possible to do anesthesia after IM?

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49erfan

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Would students who completed IM residency and then decide to instead of apply for fellowships apply for a field like anesthesia be at a disadvantage as compared to those students who directly out of med school apply for anesthesia?

I have heard stories in which applicants have found it hard to get into another residency like radiology, anesthesia, or ER after having completed IM as compared to 4th year medical students directly applying for these residencies. Thats why I am asking the question.

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I have a friend who did this - applied to anesthesia during his last categorical medicine year. The only disadvantage seemed to be that he was applying for the limited pool of open CA-1 spots for the following year.
 
I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of IM docs who have gone through our program.

Nothing prepares you better for the medical management aspects of anesthesia than an internal medicine background. I was too old and tired to go that route myself (previous nurse then CRNA, worked for a decade, then went to med school), but, boy, some days I wish I had.

Good luck. I don't think you will need it.
 
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I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of IM docs who have gone through our program.

Nothing prepares you better for the medical management aspects of anesthesia than an internal medicine background. I was too old and tired to go that route myself (previous nurse then CRNA, worked for a decade, then went to med school), but, boy, some days I wish I had.

Good luck. I don't think you will need it.

just curious what made you go to medical school after 10 years? and looking back, how different is it being an anesthesiologist vs CRNA?


as for the OPs question, you may first want to look into whether programs would be able to financially support you. There are now new rules in place where medicare may not reimburse the hospital if you have previously done a residency or are out of your allotted years/training for the specific residency you started with (i.e. if you were General surg., you get covered for 5 years. If after 2 years, you change to medicine, medicare can cover you. If you were IM, and after 2 years you want to go something like gen.surg., the program would need to find a way to support 4 years of training beyond the 1st year)
 
This might be a little outdated, but my father did this. He finished internal medicine and went straight into anesthesiology. It did not seem to pose a problem for him at that point ~15-20 years ago, and I agree with the above statement that it prepared him very well for patient management.

Best of luck to you!
 
you may first want to look into whether programs would be able to financially support you. There are now new rules in place where medicare may not reimburse the hospital if you have previously done a residency or are out of your allotted years/training for the specific residency you started with (i.e. If you were general surg., you get covered for 5 years. If after 2 years, you change to medicine, medicare can cover you. If you were im, and after 2 years you want to go something like gen.surg., the program would need to find a way to support 4 years of training beyond the 1st year)

+1
 
When I was in med school I was told several times that it is harder because Medicare does not want to waste more money training you when you should be already functioning at an attending level. Don't know how true that is. There are many anesthesiologist with an IM background. I guess the real question is why you did IM? Was it because you couldn't get into anything else? In that case I would say your chances are slim.
 
just curious what made you go to medical school after 10 years? and looking back, how different is it being an anesthesiologist vs CRNA?


as for the OPs question, you may first want to look into whether programs would be able to financially support you. There are now new rules in place where medicare may not reimburse the hospital if you have previously done a residency or are out of your allotted years/training for the specific residency you started with (i.e. if you were General surg., you get covered for 5 years. If after 2 years, you change to medicine, medicare can cover you. If you were IM, and after 2 years you want to go something like gen.surg., the program would need to find a way to support 4 years of training beyond the 1st year)

The last time I tried to answer this I got sucked into a political discussion by BladeMD. He tried to get me to agree with all of his extreme views and when I agreed with only some of them we went round and round the forum merry-go-round until I tired of it.

So I will answer the first paragraph only on a PM, and then only cautiously.
 
actually know of a guy (IMG) who finished his IM residency in PA and got anesthesia residency in FL .. happened 2 yrs ago so it definitely is possible!!!
 
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Yes you can, assuming that you can get a program to accept you. The tricky part is that once you finish your IM program you funding situation is different than someone who is just starting out in residency. The anesthesiology program has to eat a significant part of the cost of training you now. If you did well on your boards and IM residency, it shouldn't be too hard to find a program to accept you.
 
One of our surgeon's kids did med school at AUG(Guadalajara), IM @UCSF, IM chief res @UCSF, anes@MGH, and now finishing Crit Care@MGH. Hopefully he will join us when a spot opens up.
 
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