Switch from Prelim Surgery to Urology

[FireRad]

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So I am a current prelim General Surgery resident. I matched into Diagnostic Radiology at UCLA and I am completing my intern year in General Surgery.

As a medical student, I was torn between Urology and Radiology and I choose Radiology because of the lifestyle. However, I am absolutely LOVING my intern year in Surgery.

I want to ask how feasible it is to reapply for the match to pursue Urology for coming fall.

I am doing a great job during my intern year and I am confident that I could have several strong letters from the attendings I work with currently. Also, I have 5 publications in urology with several more posters and abstracts related to Urology.

Would it at all be possible to make this switch? I'm not sure how my application would be viewed compared to a fourth year medical student applying to Urology, but I imagine I would be far less competitive and desirable since I would have letters from General Surgery attendings and not urologists.

What do you think?

 

[doc05]

So I am a current prelim General Surgery resident. I matched into Diagnostic Radiology at UCLA and I am completing my intern year in General Surgery.

As a medical student, I was torn between Urology and Radiology and I choose Radiology because of the lifestyle. However, I am absolutely LOVING my intern year in Surgery.

I want to ask how feasible it is to reapply for the match to pursue Urology for coming fall.

I am doing a great job during my intern year and I am confident that I could have several strong letters from the attendings I work with currently. Also, I have 5 publications in urology with several more posters and abstracts related to Urology.

Would it at all be possible to make this switch? I'm not sure how my application would be viewed compared to a fourth year medical student applying to Urology, but I imagine I would be far less competitive and desirable since I would have letters from General Surgery attendings and not urologists.

What do you think?

What a terrible idea. You've matched at a top radiology program, why would you want anything else?

You're all of 2 weeks into your intern year. It gets much much worse.

 

[FireRad]

People keep saying that. But I am deeply enjoying interacting with the patients and I know this is something I would miss if I pursue Radiology. I wonder what the reapplicant rate for Urology is. I imagine it is fairly low, but oh well.

 

[Dr.LeoSpaceman]

You'd probably get better answers on the Urology subforum. And I agree with doc05 that this seems like a hasty decision. If lifestyle was your overriding motivation, shouldn't you wait to see if the lifestyle benefits in radiology outweigh the things you like about surgery? On a tongue in cheek note, you kind of set yourself up for the second guessing. Why do a surgical prelim instead of searching out the "cushest" TY program like everyone else?

And this is just my personal aside: The situation you describe is one of the reasons I never understood using lifestyle as the primary determinant of specialty choice. It should certainly factor in, but I've never thought trading something you love for something you can tolerate is worth better hours.

 

[Jolie South]

People keep saying that. But I am deeply enjoying interacting with the patients and I know this is something I would miss if I pursue Radiology. I wonder what the reapplicant rate for Urology is. I imagine it is fairly low, but oh well.

You could always do IR fellowship afterwards if you want direct patient contact.

 

[alta91]

So I am a current prelim General Surgery resident. I matched into Diagnostic Radiology at UCLA and I am completing my intern year in General Surgery.

As a medical student, I was torn between Urology and Radiology and I choose Radiology because of the lifestyle. However, I am absolutely LOVING my intern year in Surgery.

I want to ask how feasible it is to reapply for the match to pursue Urology for coming fall.

I am doing a great job during my intern year and I am confident that I could have several strong letters from the attendings I work with currently. Also, I have 5 publications in urology with several more posters and abstracts related to Urology.

Would it at all be possible to make this switch? I'm not sure how my application would be viewed compared to a fourth year medical student applying to Urology, but I imagine I would be far less competitive and desirable since I would have letters from General Surgery attendings and not urologists.

What do you think?

Disclaimer: Not a surgeon or a urologist, but have seen someone else have a similar change of heart which burned them badly by not following the NRMP guidelines....

If you haven't already (and sorry to bore you with this if you have already!!!), you should make sure you aquatint yourself with the relevant NRMP policies regarding your match. By taking on advanced position, you have committed to the NRMP all in policy which says that you must show up for 45 days and make a "good faith effort" in working there before you leave.

In order to get out of this, you'd need to submit an NRMP waiver and get approval from the NRMP to drop your radiology spot before submitting an application for Urology. Failure to do so could result in the NRMP levying various penalties upon you such as being banning you from future matches, and/or forcing to take a year off from training. Even speaking to a Urology program before completing your waiver is technically a violation of the relevant match agreement and if your advanced program finds out, they can file against you.

Completing the waiver would leave you in a somewhat precarious situation. If you apply for Urology and match, then thats great and everything has worked out. But if it doesn't you'll be left without a PGY2 position unless your general surgery program might be interested in keeping you on. Maybe a year of Urology research....

Regardless, if you are really serious about this, tread carefully.

P.S. I tried to post links to the NRMP match agreement and sanctions, but can't yet

 

[FireRad]

Disclaimer: Not a surgeon or a urologist, but have seen someone else have a similar change of heart which burned them badly by not following the NRMP guidelines....

If you haven't already (and sorry to bore you with this if you have already!!!), you should make sure you aquatint yourself with the relevant NRMP policies regarding your match. By taking on advanced position, you have committed to the NRMP all in policy which says that you must show up for 45 days and make a "good faith effort" in working there before you leave.

In order to get out of this, you'd need to submit an NRMP waiver and get approval from the NRMP to drop your radiology spot before submitting an application for Urology. Failure to do so could result in the NRMP levying various penalties upon you such as being banning you from future matches, and/or forcing to take a year off from training. Even speaking to a Urology program before completing your waiver is technically a violation of the relevant match agreement and if your advanced program finds out, they can file against you.

Completing the waiver would leave you in a somewhat precarious situation. If you apply for Urology and match, then thats great and everything has worked out. But if it doesn't you'll be left without a PGY2 position unless your general surgery program might be interested in keeping you on. Maybe a year of Urology research....

Regardless, if you are really serious about this, tread carefully.

P.S. I tried to post links to the NRMP match agreement and sanctions, but can't yet

This is good to know. Thanks for the helpful information!

 

[FireRad]

Thanks for the all the advice guys! I have an extremely good relationship with the Chairman of my Urology department at my school. He is very well known as my Urology program is top 10 in the country.

I did research with him for 4 years in med school with numerous publications resulting. I spoke to him and he is willing to write me a very strong letter of recommendation.

Do you think it would be close to impossible to match into Urology via ERAS and reapplying?

My stats arent great for Urology. I had 240s for Step 1 and 2. And I just missed being ranked in the top half of my class, due to preclinical grades. But i honored 5 out of 7 rotations 3rd year.