Path to specialty

[NMLobo]

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😀 Okay so I'm considering practicing one of several specialties but as a first generation professional student in my family, I'm not sure of the path I need to take. I've been considering pursuing oncology, cardiology, or even reconstructive plastic surgery. However, what do I need to anticipate to prepare? Where do USMLE scores come into play? Also, what residencies and/or fellowships do I need to do to accomplish any of these? I know that for cardiology I would do a residency in internal medicine and then a fellowship in cardiology and another if I want to do cathaterization. Is this correct? What about the other specialties I mentioned? Also, if I would like to do one of these areas, should I get a loan for service student loan where I have to work as a primary care physician. For example, get then loan, do the internal medicine residency work until my loan is repaid and then do the fellowship for cardiology. Does this sound reasonable? If anyone has any helpful suggestions I would greatly appreciate it since it will help me make a decision to borrow money from a loan for service student loan. Thanks! 😀

 

[TicToc22]

NMLobo,

Just out of curiosity, where are you in your training? Are you in medical school yet? If not, don't worry yet about what specialty you are going into...your interests will most likely change multiple times before you have to decide what you want to do at the end of 3rd year. Just focus on getting into medical school, or doing well in your first and second year if that's where you are. However, to answer your questions...cardiology is a subspecialty of internal medicine, so you are right. You need to do an internal medicine residency, then apply for a cardiology fellowship. Getting an internal medicine residency is easy and you don't need good board scores to get it. A cardiology fellowship is very competitive, and you probably would benefit from going to a good internal medicine program if cardiology is really what you want. In that case, good board scores would be a necessity. Oncology is also a subspecialty of internal medicine, and the fellowship is much easier to obtain. You probably won't have a problem getting it. Plastic Surgery, on the other hand, is a much more difficult road. You can reach plastics via two routes: 1. Directly after medical school in a 4/5 year program (extremely competitive) OR 2. As a fellowship after a general surgery residency. General surg residency is moderately competitive to get, but the plastics fellowship is very difficult still. If you're really interested in plastics, you need to do as well as possible in medical school and get the best possible board scores.

In regards to your questions about loans, I'm not quite sure how reasonable it would be to work as an internist until your loans are paid off. You might be working until your 60 or so before they're paid off. Med school is pretty expensive. I'd recommend going straight through, doing 3 years internal medicine and 3 years cardiology and getting the whole mess over with as soon as possible.

 

[LO281OK]

In regards to your questions about loans, I'm not quite sure how reasonable it would be to work as an internist until your loans are paid off. You might be working until your 60 or so before they're paid off. Med school is pretty expensive. I'd recommend going straight through, doing 3 years internal medicine and 3 years cardiology and getting the whole mess over with as soon as possible.

I think the OP meant the year-for-every-year primary care scholarships. So it would be 4-6 years to pay off (depending on the specifics) after residency. After a lot of consideration of the military scholarships (Navy bc I am betrothed to them) I tend to agree with TicToc22. Staying with your education (residency/fellowship) until it is done, rather than having a break in studenthood, would be best.