Spine fellowships

[Redmen27]

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Been reading the forum for awhile and decided it was time to post. Just finishing up PGY 2 enjoying outpatient rehab much better than inpatient. Am actually highly interested in muskuloskeletal/spine and would love to do a spine fellowship. Thought about pain as well and read as nauseum about spine vs pain and accredited vs non accredited programs. Believe that spine is the avenue for me. Was wondering how competitive the PASSOR spine fellowships are, obviously the more desirable (eg slipman, Umich, etc) are more competitive, but overall are these difficult to get? Am probably average to above average resident, good SAE score, and really motivated. One problem is that most of my exposure to outpatient muskuloskeletal is not until my final year, as we get bombarded with mainly inpatient the first two years at my program. Also there is no fellowship associated with my program and we have no elective time. What should I be doing over the next year to make myself a better applicant and what are the programs looking for in a fellow? Thanks in advance.

 

[SSdoc33]

Been reading the forum for awhile and decided it was time to post. Just finishing up PGY 2 enjoying outpatient rehab much better than inpatient. Am actually highly interested in muskuloskeletal/spine and would love to do a spine fellowship. Thought about pain as well and read as nauseum about spine vs pain and accredited vs non accredited programs. Believe that spine is the avenue for me. Was wondering how competitive the PASSOR spine fellowships are, obviously the more desirable (eg slipman, Umich, etc) are more competitive, but overall are these difficult to get? Am probably average to above average resident, good SAE score, and really motivated. One problem is that most of my exposure to outpatient muskuloskeletal is not until my final year, as we get bombarded with mainly inpatient the first two years at my program. Also there is no fellowship associated with my program and we have no elective time. What should I be doing over the next year to make myself a better applicant and what are the programs looking for in a fellow? Thanks in advance.

ok, you've asked a lot of questions that have been covered on previous posts, so id suggest searching and you'd find a lot of answers to your questions. however....

some of the passor fellowships are very competetive, and some are less. however, there are a lot of fellowships out there, and if you do your homework and are motivated to get a spot, i dont see why you wouldnt be able to. i wouldnt put much creedence into SAE scores. i dont think they matter all that much, and fellowship directors probably wont even ask about them.

you are not alone in that your program may be heavy on the inpatient side, but if you truly have no electives, that is ridiculous. agitate for change and get yourself some outpatient/spine time so you know what you are dealing with. try to work with local spine physiatrists or spend afternoons/early mornings with attendings that can show you the ropes. if that is absolutely impossible, take a week of your vacation time to do it. get involved in research at least to the extent that you can put it on your resume/application and talk about it intelligently.

programs are looking for an applicant who is knowledgeable and interested. there is a lot of cross-pollinationg in our field, so getting someone to put a word in for you with a particular program goes a long way. try to work with a spine physiatrist and get a LOR from him/her.

best of luck