Residency Questions!

[nysegop]

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I'm curious, what if you don't get a residency?

What if you don't get a residency the first year you apply?
Can you apply again after medical school or is everything done through your school?
If you get a residency and don't like it can you switch? How?
Can doctors who have completed residency and practiced for a while switch specialties? How?
Are there any doctor specialties which dont' require a residency?
What's more competitive; residency or fellowship?

 

[da8s0859q]

What if you don't get a residency the first year you apply?
Can you apply again after medical school or is everything done through your school?
If you get a residency and don't like it can you switch? How?
Can doctors who have completed residency and practiced for a while switch specialties? How?
Are there any doctor specialties which dont' require a residency?
What's more competitive; residency or fellowship?

Whoa there, killer. Big questions for someone not even in med school yet. You're gonna pop an aneurysm.

But anyway...

1. If you wanna try again, you do something else useful for that gap year. Usually a clinical thing, sometimes research, something.
2. You can apply as an independent outside of a med school; unsure of the specifics here, other than that you're at a disadvantage off the bat.
3. You can try. You'll generally need support from your PD to go off to another specialty, but it can be done. Going from one residency to another in the same field, eh...
4. For most intents and purposes, you have to go back and do a residency in the other specialty. A board certified OB/gyn guy can't just wake up and be a full-time emergency medicine physician.
5. Not that I can think of atm.
6. Not a fair question. Residencies and fellowships vary considerably in competitiveness.

But regardless, you don't need to be asking any of this at this point. Relax. You'll be fine.

 

[nysegop]

Thank you! Is Dermatology good?

 

[Law2Doc]

Thank you! Is Dermatology good?

Good is a word without useful parameters. Any residency might be good or bad depending on how you define that term. Dermatology is competitive, a lifestyle field and pays well. You have to like funky skin diseases and burns though.