Possible to Return to Residency after long absence (30+ years)?

[helpinoutmom]

Hello all,

I am posting here to start researching this issue for my mother. She is an MD who graduated more than 30 years ago. She is currently up to date with her CME's and practicing in a clinic but is not board certified as she never finished her residency program.

What I am trying to figure out.
1. Can anything be done to get her board certified?
2. If so what are her options.
3. If it is not possible is there anything she can do to make herself a better asset as a non board certified doctor?
4. If it is not possible is there another career path that might be open to her and be a better idea than practicing as a non-board certified MD?

Thanks in advance!

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[helpinoutmom]

On another note I had heard that there are some teaching hospitals (like University of Miami) that might have programs anyone know about htis?

 

[ThoracicGuy]

Hello all,

I am posting here to start researching this issue for my mother. She is an MD who graduated more than 30 years ago. She is currently up to date with her CME's and practicing in a clinic but is not board certified as she never finished her residency program.

What I am trying to figure out.
1. Can anything be done to get her board certified?
2. If so what are her options.
3. If it is not possible is there anything she can do to make herself a better asset as a non board certified doctor?
4. If it is not possible is there another career path that might be open to her and be a better idea than practicing as a non-board certified MD?

Thanks in advance!

She might find a Occupational Medicine or Preventative Medicine residency that would take her on that would be a path to certification, but otherwise without going back to training there's not a way to get board certified.

 

[helpinoutmom]

Thank you for your response I greatly appreciate it.

What schools would have these programs available for someone out of the game so long? She had stated to me that she has applied to many places all of which said that they were only accepting recent med school grads. That being said I don't trust that she was exhaustive in her search. Any direction you could offer would be appreciated.

 

[Gastrapathy]

So does mom want help? She is 30 years into a 35 year career? Why would she do a residency now?


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[helpinoutmom]

She did not work for 30 years, she now has gotten her CME's up to date and is working as a doctor but is limited due to lack of a board certification. If she didn't want help and didn't want a residency I wouldn't be posting here. She is not internet savvy and has no time to be on forums so I am helping.

 

[ThoracicGuy]

She did not work for 30 years, she now has gotten her CME's up to date and is working as a doctor but is limited due to lack of a board certification. If she didn't want help and didn't want a residency I wouldn't be posting here. She is not internet savvy and has no time to be on forums so I am helping.

So she has been out of clinical medicine for 30 years? Doing some CME credits really doesn't have a big impact here. I'm afraid that she will have a very difficult time finding any residency at this point. What sort of work is she doing now as a doctor?

 

[helpinoutmom]

She is working at a for profit clinic as a physician seeing medicare patients mostly. That's my understanding, if more specifics would help please let me know what you would need to know.

When you said without going back to training she can't get certified, did you mean a residency or something else?

 

[ram006]

Terrible situation. I hope I'm retired or at least comfortable 30 years out, not looking to start residency. Ouch. Best of luck. Slim to no chance of getting a residency anyplace other than middle of nowhere fam med/peds, though.

 

[ThoracicGuy]

She is working at a for profit clinic as a physician seeing medicare patients mostly. That's my understanding, if more specifics would help please let me know what you would need to know.

When you said without going back to training she can't get certified, did you mean a residency or something else?

The only way to get certified in the US is through residency training. She will have to do a residency in something to be able to get certified. If I were her, I would look into Preventative Medicine and Occupational Medicine programs. She should contact some of the program directors/coordinators to feel out their thoughts on options. What was her original residency and how many years did she finish?

 

[Winged Scapula]

She did not work for 30 years, she now has gotten her CME's up to date and is working as a doctor but is limited due to lack of a board certification. If she didn't want help and didn't want a residency I wouldn't be posting here. She is not internet savvy and has no time to be on forums so I am helping.

So she has a medical license?

 

[Raryn]

So she has a medical license?

OP says that she never finished her residency program, but based on the above we can likely presume she finished at least 1 year. At this point, working as a general practitioner seeing primarily medicare patients is probably the best she can hope for. Based on the timeline, she's presumably ~60 years old and spent the majority of her time since graduating not actually practicing medicine, so I doubt that residency training is really an option. There are some programs to help people return to medicine, but none of them lead to board certification, and if she has an active medical license and feels reasonably comfortable in the job she's in, I don't think they'd really help.

 

[chocomorsel]

Back in the day, couldn't you set up a shingle right after graduating medical school and practice as a GP. Without any kind of PGY training. It's safe to say that she possibly was granted a license without any PGY training. Things were simpler back then.

 

[gutonc]

Hello all,

I am posting here to start researching this issue for my mother. She is an MD who graduated more than 30 years ago. She is currently up to date with her CME's and practicing in a clinic but is not board certified as she never finished her residency program.

You've left out a bunch of important details, which is pretty typical in this type of post, like...

Is she a US grad?
What specialty did she start in and why didn't she finish residency?
What kind of clinic does she work in now?
Why, after 30 years, is she trying to change things up now?

What I am trying to figure out.
1. Can anything be done to get her board certified?
2. If so what are her options.

Complete a residency. Let's be completely honest here...that is never going to happen so just move on.

3. If it is not possible is there anything she can do to make herself a better asset as a non board certified doctor?
4. If it is not possible is there another career path that might be open to her and be a better idea than practicing as a non-board certified MD?

Thanks in advance!

Why? If you are to be believed (and I don't have a good reason to not believe you, but I doubt you have all the relevant information in this case), she:
1. Has an active medical license.
2. Has a job working as a physician.


If these are both true, there is not likely to be another career option for her that would be better than what she's doing now that wouldn't require another degree of some sort (JD, PhD, MBA, etc) and even then, would not be the "guarantee" she has now. She's not going to get BC without a residency, and she's not going to get a residency. So hopefully she's been good about socking money away for the past 30 years and can just leave this all behind her in 5 or 10 years when she retires.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Back in the day, couldn't you set up a shingle right after graduating medical school and practice as a GP. Without any kind of PGY training. It's safe to say that she possibly was granted a license without any PGY training. Things were simpler back then.

Nope. At least 1 year of internship was required, usually followed by an apprenticeship with a local GP. After 1970, Family Practice became a defined specialty with residency as we know it today. So while one doesn't have to complete residency to have a medical license, it has not been sufficient simply to graduate from medical school, for many generations.

 

[1992btw]

I also did not finish residency but have an unrestricted Medical license in family medicine. Unlike your mother, I was not able to find any clinical jobs. Did she use headhunters to find work or some other method. I hope that she achieves her dream to become certified.

She did not work for 30 years, she now has gotten her CME's up to date and is working as a doctor but is limited due to lack of a board certification. If she didn't want help and didn't want a residency I wouldn't be posting here. She is not internet savvy and has no time to be on forums so I am helping.

 

[michaelrack]

I also did not finish residency but have an unrestricted Medical license in family medicine. Unlike your mother, I was not able to find any clinical jobs. Did she use headhunters to find work or some other method. I hope that she achieves her dream to become certified.

If you are in the US, you may have an unrestricted license, but it's not in family medicine