Switch from surgery to anesthesia

[jaycee]

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Hey everyone,

I would love to hear any advice or experience when switching from one specialty to anesthesia. I've spent quite a deal of time thinking about and am committed to make this switch both for professional and family reasons.
What do you think were the crucial elements for you to make a successful switch? Thank

 

[B-Bone]

committed to anesthesia or EM?

 

[jaycee]

Anesthesia definitely fits me better because I like acute surgical and critical care with the team styled approach.

Considered EM since I have lots of the trauma experience and the ability to work quickly quite well, but overall it's prob not that great of a fit in regards to the types of patients they see and the type of care given.

 

[DrBeaker]

You have posts starting 12/01 about switching from your ortho program to one on the west coast. Another about switching to gen surg on the west coast, another switch to EM post, and now this one.

Is anesthesia what you really want to do? What is prompting the switch? Do you really not like ortho or are you homesick? You will be asked that.

Those questions aside, it's pretty late to switch into anesthesia for 2012. When I switched, I submitted through ERAS and some outside the match spots like all the other 4th year med students, September 1st or whatever day you can submit. I found the outside the match spots just by checking out program websites. Those spots were all offered by about now.

You'll need letters, good USMLE's, med school transcript, a CV.

Check out program websites you are interested in. If they have PGY-2 spots open for 2012 they will be on their respective websites. Good luck.

 

[pgg]

Many previous threads may help

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=807739
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=848069
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=202547
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=594995
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=543574

And more, just search. Some threads are old but the discussion is still good.

 

[CerealBox]

I switched. No regrets.

 

[A Whole]

Man, do you really want to leave ortho? I know the residency sucks ass but orthopods have a sweet gig after residency. The money is outstanding and the hours can be tailored to your needs or preferences.

Don't get me wrong. Anesthesia is a great field. It's definitely very flexible from the standpoint of maintaining a life outside of medicine (for family time, hobbies, etc.). There's a lot of perks in the field (minimal paperwork, no rounding, no clinic, very focused patient encounters..). However, on balance I'm not totally convinced that it offers a better life than orthopaedics.

Most of the orthopods that I know are happy (but, then again, most of the anesthesiologists that I know are happy, too).

Ultimately it's your choice. Do what you think is right for you. But there is some wisdom in the old adage, caveat emptor.

Beware of "the grass is greener" mentality when you think about switching fields. Anesthesiology, despite it's many positive attributes, isn't perfect.

 

[Minerva123]

Hey everyone,

I would love to hear any advice or experience when switching from one specialty to anesthesia. I've spent quite a deal of time thinking about and am committed to make this switch both for professional and family reasons.
What do you think were the crucial elements for you to make a successful switch? Thanks

J

Just accepted a position to a CA-1 program and here is my following experience, I hope this helps.

I am a surgery resident at a top-middle tier program. I am in good standing with my program. For multiple reasons, I decided to switch into anesthesiology. The process seemed overwhelming, given I had JUST gone through the match this year. But, once I got my ERAS token from my medical school, I hit the ground running and was eventually accepted into a program in under two months.

Process:
1) Complete ERAS (2 days) Got ERAS token > uploaded old surgery letters, released deans letter > worked on ERAS application (did not have original), updated CV

2) Write personal statement (4 days of indecision)

2) Getting anesthesia letter (1 week): gave PS and CV to anesthesiologist I worked with to write a letter (all programs will accept your medical school LORs, they really only NEED a letter from your program director as a "recent" LOR)

3) Program director letter (4 weeks; surgeons are busy, this took a while of tip-toeing): spoke with program director (nice guy, supported me), then chairman, letter e-mailed to programs (I recommend this because it takes about a week for the letters to get uploaded into ERAS and received by programs, which I also did)

4) Then I formally applied to programs (wanted to be honest and didn't submit app prior to getting approval from my PD)

I e-mailed essentially all programs that interested me (no program at home institution), close to 35 (mainly regional programs in northeast and pretty much only top-tier programs in the country; I felt I only wanted to go to a great program and did not want to settle...I was willing to repeat my intern year at an institution with a program to hopefully get a back-door position.

65%: Got back to me (some same-day saying yes/no they had an opening; some even offered interviews without my program director's letter)

35% never responded

I already had 3 interviews scheduled within 5-7 days of just e-mailing programs (one from a top tier program, the position I ultimately accepted). The others were waiting for my PD letter to be uploaded, but I accepted a position even before then.

The two interviews I went on ended with a job offer. I was not expecting this, but was relieved I did not have to go through the match. The competition seemed tough and the positions were few, but was delighted that some great programs purposely leave open positions to seek out great applicants.

I heard of the following open CA-1 positions:
Jefferson, BWH, UVA, UCONN, UCSD, Northwestern, Tufts, UMASS, Baystate, Cleveland Clinic (other applicants said they heard from: Duke, BIDMC)