Primary care scholarship. Should I apply?

[Sthpawslugger]

I appreciate any feedback as well as hearing about your personal circumstances that helped you in making the right decision.

I'm nearing the end of my first year in a D.O. school, and thus will graduate just before I turn 41. Married, no children yet but planning. We plan to return to our hometown at the end of residency. Also, I already have a six-figure student loan debt from undergrad, grad, and first year of medical school. That has left me in a position of whether or not to consider applying for the state's primary care loan/scholarship program due in a few days. My interest is largely in ortho and EM, but for financial reasons, age, desire for time with my wife and kid, and desire to relocate home, I'm considering primary care. As an aside, there is a university-branch FM and IM program in the hospital I worked. Also, I have a friend who completed the Family Med program, and I know the Chair of Medicine with IM. I feel like the desire to return home to practice and my connections(also connections with EM and ortho from employment) would help somewhat. I suppose part of me doesn't want to give up my goal specialties without knowing for sure during rotations I'd be ok with Primary Care. By then, Id be much less inclined to choose Primary Care with another year or two of tacking on 75k each and the decreased ROI with loan/scholarship.

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[star.buck]

Careful... if you do fall in love with ortho or EM... and you did have that scholarship, some of them will require you to pay back triple what your scholarship was. It sounds like you're looking at family/primary just for the scholarship, in combination with lifestyle, but your heart is in ortho / EM. You should be able to practice ortho / EM in your hometown, at a higher salary. If your heart isn't in family, I'd recommend against a scholarship that could bite you in the rear end if you do change your mind.

read the fine print for those scholarships.

 

[Sthpawslugger]

Thank you for the feedback. I'll read the fine print for sure. One thing that has come to mind lately is I don't want to be unfair to my wife, not be home enough, and be another statistic of divorce in medicine. I know residency is going to suck no matter. I can deal with that. I just don't want It to suck more than it has to for her.

Careful... if you do fall in love with ortho or EM... and you did have that scholarship, some of them will require you to pay back triple what your scholarship was. It sounds like you're looking at family/primary just for the scholarship, in combination with lifestyle, but your heart is in ortho / EM. You should be able to practice ortho / EM in your hometown, at a higher salary. If your heart isn't in family, I'd recommend against a scholarship that could bite you in the rear end if you do change your mind.

read the fine print for those scholarships.

Careful... if you do fall in love with ortho or EM... and you did have that scholarship, some of them will require you to pay back triple what your scholarship was. It sounds like you're looking at family/primary just for the scholarship, in combination with lifestyle, but your heart is in ortho / EM. You should be able to practice ortho / EM in your hometown, at a higher salary. If your heart isn't in family, I'd recommend against a scholarship that could bite you in the rear end if you do change your mind.

read the fine print for those scholarships.

 

[star.buck]

Thank you for the feedback. I'll read the fine print for sure. One thing that has come to mind lately is I don't want to be unfair to my wife, not be home enough, and be another statistic of divorce in medicine. I know residency is going to suck no matter. I can deal with that. I just don't want It to suck more than it has to for her.

True, but what will suck more for her and you? 3 years of EM residency (which the hours will for sure suck) and then a lifetime of what you want to do (hours might not be the best, but I hear you can find the family-friendly positions). Or, 3 years of a not so bad residency in FM, then a life of you wishing you’d gone into something else? If you're unhappy all day at work, it will be hard to shift that when you come home.

 

[Sthpawslugger]

Very true. Good way of looking at it. The one downside of EM is the culture created of accommodating every patient regardless of how poorly they treat the staff..cursing, combative behavior, etc. Nurses burn out from it, and certainly it takes its toll on physicians, too.

True, but what will suck more for her and you? 3 years of EM residency (which the hours will for sure suck) and then a lifetime of what you want to do (hours might not be the best, but I hear you can find the family-friendly positions). Or, 3 years of a not so bad residency in FM, then a life of you wishing you’d gone into something else? If you're unhappy all day at work, it will be hard to shift that when you come home.