Switch from Medicine to Anesthesiology- need advice

[docmus12]

I need help and sound advice hopeful future fellow gas colleagues

I am a D.O. who has completed an Internal Medicine Residency - as a matter of fact will be finishing my fourth year as a Chief Resident in an Allopathic institution. Always had Anesthesiology in my mind but never got good exposure to it in med school - even thought about switching during residency but whether fortunately or unfortunately was offered the chief residency. As decent as I am as a future Internist dont think Im going to be completely happy in general or subspecialty medicine and know that Anesthesia is my calling - unfortunately decided late on this and have missed out on any open 2005 CA-1 open spots - but I am applying as much as I can to all the open 2006 spots.

Wanted to see if there are any if at all in my position and if so what advice I could get. Do programs consider candidates board certified in other fields - and if so can anyone tell me of which programs are friendly to that. My COMLEX step scores are not the best - have passed all 3 steps and am licensed in NY

Can anyone tell me that I am not making a good decision and also if anyone knows of any unexpected CA-1 openings for 2005 please let me know

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[toughlife]

I need help and sound advice hopeful future fellow gas colleagues

I am a D.O. who has completed an Internal Medicine Residency - as a matter of fact will be finishing my fourth year as a Chief Resident in an Allopathic institution. Always had Anesthesiology in my mind but never got good exposure to it in med school - even thought about switching during residency but whether fortunately or unfortunately was offered the chief residency. As decent as I am as a future Internist dont think Im going to be completely happy in general or subspecialty medicine and know that Anesthesia is my calling - unfortunately decided late on this and have missed out on any open 2005 CA-1 open spots - but I am applying as much as I can to all the open 2006 spots.

Wanted to see if there are any if at all in my position and if so what advice I could get. Do programs consider candidates board certified in other fields - and if so can anyone tell me of which programs are friendly to that. My COMLEX step scores are not the best - have passed all 3 steps and am licensed in NY

Can anyone tell me that I am not making a good decision and also if anyone knows of any unexpected CA-1 openings for 2005 please let me know

You are making the best decision of your life. I am just a med student applying this year to Anesthesia and I honestly can't comprehend how someone can put him/herself through a medicine residency.

 

[bizcuit241]

What are the advantages for staying an extra year as chief resident?

 

[UTSouthwestern]

I need help and sound advice hopeful future fellow gas colleagues

I am a D.O. who has completed an Internal Medicine Residency - as a matter of fact will be finishing my fourth year as a Chief Resident in an Allopathic institution. Always had Anesthesiology in my mind but never got good exposure to it in med school - even thought about switching during residency but whether fortunately or unfortunately was offered the chief residency. As decent as I am as a future Internist dont think Im going to be completely happy in general or subspecialty medicine and know that Anesthesia is my calling - unfortunately decided late on this and have missed out on any open 2005 CA-1 open spots - but I am applying as much as I can to all the open 2006 spots.

Wanted to see if there are any if at all in my position and if so what advice I could get. Do programs consider candidates board certified in other fields - and if so can anyone tell me of which programs are friendly to that. My COMLEX step scores are not the best - have passed all 3 steps and am licensed in NY

Can anyone tell me that I am not making a good decision and also if anyone knows of any unexpected CA-1 openings for 2005 please let me know

Dude, you can pretty much write your own ticket to most any program you want to go to. Being a chief resident in medicine makes you a strong candidate for any program and you should be able to easily secure a 2006 spot, unless your medicine program is a 3 person per class, community program in rural Guam.

As for a 2005 spot, it is something that has to be really serendipitous. You should call around to the institutions you are interested in, explain your situation especially your medicine background and chief residency, and who knows, they may take you even if they don't have a listed spot available. I would do that ASAP and use the opportunity to collect info for applying for 2006 at the same time to kill two birds with one stone.

I would ask you to apply here, but I doubt we can take another person for 2005 without bursting at the seams. If we had a spot, you would get it for sure.

As for the career change itself, I can say that having gone through the same scenario as you, I have yet to regret my change and I have never had a day where I haven't been thankful that I made the change. No slam on internal medicine as it requires a lot of sacrifice, discipline, and a pure devotion that many start with, but few are able to maintain. Those that do deserve only our highest regards and respect.

For those of us who want to be able to raise a family, maintain more reasonable work hours, and reap a level of compensation commensurate with more than a dozen years of education and training, anesthesiology can provide that. Anesthesiology is also starving for more academic practitioners to further the research in our field and to re-expand our presence in critical care and your background certainly lends to either scenario. A speaker last night at the Dallas County Anesthesia Society meeting (Dr. Candiotti, PD from Miami) and I talked about our medicine backgrounds and he has used it to dive into research, become program director, and to maintain a clinical practice at Miami which allows him to work, do any research he wants, and to travel the country giving lectures. (He, however, missed his calling to be a stand up comedian.)

If you as sure as you seem to be about enjoying the anesthesiology experience, you will not regret the decision and your background will allow you to adjust quickly to the field while allowing you to moonlight and earn significant coin to compensate having to go through another residency.

Good luck.

 

[docmus12]

Thanks for the encouragement UT - and I actually am applying to UTSW for 2006. Have called most programs except for state of CA - next on my list and many still have couple of 2006 spots open - others have told me to call back as positions do open up. you are right as far as any serendipitous 2005 spots opening up.

And yes I do think this could be the best career decision to make

Just out of curiosity - how did your CA1 year compare to your PGY 1 yr - was it a very tough transition

 

[UTSouthwestern]

Not really a tough transition. It was more getting used to the physical environment of the OR which I hadn't been inside of more a very long time. Wearing a mask was the most challenging thing believe it or not. Aside from that, I had to learn to tone down my preoperative evaluations (first few were two pages long), learn to increase my speed and efficiency from day to day (that becomes easy), and learn to take a bite of humble pie as I was out of my element at first.

In terms of time, you will have so much time compared to what you had in a medicine residency that you will find that you are trying to find more material to read and more things to do. No pages unless you are on an ICU service (and you will be a superstar there), off post call promptly at 7 am, more weekend days off each month than you will believe. The first year can become stressful in that you can have as many as 7 overnight call months, but again you get the full day off the next day and still get significant sleep on most call nights.

One of our recent medicine transplants from Yale's internal medicine program moonlighted a lot to fill in the void of time where he felt like he had read all that he could and wanted to get in some extra work.

Once you get into the flow of the day, you will excel. If you do end up taking a 2006 position, you will have plenty of time to read from now until then and that will accelerate your learning curve as a CA-1 even more.

 

[www]

Hi everyone,

I am about to finish my residency(categorical) in IM and now want to switch tracks to anesthesiolgy.Does anyone know of any open PGY 2 spots for 2005/2006?

And yes,I thought of GI but the dream soured...

Thanks in advance.
www

 

[UTSouthwestern]

Hi everyone,

I am about to finish my residency(categorical) in IM and now want to switch tracks to anesthesiolgy.Does anyone know of any open PGY 2 spots for 2005/2006?

And yes,I thought of GI but the dream soured...

Thanks in advance.
www

Like docmus above, your best bet is to call around to the programs that interest you to see if positions are available. 2005 spots are unlikely to be available at this point unless something completely unexpected comes up. Several 2006 positions should be available, but as with our program, are likely being filled even now.

 

[docmus12]

Hi everyone,

I am about to finish my residency(categorical) in IM and now want to switch tracks to anesthesiolgy.Does anyone know of any open PGY 2 spots for 2005/2006?

And yes,I thought of GI but the dream soured...

Thanks in advance.
www

just curious what happened to GI

 

[UTSouthwestern]

just curious what happened to GI

One whiff and it knocked the crap out of him.

 

[invitro]

I guess this post goes out to docmus...

Since you have already finished your residency, why not do a 3yr fellowship in cards or GI? If you are a US citizen, from a decent IM program, you could probably match somewhere.

From a purely financial standpoint, even though gas is lucrative, cards would win hands down. Many of the cards fellows I have talked to at my program are fielding offers of 600-700k...with up to a million after partnership. And these offers are not just in the midwest.

Also, the issue of mid-levels taking over you job is non-existant. Plus everyone seems to think the demand for cards/gi will skyrocket as the population get older and sicker....particularly in underserved areas. Again, for gas these points may also be true, but to a lesser degree.

Gas is really cool, but if you have already paid your dues (a grueling IM residency), why not reap the benefits of a fellowship?

Personally I am deciding amongst Gas, Emed, and PM&R, for residency (I'm a 3rd year on the last clerkship) so cards/gi aren't in the cards (stupid pun) for me, but maybe they are for you.

take care.

 

[dbiddy808]

I know several people who have been unable to get these fellowships. Although it helps to be a US grad, it doesn't guarantee a fellowship. You have to be at the top of your residency class and get publicatons. GI is especially hard, with less than 300 spots per year.

 

[mailee88]

I am currently about to start my intern year at CHOC for pediatrics. I am interested in switching as well to gas and i have been calling diff programs around CA for CA1 spots for 2006. Oregon Health Sciences actually just informed me today that they have a 2005 spot open, so if you are interested, I would get on that pretty quickly.

I didn't think that these 2006 spots would fill so early. I figured I at least had until aug or sept to get everything in. What other programs are open at this time for 2006? Any help would be appreciated! Don't want to spend an extra year in peds!

 

[UTSouthwestern]

I am currently about to start my intern year at CHOC for pediatrics. I am interested in switching as well to gas and i have been calling diff programs around CA for CA1 spots for 2006. Oregon Health Sciences actually just informed me today that they have a 2005 spot open, so if you are interested, I would get on that pretty quickly.

I didn't think that these 2006 spots would fill so early. I figured I at least had until aug or sept to get everything in. What other programs are open at this time for 2006? Any help would be appreciated! Don't want to spend an extra year in peds!

I think we have one spot left, but the applications are already rolling in for it including one from a 5 year neurosurgery resident.

 

[docmus12]

thanks for your replies guys and yes i did think of fellowships and it is tough to ge talthough after a chief year my chances are better - as a matter of fact pulmonary is a solid option for me - as a 3rd year i think u r not aware of how tough it os to get cards and GI - as far as gas goes - have always liked it just couldnt make up my mind and now I have. Thanks for the Oregon tip will look into it.

 

[mailee88]

Just another question...
since ERAS is closed until who knows when...probably september...should I just start sending programs my material??? Should I send things even to the programs without a 2006 spot open...just in case someone later leaves the program?
If so, do I even need to use ERAS at all?

Also, when should I start applying IN the Match, if I need to at all...for a 2007 spot? In other words, when should I give up on finding a 2006 spot and just settle for one a year later?

I'm also really confused on when all this interviewing is going to take place during my intern year...

Part of me just wants to give up and not go through all this madness of trying to find a spot now and just do my 3 years of peds and then apply during my 2nd year for a spot...like I would do for a fellowship....

 

[CambieMD]

Just another question...
since ERAS is closed until who knows when...probably september...should I just start sending programs my material??? Should I send things even to the programs without a 2006 spot open...just in case someone later leaves the program?
If so, do I even need to use ERAS at all?

Also, when should I start applying IN the Match, if I need to at all...for a 2007 spot? In other words, when should I give up on finding a 2006 spot and just settle for one a year later?

I'm also really confused on when all this interviewing is going to take place during my intern year...

Part of me just wants to give up and not go through all this madness of trying to find a spot now and just do my 3 years of peds and then apply during my 2nd year for a spot...like I would do for a fellowship....

You can apply for positions outside of the match. start lining up your ducks now. Get lor from attendings at your medical school. The latest that you should contact programs is in August. Why suffer through three years if you know that peds isn't what you want to do. I am speaking from experience.

A big part of the interviewing process is the program feeding and entertaining you. You can cut that part of the process out. Send the programs your info. Some will bite, hopefully. You can always switch call with other interns to free up interviewing time.

It seems like the ASA/ABA is making significant changes to the structure of anesthesia programs starting 2008. These changes may effect applicants attempting to switch into anesthesia. Right now the transition into anesthesia is seemless. Most pgy-1 training fulfills the requirements of the the board.

I have known of a few guys who wanted to switch or obtain additional training but it never happened. The energy of activation seems to increase with time and no catalyst seems to work with the progression of time.

Trust your instincts.

Skrike now!!!

CambieMD

 

[dorogaya]

I have completed 3 years of gen surgery and am trying to get into anesthesiology. Proving to be difficult. any advice? guidance?

 

[CambieMD]

Call around to as many programs as u can. Your 3 yrs of surg should make u an attractive applicant.

cambieMD

 

[Gasdude]

Im a silent observer on SDN, i didnt match this year and will hence be applying come september. does anyone know what the chances of matching in anesthesia are with a year of research after graduation?

responses will be much appreciated...

thx all...

 

[Code Brown]

Im a silent observer on SDN, i didnt match this year and will hence be applying come september. does anyone know what the chances of matching in anesthesia are with a year of research after graduation?

responses will be much appreciated...

thx all...

It all depends on your background and why you didn't match in the first place. Was your research in anesthesia? FMG vs US grad? Lower Step scores? Didn't apply broadly enough? Were you really commited when applying?

Need more details if you want some advice...

 

[CambieMD]

It all depends on your background and why you didn't match in the first place. Was your research in anesthesia? FMG vs US grad? Lower Step scores? Didn't apply broadly enough? Were you really commited when applying?

Need more details if you want some advice...

I agree but I tend to think that research will not help you much. Strong letters will do much more for you.

Will you be in a prelim program?

Cambie