need advice

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turquoiseblue

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I recently did 10 months in surgery in ACGME (2 months of medical leave) plus 8 months of surgery in nonACGME plus 6 months in ACGME IM. Is there any job I can do after I do after clearing step 3? (e.g. GMO or general practitioner somewhere, etc.??--where would that be and how do I get the job?) I am also looking for residency. I don't mind what specialty at this point.

By the way I am beyond the 7 year limit for step 3, yet within 10 years. I also wondered, can I take step 1 and 2 over again and do better for next time or just take step 3, get a license? And what can I do when I get a license somewhere--how do I find a good job with my work experience? Does it matter whether I take step 3 first or last?

Thanks in advance.

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Sure, I would consider that also, for the time being.
 
Your situation is confusing.
It is not uncommon to not finish surgical residency. Do you have at least an internship certificate?
Are you an American graduate or IMG?
Why did you wait so long to take step 3?
Are you willing to move?

Anyway look at each states licensing requirements for qualification by examination i.e. USMLE. If you are an American graduate you will qualify for an unrestricted medical license in almost every state upon completion of an internship and passing all three steps.

That said, you must ask whether you want to do clinical or non-clinical medicine. If you want to do clinical work, you must ask yourself why you did not finish surgery or the medicine internship? If the answer is a true competency issue like killing a patient, then you should not go into clinical medicine because you could end up being sued and bankrupted if the verdict is high enough. If the answer is more soft, like personality conflicts, not fitting into the culture, arguing with others etc., then clinical medicine is still a possibility. You must look within yourself to find an answer to this, because its truthful answer is very important.

Once you are licensed, you can still find work as a physician. You will need to read primers in emergency medicine, occupational medicine, and primary care/ family medicine. You could work in certain prison systems that only require a license. You could find work in underserved areas. You won't be paid as well as your boarded colleagues initially, but once you prove your worth, you may get paid for production and earn almost as much as your peers. If you go to poor states like Alabama, you could earn above the national average as a general practitioner. For example, the average earnings of PCP's in Alabama is a whopping 250-300k. It is slightly higher in Alaska. Even if you earn 80% of a boarded physician in Alabama, you still earn more than a boarded physician in New England. However, the price of these earnings is an emotional toll if you are attached to another area.

To get started, contact recruiters in poor or remote states only after making sure you are eligible for licensure. If you want to stay in an urban area like NYC, Chicago, Phily, LA etc, you may still find work but it will be harder and it may be harder to find malpractice coverage. Examples include working as a general practitioner in an outpatient clinic or nursing homes serving medicaid/medicare patients. It may be impossible to get hospital privileges in these areas so you will probably focus completely on outpatient services. Occupational medicine in an urban area usually does not require BE/BC.

Chin up.
 
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Your situation is confusing.
It is not uncommon to not finish surgical residency. Do you have at least an internship certificate?
Are you an American graduate or IMG?
Why did you wait so long to take step 3?
Are you willing to move?

Agreed. Without answers to these questions, useful suggestions will be hard to come by.

I would ask another question which is, "why have you not completed a single year of approved training?"

Anyway look at each states licensing requirements for qualification by examination i.e. USMLE. If you are an American graduate you will qualify for an unrestricted medical license in almost every state upon completion of an internship and passing all three steps.

This is patently untrue. There are only 11 states (I listed them all in another post here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=8393504&postcount=4) that do not have any time restriction on how long you take to complete all 3 steps in order to get a license. There are a few others that have waiver options if you go longer than 7-10 years to finish the steps but mostly that's if you also did a PhD or have a really good, usually health-related reason. Because there is minimal reciprocity between states, this means that the OP essentially has only 11 states where s/he can be licensed and therefore do other training or ultimately practice. There are federal jobs (rural VAs and federal prison jobs) that can be obtained with a license from essentially any state but without completely some sort of training program, your clinical practice options will be extremely limited.

I will leave non-clinical options to others better suited to discuss them.
 
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