new surgery path idea?

[drbruce]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

I'm from the UK and very keen to become a US surgeon. Do you think it is prudent to do 3 years in internal medicine first before chosing general or plastic surgery?

I'm thinking in terms of references and experience.

 

[footcramp]

i think it would be a waste of time. surgery residency is long enough as it is.

 

[Blade28]

Why in the world would you do an internal medicine residency first?

 

[jennyboo]

I'm from the UK and very keen to become a US surgeon. Do you think it is prudent to do 3 years in internal medicine first before chosing general or plastic surgery?

I'm thinking in terms of references and experience.

No, it's not worth the time and effort. Given the choice, I'd simply go straight into surgery and finish the residency as soon as possible.

 

[drbruce]

I know but getting into surgery (neuro, urology, general or plastics) is hard enough for an IMG student, so internal medicine might be an option if my application is unsuccessful.

Of course I could be wrong.

Why would they turn away a student with 3 years of hospital experience in the US? Even plastics might be open to me.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Why would they turn away a student with 3 years of hospital experience in the US? Even plastics might be open to me.

Because you've used all your HCFA funding and they don't want to be responsible for paying your salary.

Because it might look like you're a bit of a dilletante who doesn't know what he wants to do.

Because a surgery program will have to break all the "bad habits" you learned as a medicine resident in another hospital.

Because programs still get more than enough applications for PRS spots than they have positions so having IM experience isn't relevant enough to help.

These are just some of the reasons. You are right that the experience MIGHT give you an edge up but there are many reasons why it might not.

You are better off spending several years as a Prelim surgical resident (there should be no reason why you couldn't get one of those positions) and trying to use that to get into a Categorical surgical training, IMHO.

 

[AJM]

I know but getting into surgery (neuro, urology, general or plastics) is hard enough for an IMG student, so internal medicine might be an option if my application is unsuccessful.

Of course I could be wrong.

Why would they turn away a student with 3 years of hospital experience in the US? Even plastics might be open to me.

Are you at medical school in the UK? Correct me if I'm wrong, but in my experience UK applicants are looked at more favorably than most other IMGs. The main hurdle they have to cross is getting their visas. I trained at an academic residency program, and I had a couple of residency classmates who did med school in the UK - they were the only IMGs in my program. But I definitely got the sense that the PD did not see much difference between the UK grads and US grads, other than the funding issue.

I agree that doing 3 years of IM would be a waste of time if you're planning on doing surgery, and will likely put you at a disadvantage for applying to surgery programs, since you haven't demonstrated "commitment" to being a surgeon. As Kimberli said, you can always do prelim surg if you can't get into a categorical program. Plus, the prelim surgery years can count towards your training, while none of the IM years would count toward a surgery residency. Not only that, but there are a ton of unfilled prelim surgery spots each year - it shouldn't be that hard to get into one of them.