Medical MD/MPH without residency weighing options

[GoSpursGo]

I am scheduled to graduate *very* soon with a dual MD/MPH degree at a US medical school. I was not able to apply to the match this year due to a series of unfortunate events and I do have some "red flags" on my transcript. Good Step 1 & 2 scores.

I am interested in preventive medicine. I am also interested in family medicine or pediatrics. Ultimately, I would like to be a clinician and public health researcher/scholar/academic/professor. I would love to publish and contribute to shaping health policy.

I really would have liked to match this year into a residency. However, life had other plans and I was not ready to apply.

So, my plan was to get a job in public health while I apply to residency programs this year. I have not begun applying but there appear to be a number of jobs which *I hope* that I could get. (I am *hoping* that I may be able to get an Epidemiology job. It would be nice to pay off some of my student loan debt too.) I was also planning to study for and take USMLE Step 3.

After reading a lot of threads on Reddit and the internet, I got the impression that it is a bad idea to leave medical school without a residency, and applying to medical residency after graduating makes it more difficult than someone who just stayed to do research. In a prior conversation with my medical school dean, I would not be able to continue doing clinical electives which is what I really wanted to do. I want to do a sub-internship.

I am speaking with my medical school dean very soon to rediscuss my options.

Can anyone provide any insight??? Would a residency program be interested in taking a US medical graduate who worked in a non-clinical public health job for 1-2 years after medical school? (Hopefully, it will just be one year.)

I am confused about what my next move should be.

I have to ask, why are you just now trying to figure out what you're doing next year? Since you didn't apply in October, surely you realized a while back that you would need to either extend your schooling or find a gap year gig? I only mention this because for others who may face a similar scenario in the future, it feels like you should have considered taking an LOA the moment you realized that you wouldn't be ready to apply in the fall. And if that wasn't an option, you should have been applying to these jobs yesterday for a July start.

Naturally, that's all in the past now, and all you can do is your best moving forward. Ideally I agree that you should try to stay in school and keep doing electives if possible. Failing that, a one-year stop gap job in epidemiology seems reasonable, though you should do what you can to gain patient exposure and ideally a letter that can speak to your ability to interact with patients.

This needs to be a one-year stop gap and you need to apply this fall, period. The longer you delay applying the worse your odds. Your odds as they stand now probably depend a lot on what the other "red flags" on your application are, honestly.

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[TheBoneDoctah]

Whatever you do, try to keep gaining clinical exposure. A year without any clinical experience would be another red flag against you when you reapply.

 

[GoSpursGo]

In September and October, I was advised to focus on meeting my graduation requirements and to paraphrase my advisor in medical school 'something would "pop up" at the end of the year'. Therefore, I followed his advice, and have been contacting my advisor and my medical school dean.

If remaining a medical student is not an option, would you recommend a scribe position over an epidemiology position? What about an epidemiology/public health job during the week and volunteering in the Emergency Department on the weekends (if something like that is available)?

I have 3-4 letter writers for LORs for this upcoming application cycle. Two of which should definitely be able to speak to my ability to care for patients. However, I would greatly appreciate recommendations for maintaining/gaining clinical exposure outside of medical school.

What odd advice. In any event, are you continuing to look out for residency position openings? Any chance your school could create a prelim medicine or surgery spot for you?

Scribing is for pre-meds. Do it if you have no other option but it will not be a positive. Would probably do epi job over that if it’s actually an option. I do think if your school would even allow you to do a research year, that would be preferable to any of the other options you’ve listed.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

What odd advice. In any event, are you continuing to look out for residency position openings? Any chance your school could create a prelim medicine or surgery spot for you?

Scribing is for pre-meds. Do it if you have no other option but it will not be a positive. Would probably do epi job over that if it’s actually an option. I do think if your school would even allow you to do a research year, that would be preferable to any of the other options you’ve listed.

Agree. Once you have an MD I don't think scribing is gonna be anything beneficial haha.