Switching residencies...protocol

[camtber]

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[ApacheIndian]

It's a courageous thing you're doing... good luck. May I ask which field you're currently in (and unhappy with) and which one you're trying to switch into?

 

[SomeFakeName]

How much you wanna bet he/she is trying to get the he11 out of a general surgery residency and into a derm or radiology residency😛

 

[Celiac Plexus]

Originally posted by SomeFakeName
How much you wanna bet he/she is trying to get the he11 out of a general surgery residency and into a derm or radiology residency😛

General surgery residencies don't have a transitional year.

 

[foreignmd]

Has anybody done that? Transferring to a different specialty? How did you explain it to your PD?
The reason why I am asking is that I really want to do EM. I am an IMG, not US citizen, applying this year for the first time. Despite my excellent scores and strong LORs, only 1 interview for EM so far. On the other hand, I have a handful of interviews for IM. I have spoken to several EM program PDs, and the advice was always the same: start your residency in IM and transfer after one year. Well, now how do I explain this to the IM program PD? I assume I will need his or her reference letter for the transfer, right? I can imagine how thrilled he could be about me leaving... Moreover, if I do not succeed next year getting into EM, I would still like to finish the IM residency (I like IM a lot, but EM is my preference). So what is the strategy here? Tell, or not to tell? And if tell, when?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Celiac Plexus]

I do NOT advise you to tell an IM pd that you are just going to use their program as a stepping stone to the ER. That will doom your chances for landing an IM slot.

I would keep your big plans to yourself for now. Hopefully you will match to ER in this cycle, but if you don't then for you it sounds like IM would be a decent back-up. If you are *forced* to do an IM residency then do that and mb you will wind up being really satisfied. If not, you then have 2 choices: finish the IM residency and try again for ER, or try to surreptitiously network your way in to an ER program through word-of-mouth, various web sites (residency "clearinghouse" sites), or directly contacting residencies.

One other problem that you might have if you try to go through the match AGAIN after matching to IM, is that PDs are gonna start wondering if you know what the hell you're doing when you say that you want to leave yet another program for theirs. They are probably gonna wonder if you will do to them what you did to your previous 2 residencies.

At any rate, be discrete and good luck. I hope that you get your ER slot this year and everything winds up hunky-dory for ya! If not though, remember how lucky ya are to be a physician in the U.S. 😉

Peace.

 

[Ctrhu]

Yours will not be the first time that an intern chooses to transfer to another program. Unlike many other specialties, many IM interns transfer out because they are unhappy because spots are easy to come by. And all those who didn't get into Derm, Opthalmology etc. will leave if they get in the second time around. Since you are leaving because you want to change specialty and not change program, your PD will be more understanding. I agree with the advices you have received so far.