Switching from Surgery to Pathology

[armin]

I am currently a PGY-1 categorical general surgery resident and have decided that surgery is not the right career choice for me. My first year ends at the end of June and I will not be returning. I want to enter the field of Pathology and would appreciate any advice on how I can go about obtaining a PGY-1 position. Specifically, how can I go about obtaining a PGY-1 spot that starts this summer versus entering the next match cycle??? Also, what is the best way to go about obtaining rec letters if I need to go through the match??? Numbers wise, my Step 1 score was 252/99, Step 2 was 228/92, and I was AOA in med school.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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[tsj]

I am currently a PGY-1 categorical general surgery resident and have decided that surgery is not the right career choice for me. My first year ends at the end of June and I will not be returning. I want to enter the field of Pathology and would appreciate any advice on how I can go about obtaining a PGY-1 position. Specifically, how can I go about obtaining a PGY-1 spot that starts this summer versus entering the next match cycle??? Also, what is the best way to go about obtaining rec letters if I need to go through the match??? Numbers wise, my Step 1 score was 252/99, Step 2 was 228/92, and I was AOA in med school.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Had you decided a little earlier someone probably would have signed you up outside the match or taken you in the match. I imagine most programs have all their slots committed to the match at this point.

So what you should do is fire off an email or make a phone call to the PD of every program where you would be willing to go, let him know your predicament and that if something shakes up in their program that you would be willing to move and start right away. Some path resident somewhere is going to quit or move or switch to a different field.

Otherwise, just go through the match next year. You would probably only need to go on a few interviews and would likely get your 1-2 top choices based on your step 1/2/AOA status.

 

[cytoborg]

You could scramble in March, or move FAST i.e. next couple days and contact PDs of any program you are interested in, and perhaps they would be willing to do a phone interview or something and actually rank you on their regular list which is due Feb. 22 (I believe). I haven't personally heard of any phone interviews but maybe it's worth a shot. Get in touch with your pathology dept's chair ASAP and get his advice - he might be able to make some calls for you. Unfortunately a lot of path people are in Atlanta right now for a conference or are just getting back from it, and are really busy but if you really want to match for July 2006 it's important to move fast. Have you straightened out the situation with your program? Do they know you're leaving, etc.? If you have supportive people there, maybe they could write a letter. It would be nice to have a path letter - maybe your path dept. chair or PD would be willing to write you a letter. (Some are cool with writing letters at the last minute even if they don't know you well.) Or is there a path attending you have interacted with at your institution who has seen your face at least a couple of times and maybe could write one? Or even a path professor from med school? Not ideal certainly, but it's something. Any attendings who like you and are willing to advocate for you in a last-minute situation would probably suffice. If you've done any research, a letter form them would be great. Despite the unique situation, you have the stats to match extremely well, and with your surgery experience you would be particularly well prepared for a path residency. If you're personable & easy-going you should have no problem matching.

Best of luck.

 

[yaah]

I agree with the ASAP recommendation. I am not sure how much luck you will have, they may wonder why you had such a sudden change and whether you are motivated enough to be a good resident, and may ask that you apply for the coming year. But there may be some (if you are willing to do lots of calling around and potentially traveling) who would consider you. Best advice would be to call potential programs you are interested in. Most likely, if you want a spot for the coming year you will have to do something akin to scrambling.