Switching to Family Medicine

[Adventress]

Hello all,

First time poster here. I am about to finish my intern year in OBGYN and would like to apply to the Match next year for Family Medicine. For the most part my stats were pretty competitive for ob but it just didn't fit my personality or my long term goals. Also I'm in another state far away from home which contributes to my unhappiness. I am resigning at the end of this month. I have a few questions:

1) How competitive would I be the second time around?
2) How should i approach ERAS and the application process?
3) Do i need a LOR from my PD? It likely won't be too positive if I were to ask for one, but I can get LORs from other faculty.
3) What kind of work should I do in the mean time? FYI I am not fond of research. Thinking of scribe work just to grease the wheels. Also I plan to take Step 3 in my year off.

Thanks in advance!

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[TableMD]

Hi

It sounds like you are in a tough spot, Im sorry things did not work out for you with OB. Having participted in ranking meetings:
1. You are going to need a document from your PD unfortunately. I cam tell you that program directors are going to want to know what your sotuation was. I would do whatever you can to try to work with that person to leave on as good a note as possible. Your opinion/fairness/etc unfortunately is largely irrelevant, its not fair but they have tremendous power. Please do what you can.

2. Your time should be with a family doc. You will need to sell people on why you should go to Family Med as opposed to path, IM, Peds or another field. How will you feel going from ladies to an often geriatric population? Can you be trusted to complete a residency? Can you get in with a family med program at your current location? Being a scribe w/o a family med residency connection is not a good use of your time. You need a family med doc to vouch for you, ideally someone with residents.

3. Step 3 - pass it. With us the connection to family docs/residents is the most important thing


Good luck

 

[deleted480308]

You are going to need a letter from your PD so try to work with them as much as possible to get a postive or at least neutral one

If you matched OB, your stats are fine for FM.....try to pass step 3

Why FM now?

 

[Adventress]

Thank you guys for your responses.

I think going into family medicine is the right path. The OB environment did not fit my personality. I'm actually looking forward to working with different patient populations instead of only women's health. But I still love OB. In the future I could still gear my practice towards women's health/OB if I choose. Also, I didn't realize how much I missed my family until I was so far away. I am definitely looking only in my home state this second time around.

Regarding letters, I think it is a good idea to work with my PD as much as possible this last month. On a positive note, we actually work with the family medicine program and their residents rotate through OB. I did develop a good relationship and rapport with one of the family medicine attendings and I could have him write me a letter as well.

 

[Atlas Shrugged]

So what if you get a FM residency that is far away from your family? Your best bet would be your current institution. You likely need a more compelling reason than you missed your family for another program to take a chance on you.


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[betamale]

Hello all,

First time poster here. I am about to finish my intern year in OBGYN and would like to apply to the Match next year for Family Medicine. For the most part my stats were pretty competitive for ob but it just didn't fit my personality or my long term goals. Also I'm in another state far away from home which contributes to my unhappiness. I am resigning at the end of this month. I have a few questions:

1) How competitive would I be the second time around?
2) How should i approach ERAS and the application process?
3) Do i need a LOR from my PD? It likely won't be too positive if I were to ask for one, but I can get LORs from other faculty.
3) What kind of work should I do in the mean time? FYI I am not fond of research. Thinking of scribe work just to grease the wheels. Also I plan to take Step 3 in my year off.

Thanks in advance!

I was in the same situation as you. I switched from radiology. I finished my intern year and radiology year, so no breaks (this is key). You do not want any breaks in your professional history because this will need a lot of explaining later on.

1. Peruse the residency vacancy websites to see if an FP residency opens up

2. Get letters from FP docs

3. Work as a first assist for OB docs if you can do that as moonlighting. I know former surgery residents who have done this. In Texas, you can get a surgical assistant job that pays well.

4. Get a full medical license so that you can moonlight in low volume urgent cares.

Goodluck!

 

[NITRAS]

Lots of OBs practice plenty of primary care. If you want OB, then stick with OB/GYN as it leaves you with more options.

Missing family is a bad reason to make big career decisions especially since residency is only a season.

Hope you figure it out.

 

[Adventress]

Lots of OBs practice plenty of primary care. If you want OB, then stick with OB/GYN as it leaves you with more options.

Missing family is a bad reason to make big career decisions especially since residency is only a season.

Hope you figure it out.

Thank you for your response. There's a lot more reasons than just missing family, I can tell you that. OB/GYN is just not for me anymore.

 

[Adventress]

I was in the same situation as you. I switched from radiology. I finished my intern year and radiology year, so no breaks (this is key). You do not want any breaks in your professional history because this will need a lot of explaining later on.

1. Peruse the residency vacancy websites to see if an FP residency opens up

2. Get letters from FP docs

3. Work as a first assist for OB docs if you can do that as moonlighting. I know former surgery residents who have done this. In Texas, you can get a surgical assistant job that pays well.

4. Get a full medical license so that you can moonlight in low volume urgent cares.

Goodluck!

Great advice! I will look into #3-4. However, there are no PGY-1 vacancies for FM currently so I am forced to go through the match again. Any other ideas? Could I go in as a PGY-2?

 

[AFMD]

I would strongly consider finishing your OBGYN residency. I'm not saying it's for you, but it's worth really thinking about. Most residents want to quit from time to time. I wanted to quit about every 2-4 weeks in intern year. I mean really seriously giving up on everything, and doing something else. I think a FM residency may be more similar than you think. Everything gets easier after intern year. It gets better. I don't know what's best for you, but it's worth thinking about.

 

[betamale]

Great advice! I will look into #3-4. However, there are no PGY-1 vacancies for FM currently so I am forced to go through the match again. Any other ideas? Could I go in as a PGY-2?

Probably not as pgy2 but certainly you might get 6 months credit for OB, Gyn, Surgery, Elective, maybe these if u did them: ?ICU, ?ER, ?inpt medicine, ?peds... I repeated my intern year because my program does not give advance standing or credits as a rule but other programs offered me Pgy2 spot, so this is program dependent.


As a resident, I moonlighted doing insurance, military, and school preparticipation/preemployment physicals which is very primary care. I also got hold of recruiters for urgent cares, company employee clinics that got me short term jobs that are more like lifestyle counseling for employees with very minimal diagnosis and treatment.

Probably should start appication process for full physician licensure where you want to work and live to get hurdle out of the place.