switching residency in the same specialty

[bsgarcia]

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hey there-

I am a pediatric intern and I am interested in switching to another pediatric program. I ranked and subsequently matched a mediocre program because of its location over several more prestigious programs. I am grossly unsatisfied with the quality of education I am receiving and was wondering since my initial contract is only for a year it is possible to get a residency at a different school? Can I enter the match again? send a resume to other programs? How bad does this look and what are the implications. There is plenty of discussion related to stitching specialties but not regarding switching residencies within the same specialty. I want to know what I am up against before I contact anyone here or at my alma mater.

Thanks for any advice

 

[njbmd]

hey there-

I am a pediatric intern and I am interested in switching to another pediatric program. I ranked and subsequently matched a mediocre program because of its location over several more prestigious programs. I am grossly unsatisfied with the quality of education I am receiving and was wondering since my initial contract is only for a year it is possible to get a residency at a different school? Can I enter the match again? send a resume to other programs? How bad does this look and what are the implications. There is plenty of discussion related to stitching specialties but not regarding switching residencies within the same specialty. I want to know what I am up against before I contact anyone here or at my alma mater.

Thanks for any advice

Hi there,
The first person that you should speak with is your Program Director. Most PDs do NOT want unhappy residents in their program so you should express your unhappiness to this person first. You will need a letter from your PD anyway, if you intend to go into another program. The other thing to remember is that any program you attempt to transfer into much have a PGY-2 position for you to assume.

You could go back into the MATCH but you would be starting over i.e. repeating your intern year. Nothing on earth would make me want to repeat my intern year and I had a very good experience. You would essentially go through the same steps that you went through to match in the first place i.e. ERAS, interviews, transcipts. This would likely be your best course if you have a specific program in mind that you want to try to get into.

Transferring residency programs can be problematic if your PD does not want you to go. Like I said above, "most" PDs do not want unhappy residents but some do not want to lose any resident and could make your life miserable. Just beware of that circumstance. You also want to make sure that you articulate your reasons for wanting to transfer beyond "mediocre program" and wanting to match in a more "prestigeous" program.

Good luck!
njbmd 🙂