Questions about specializing later in career (specifically E/CC)

[ShaWalla]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi all! First 4 weeks of vet school done. Holy cow, it's a lot, but I am loving it so far.

Obviously I still have a ton to learn, and I'm not certain about wanting to specialize, but I am very interested in small animal emergency medicine.

I wanted to know if it would be unusual or very difficult to get a residency in emergency and critical care after being a general ER doctor for a few years? For reasons I won't share right now, I would probably wouldn't be able to do a residency right out of school, but I do plan on doing a rotating internship. If I did a rotating internship, then worked as an ER doc for a few years, would it be very hard to get a residency in E/CC?

 

[JaynaAli]

I don’t have enough experience in the ECC field to say how applying a few years after graduation might affect your chances, but I think that one of the biggest difficulties/adjustments in going back to training later is partly the mental shift back into a student/learning mindset but a big challenge is the financial changes. A resident is going to be making a fraction of the salary you will have become used to as a practicing ER veterinarian, and taking a sudden 75% salary cut back to resident wages (example percentage, ymmv) after your lifestyle has crept up over the past few years can be tough. It’s a bit easier to just do them sequentially and “live like a student” longer before your lifestyle creeps up and expenses rise.

 

[supershorty]

Tagging @cdo96 and @TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo and @MOOSEygoosey for ECC residency things

 

[battie]

As a non-internship and non-residency trained ER doc, I feel like it would be doable on the level of taking the right steps and networking. Job --> internship --> residency should be doable from the aspect of just getting it done. Depending on where you practice, your case load and acuity may be an adjustment (it would be for me).

However, the money cut is real. I make 85/hr, and I'm on the low end for my area. The internships in my area come out to *****20-25/hr***** when you factor in how many hours you work. Residency is likely ****25-30/hr*****. 75% was a good guess on Jayna's part. I wouldn't be able to do it, frankly. I have a House Husband and toddler. My husband would have to find a job at 50/hr with just a high school degree to make up the difference. And our family would have to take a more central role of daycare.

Lifestyle creep will absolutely be your greatest barrier here.