Switches in and out of path

[ilovepath]

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After surprisingly finding out a friend from med school that was pretty passionate about path switched to EM, I figured I'd solicit anyone's knowledge of switches in or out of path.
In general, I found it far more common to switch in rather than switch out. On my interviews I ran into fm, im, peds, ob, mostly surg, and 1 psych switch into path.
The switches out I've heard of far fewer cases, that em person, im, and an ortho case.
It's just something I found interesting since almost every program I've seen seems to have had someone switch in, mostly surg residents.

 

[Rhabdoid]

One of my colleagues switched in from surgery. One of the attendings also did surg before getting into path. As far as I know, no one in my program in previous years switched out.

 

[2121115]

Actually, it is not uncommon for residents to jump ship during the first year. I have known several to do so. Often it is people who applied to another field plus pathology and didn't match in the more competitive field (i.e. applied to dermatology and path and matched in path). They quickly realize they don't actually like path ("only dermpath") and leave.

 

[KeratinPearls]

Actually, it is not uncommon for residents to jump ship during the first year. I have known several to do so. Often it is people who applied to another field plus pathology and didn't match in the more competitive field (i.e. applied to dermatology and path and matched in path). They quickly realize they don't actually like path ("only dermpath") and leave.

Funny, "I only like dermpath and nothing else about pathology."

 

[KCShaw]

Interesting -- I can't think of anyone I know or know about who switched out of path. One person was trying (overseas trained and had worked overseas in surg, but despite local academic individual surgeon support wasn't landing a spot) but I don't know that they ever succeeded; path was the initial fallback. I know several who switched in; like others, mainly from surgical fields.

Well, now, I take that back: I do know one person who went to med school with the aim of doing forensic path, ended up enjoying clinical medicine, did some path work along the way (mainly forensic, but had a reasonable idea what they were getting into), did the mandatory clinical internship (all of this was in Australia) then started path training, but ended up despising one of the path rotations (very surprisingly to me, a forensic one) and the following year returned to clinical medicine...now seems fairly happy with it.

 

[gschl1234]

I've met several people who switched into path (OB, Surgery, Ortho) and only 1 person who switched out (Anes).

 

[zao275]

A friend on mine completed most of her first year of path, then switched to IM (missed patient contact). We all tried to dissuade her, because she was a very talented resident and very bright, but we wanted her to be happy, of course. She did a few weeks of IM residency and then quit. Came back to path to finish up the last couple of months of her first year, then left medicine (at least for the time being) to stay at home with her kid. I was sad to see her go, but cheers to her for be willing to take some risks to find out what she really wanted to be doing. I don't think I would be willing to do the same!

 

[Entgegen]

A friend on mine completed most of her first year of path, then switched to IM (missed patient contact). We all tried to dissuade her, because she was a very talented resident and very bright, but we wanted her to be happy, of course. She did a few weeks of IM residency and then quit. Came back to path to finish up the last couple of months of her first year, then left medicine (at least for the time being) to stay at home with her kid. I was sad to see her go, but cheers to her for be willing to take some risks to find out what she really wanted to be doing. I don't think I would be willing to do the same!

So she was able to jump into an IM residency in the middle of her PGY-1 year, or did she start over as a first-year IM resident in July of her PGY-2 year?

 

[Arctic Char]

i know someone who switched out of path into psych

 

[ilovepath]

There's a couple that slipped my mind...2 neurosurgery residents, one early on, the other I think completed the residency both switched to path.

There's something incredibly profound about investing that long to switch over. It's really fascinating to get their stories.

 

[pines]

I've known five general surgery residents. One ER attending who went back to emergency medicine. One internal medicine resident. One Family medicine resident and one trauma surgery fellow.

 

[Endolas]

There's a couple that slipped my mind...2 neurosurgery residents, one early on, the other I think completed the residency both switched to path.

There's something incredibly profound about investing that long to switch over. It's really fascinating to get their stories.

Finished neurosurgery and then switched to path?! 😱 Holy moly.

 

[d2d77]

I'm switching to IM effective July 1st. Path just isn't for me and my program isn't what I had hoped. I know 2 others that have switched OUT this year

 

[Entgegen]

I'm kinda' curious as to the logistics of switching out of pathology. Seeing as how path doesn't have a clinical internship year, presumably one couldn't just jump into a PGY-2 position in other fields...the ex-path resident would have to do an internship just like all the other incoming PGY-1/graduating 4th years before getting into their advanced positions. So do all the switches involve applying and going through the match again, or what?

 

[ilovepath]

I'm very curious on the reasons, not to be probing..if you don't want to post them I understand.

I'm switching to IM effective July 1st. Path just isn't for me and my program isn't what I had hoped. I know 2 others that have switched OUT this year

 

[ilovepath]

That was my feeling as well...I think that's why it's profound for me to hear stories where someone already walks away from a significant investment of training. From what I remember for both the early and the later switches, both of them were unsatisfied with the secretarial components of their residencies, and I think there were some malignancy they wanted to avoid.

Finished neurosurgery and then switched to path?! 😱 Holy moly.

 

[yaah]

A friend on mine completed most of her first year of path, then switched to IM (missed patient contact). We all tried to dissuade her, because she was a very talented resident and very bright, but we wanted her to be happy, of course. She did a few weeks of IM residency and then quit. Came back to path to finish up the last couple of months of her first year, then left medicine (at least for the time being) to stay at home with her kid. I was sad to see her go, but cheers to her for be willing to take some risks to find out what she really wanted to be doing. I don't think I would be willing to do the same!

I don't think I would be willing to take on that much debt to decide I didn't want to do something. It is going to be hard for her to get back into residency. Kind of sounds like someone who shouldn't have gone to med school.

 

[KCShaw]

I don't think I would be willing to take on that much debt to decide I didn't want to do something. It is going to be hard for her to get back into residency. Kind of sounds like someone who shouldn't have gone to med school.

I have a feeling there are more of these people out there than some people might think. One person I knew in residency finished and decided to go back to being a homemaker, and that was after delaying the start of residency for a while because of kids. But their spouse was apparently doing well in private practice in another area of medicine, and it's possible there was family money anyway.

In general, if you can afford to go to med school then just drop out of practice and go back to playing X-box before you ever really start "work", you should really, really be sure you're going to med school in the first place for the right reasons. Doing well enough on exams and family pushing you to do something "respectable" like oo oo being a doctor isn't going to earn you any respect. At the least, find some way to pay back the system, not just the banks.

 

[zao275]

So she was able to jump into an IM residency in the middle of her PGY-1 year, or did she start over as a first-year IM resident in July of her PGY-2 year?

She had taken maternity leave during first year (path). Started over as first-year IM resident in July, quit a few weeks later. Then path allowed her to come back and finish up a few months of work so that she would have one complete year of path under her belt.

 

[zao275]

KC and Yaah: Good points. I personally think that was the issue here, that she was very smart and bored with her previous work and decided to do medicine. I am not sure if she really wanted to do it or not. She seems very happy being out of it, but didn't seem unhappy while she was in medicine (at least while she was in path).

In conversation, I have heard a fair number of my friends say that if they had the chance to choose again, they would not choose to do medicine. I am always shocked at this, because I think I would definitely choose medicine (and path...probably to the surprise of some on this forum who think path is a bad choice!) again.

 

[yaah]

Well, a lot of people don't really pick medicine as a career for any tangible reason. They pick it because they never considered anything else, family pressure, friends, they "feel like they are suited for it," etc. So, surprise, they tend to want to bail when they find out it's hard and they don't really like doing it. Many can't bail because they are simply too invested.

 

[HbyHA]

In conversation, I have heard a fair number of my friends say that if they had the chance to choose again, they would not choose to do medicine.

i know a few of these people too. it's such a shame because it's a lot to go through to find out you're not happy in medicine. i remember sitting at the bar after the boards and talking about starting fellowship. it was then i realized that i was the only one of us that was actually excited about starting! i guess i'm just really lucky that i found a field that i absolutely love and felt made for. i feel bad that not everyone has that. especially when you pay $200,000 and spend 8+ years finding that out...

 

[ilovepath]

I don't know about path's employment stability bc of the conflicting reports on jobs...but medicine in general is the only section of the economy that hadn't felt the depression/recession as much as others. I know there were some hospital closings, but I think in general the employed physician population was stable or growing when other fields were hemorrhaging with massive layoffs. I have a friend in civil engineering who was laid off and couldn't find any other engineering job in town, who said the entire field was pretty dried up, a large part is lack of govmnt funding. It may be beneficial to gain some context by assessing the volitility of other professions, and perhaps cite the stability of medicine of why some ppl choose it. Out of some people switching professions later in life due to the economy, I've noticed a few of them chose the health care field due to its stability.