Need to fill a "gap year" between TY and advanced position

[A real stand-up guy]

I am a US grad and current prelim who will be reapplying to an advanced position this year. I am hopeful I will match, and am trying to plan for that contingency. Specifically, the piece where a "gap year" between the end of prelim and start of my advanced position.

The question is: what can I do to pay rent during that year with a prelim year under my belt but no residency (and thus no board certification or eligibility)? I have asked program directors, deans, advisers, residents, corporate headhunters, etc, and no one seems to be able to know what some one with my qualifications can legally do.

I have heard AIDScorps, locum tenens, urgent care clinics, Indian reservations, prisons (very, very last resort), and more, but a job search shows "BC/BE" requirement on almost everything. I've done significant legwork on this but am not coming up with clarity on what I can do for work.

I appreciate any advice on who to talk to or job sites to visit. Thanks for your time.

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[NotAProgDirector]

What you can legally do, what would be safe to do, and what someone will hire you for may be three different things.

Legally it's very simple. If you qualify for a medical license in a state, you can do ANYTHING a physician could do. You could take out gallbladders if you wanted to. Of course, you'll be held to the same standard that a fully trained physician would be doing the same job -- so some employers will not hire you, and you want to make sure that whatever you do you feel "safe" in your knowledgebase / clinical experience.

Getting a full time position may be difficult. You've only got one year of experience, and you're only looking for a 1 year position -- some employers won't want to put the time investment into getting you "up to speed" if you'll only be there for a year. So, your best choice may be to see what "moonlighting" positions are open. Moonlighting is usually done by people before they actually graduate from a residency (although is also done by fellows, who would be BC/BE). You can ask around your current program. You could also contact local ED's to see if they need some extra staff.

Part of the question is "what do you feel comfortable doing?". Remember that whatever you are doing, you're likely to be fully unsupervised. Do you feel ready to handle "whatever walks in the ED door at 2AM"?

A research year is always an option. Also, once you match somewhere, you can see if they have any clinical work you might be able to do (filling in for a missing / absent resident, for example)

 

[A real stand-up guy]

Thank you for the reply; it is encouraging to know I'll at least have options open with my license. Asking the match school about moonlighting and calling area EDs are other great ideas.

Research is a strong default option, but I am worried my clinical skills would be very rusty when I started my PGY2 year; however, I'm not sure if that is a legitimate concern. Perhaps the learning curve would be acceptable seeing as my peers would be in their first year of the "new" specialty as well.

International aid work might allow work with supervision. Do you know of any opportunities in that arena, or how to go about finding out?

 

[Winged Scapula]

One comment about moonlighting: when it's done by someone in residency, they'll have malpractice insurance. As a non resident, you will not have malpractice coverage and therefore will have to ensure that any position you are hired for includes it or that you obtain your own coverage (difficult and expensive).

There are tons of threads about clinical and nonclinical options in this forum for physicians.

 

[shopsteward]

If you are lucky, there will be "R" positions in your chosen speciality in this year's Match - these are PGY2 openings for July 2015. If you get one of these, you won't have a gap year.