or at least never be able to be part of a major surgical operation once I graduate med school. I'm not even sure what to really think right now. I hope I can find some satisfaction in some of the more procedure heavy IM fields like cards, gi, pulm/cc. But as a very visual and hands-on type of person, I never really felt the same enjoyment doing lines or procedures under fluoro compared to opening and feeling with my hands. I even spent the last few hours reading through old threads about doing a surgery residency after finishing IM residency, although I'm not sure if that would even be possible for me with my USMLE scores.

 

[WantToBeFamMed]

I can imagine it is an awfully sudden change of plans for you, but try not to be disheartened. Having just went through SOAP, you know first hand the shock that not matching can be and be thankful you secured a position to be moving forward this year. I have a deep interest in Family Medicine so I may be biased, but would try convincing you to give Family Medicine a chance. Worst case scenario if it is just not going to be enough for you then you could try giving your best effort and breaking into Pediatrics in the future. However, I have worked with a veteran Family Physician who in their internship realized they'd wish they'd gone into Psych, and instead stuck it out with Family Medicine and claims to have ever since had a satisfying career having his partners refer their primarily Psych patients to him and it helped him to satisfy that interest. There is so much variability in Family Medicine practice and it allows a lot of flexibility to tailor your practice to your interests. There are also Family Physicians who work strictly ED, inpatient, focus on OB, etc., and I would imagine Pediatrics could be similar. I hope you were able to SOAP with a program strong in Pediatrics and that a year from now you feel you would able to gear your future practice towards one that would satisfy your interests.

 

[Law2Doc]

... But as a very visual and hands-on type of person, I never really felt the same enjoyment doing lines or procedures under fluoro compared to opening and feeling with my hands...

The futUre of surgery is likely going to be minimally invasive/ image guided anyhow, if you look at the changes in the last couple of decades. Appendixes, gallbladders routinely are removed laparascopically now. Vascular surgeons do more endograft work than open these days. "Opening" up a Patient will be less and less common as the years go by. A lot of the "feeling with your hands" would have been gone by the time you emerged from residency. In the not too distant future the job of the guy driving the bronchoscope versus the guy driving the laparascope really won't be too different anyhow -- just a different video game.

 

[luCZky]

Anyone having an experience with making a bigger change? I mean like soaping into medicine after applying for surgery or vice versa .. soaping into "at least" surgery prelim instead of medicine when didn't match into medicine or so... ?

 

[Juis]

The futUre of surgery is likely going to be minimally invasive/ image guided anyhow, if you look at the changes in the last couple of decades. Appendixes, gallbladders routinely are removed laparascopically now. Vascular surgeons do more endograft work than open these days. "Opening" up a Patient will be less and less common as the years go by. A lot of the "feeling with your hands" would have been gone by the time you emerged from residency. In the not too distant future the job of the guy driving the bronchoscope versus the guy driving the laparascope really won't be too different anyhow -- just a different video game.

Thanks L2D.

Anyone having an experience with making a bigger change? I mean like soaping into medicine after applying for surgery or vice versa .. soaping into "at least" surgery prelim instead of medicine when didn't match into medicine or so... ?

Me. I applied for surgery and soaped into medicine. I posted above. It sucks but I'm probably just going through the stages of grief right now.

 

[padastra]

Congrats on matching! I think you're lucky that FM has some peds in it so at least you can find some job satisfaction. I am a surgery applicant who did not match and SOAP'd into IM.

Every time you see sunlight, just bask in it and remind yourself that it wouldn't be possible if you had stayed in surgery 🙂

 

[QofQuimica]

OP, agree with the others that FM can give you plenty of peds practice. And since you'll be trained to see adults too, you can even continue seeing your patients after they aren't kids any more, and then go on to see their kids too. 🙂

The futUre of surgery is likely going to be minimally invasive/ image guided anyhow, if you look at the changes in the last couple of decades. Appendixes, gallbladders routinely are removed laparascopically now. Vascular surgeons do more endograft work than open these days. "Opening" up a Patient will be less and less common as the years go by. A lot of the "feeling with your hands" would have been gone by the time you emerged from residency. In the not too distant future the job of the guy driving the bronchoscope versus the guy driving the laparascope really won't be too different anyhow -- just a different video game.

This was my first thought too.

Juis, agree wholeheartedly with L2D regarding the direction that surgery is heading. And give pulm/CC a chance. Besides the fact that pulm/CC is so procedural, my experience has been that a substantial number of IM residents don't like to do procedures. So not only did I not have my co-residents trying to take my procedures in the ICU, but sometimes the other residents would even let me do theirs. 👍

Every time you see sunlight, just bask in it and remind yourself that it wouldn't be possible if you had stayed in surgery 🙂

Haha, and this too.