Reapplying to FM

[abbacaddaba]

Hello All,

I'm hoping to find some PDs, APDs, faculty, or residents involved in the ranking process on here who can give me a few pointers.

Short story: MS4 at well known MD school, applied EM this cycle, didn't match, nothing in SOAP, no prelim/TY, cannot extend graduation. After sitting down with advisers they suggested I look at FM as it fits inline with my career goals. I hadn't really thought about it before, always focused on jumping through the hoops for EM. Now thinking FM is what I should have applied to all along.
I want to go to a smaller program like Alaska (strong ties to the state), Casper/Cheyenne in Wyoming, Pocatello ID, Asheville NC, etc.

Questions:
-without anything lined up for next year, what should I do with my free time between now and interview season? Step 3? Find a clinic to volunteer in? Are there any organizations that I can get involved in FM?
-Any tips to getting letters? All of mine are EM, especially those damn SLOEs. I'm guessing having those is bad.
-There's a conference an AAFP conference in KC later this year. Worth going to?
-anything else?
-I'll lean on my school as much as possible, but advising there has been less than stellar over the last four years.

Any help that those int he know can provide would be appreciated!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Waraba]

You might consider posting questions 1 and 2 in General Residency Issues...

 

[Shinken]

Now thinking FM is what I should have applied to all along.

As a PD for a family medicine program, I can tell you that for us, your application would be rejected unless you seriously show your commitment to family medicine. Again, I speak for our program only.

Also, I'm not questioning your motivation, but generally speaking we're tired of seeing applications from people that "suddenly" realized they wanted to be family docs. This usually happens after an "epiphany", such as doing poorly on boards, or not matching.

We get many "I wanted to be an EM doc, belonged to all the EM clubs, have all EM LORs, my license plates say "FTR ER DOC"...but after not matching in EM I just suddenly realized that family medicine is truly without a doubt my passion!". Those applications get screened out during our initial review.

My advice is to do volunteer work or rotations/observeships in primary care settings, get new LORs, and show commitment to the profession before you apply next cycle. If you attend the AAFP conference you will be able to speak to representatives from many residency programs and get your name out there. Even if you don't do the above, if your board scores are solid, an FM program will likely take you anyway - that's the reality of many programs that struggle to get residents, just don't expect those programs to be top-notch and in desirable locations.

Good luck, wishing you the best. It's not the end of the world, if your stats are decent you'll have a good shot at matching next cycle.

 

[abbacaddaba]

As a PD for a family medicine program, I can tell you that for us, your application would be rejected unless you seriously show your commitment to family medicine. Again, I speak for our program only...

Thanks for the reply! All valid issues.
To elaborate, my career goal is to practice rural/semirural medicine with limited resources, be able to handle a broad range of pathologies, know when and how to package people up to go for treatment that can't be done locally. I thought EM was the way to get the training necessary to do this. I was the weird EM student that liked the primary care stuff in the ED even though these patients "didn't belong in the ED." I always thought FM was clinic only and refer everything out that was slightly complicated. I didn't know about there being procedures, OB, urgent care, EM, hospitalist, etc. My med school is attached to a giant hospital system where the FM residents are treated like bastard children with no home outside of their own clinic.
After not matching everyone says "go look at FM." I seriously looked at FM for the first time after match week. Is it a back up? If you look at the progression superficially, sure. But in actuality, not matching into EM was a good thing for me. As I'd rather have the FM training to accomplish my career goals than have EM training.
I didn't match EM because I applied poorly. My step one isn't great but my step 2 is average. No failures or remediations in med school.
I definitely plan to find a free primary care clinic to volunteer at and will get letters from there and from faculty at my school now.
I do not want to match to a giant academic program in a big city like I'm at now. I want to get away from academia and into a small program. Near the mountains would be a bonus. I'm not sure if that's top notch and/or desirable in FM residency.
I seriously want to pursue FM. I just need a little bit of guidance to get there especially in regards to overcoming the perception that I would be settling for FM or it's merely a backup. I appreciate any help!

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

I agree with some of the above thoughts... you need to show a commitment to FM, know you may not end up at a desirable place (but can still have good training), and also carefully examine why you didn't match.

How may programs did you apply to? How many interviews offered and attended?
Can you get honest feedback from your home EM PD or EM adviser?
Red flags? any bad things in your SLOR?
Apply on time?

Can you do a FM subI or elective before graduation? did you do a family rotation during med school?

I think you need to do some exploration about why even the SOAP didn't pan out.

That all said, plenty of overlap between FM and EM and some of the coolest jobs out there are a mixe of clinic and rural EM. Good luck.

 

[betamale]

Hello All,

I'm hoping to find some PDs, APDs, faculty, or residents involved in the ranking process on here who can give me a few pointers.

Short story: MS4 at well known MD school, applied EM this cycle, didn't match, nothing in SOAP, no prelim/TY, cannot extend graduation. After sitting down with advisers they suggested I look at FM as it fits inline with my career goals. I hadn't really thought about it before, always focused on jumping through the hoops for EM. Now thinking FM is what I should have applied to all along.
I want to go to a smaller program like Alaska (strong ties to the state), Casper/Cheyenne in Wyoming, Pocatello ID, Asheville NC, etc.

Questions:
-without anything lined up for next year, what should I do with my free time between now and interview season? Step 3? Find a clinic to volunteer in? Are there any organizations that I can get involved in FM?
-Any tips to getting letters? All of mine are EM, especially those damn SLOEs. I'm guessing having those is bad.
-There's a conference an AAFP conference in KC later this year. Worth going to?
-anything else?
-I'll lean on my school as much as possible, but advising there has been less than stellar over the last four years.

Any help that those int he know can provide would be appreciated!

You'll be fine. Have good board scores. Get letters from your FP, IM attendings now.

I switched specialties twice and still worked out. There will be EM openings throughout the year if that still interests you. Go to SAEM vacancy website, in fact, there is an opening at Lincoln in NY. Good luck.

I really like the Missouri Assistant Physician jobs for unmatched MD/DO graduates. You can work through collaboration with a licensed physician in Missouri while awaiting to match. Obviously, use our remaining time in med school to become proficient in primary care diagnoses and treatments, ie, BP mgmt, DM, annual physicals, depression/anxiety (we have a TON of psych, about 1/3-1/2 of your clinic schedule especially with the elderly), hospital medicine.

Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts

If you need to defer loans, maybe get a 1 year MPH degree
One Year MPH Programs List - Online Masters In Public Health

If you have Epic EMR experience, I recommend super user jobs that pay decent (45-60/hr)
https://partners.taleo.net/careersection/ex/jobdetail.ftl?job=3063604&src=JB-10326

House physician jobs are also available. Usually these don't need residency and can be found in FL, NY
Palmetto Job Details

 

[Dr. Smurph]

Make sure you get at least one letter from a family doc, a lot of programs list it as a requirement for applying. I'd definitely say go to the KC conference if you can, I didn't attend but heard a lot about it from different PD's on the interview trail. I know some people work as a scribe while waiting for the next cycle, it keeps them clinically relevant, lets them make a bit of money, and if you can do it for an FM doc then you can get a great letter out of it too. Other than that, I agree with Shinken, start working on a list now of all the reasons you love FM, it's guaranteed to be asked in every FM interview you go on.

 

[Mosonik]

My experience in the FM match was that programs, even top programs, highly value personal characteristics in addition to qualifications. Networking at the conference doesn't hurt but if you could find a way to do an audition or spend more time with a couple programs that would be your best bet.
Also, keep in mind the culture for our specialty is very different than EM. Being assertive is okay but not aggressive. That's a major red flag in most family med programs. Cast your nets wide and you should be fine, just remember several of the ones you mentioned are still quite competitive, so keep your nets wide in the next match... all the best!

 

[deleted480308]

If you just want to be an FM doc, it might not too late to find a vacancy somewhere in the country. Someone will flake out somewhere.

My understanding is that alaska and asheville are pretty competitive in relation to other FM programs though...

 

[abbacaddaba]

Thanks everyone for your replies!
I'll definitely find ways to get more involved with my community. I'll get the letters of rec as well. I'll hopefully have myself positioned well for applications in September.