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Hi fellow SDNer's, another thread about switching specialties. Hope some of you may be able to answer some questions and provide some advice/experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm currently a PGY-1 resident in a surgical subspecialty doing my general surgery intern year, and am having doubts about my interest and passion in pursuing my surgical specialty (2nd choice) as a long-term career. I had always been interested in another surgical subspecialty (1st choice), but because of events that transpired (my mentor in medical school was a prominent surgeon in 2nd choice specialty, and my institution had very limited opportunities to explore 1st choice), I ended up matching in my current subspecialty, my 2nd choice.
Incidentally, one of the PGY-1 residents at 1st choice specialty at my institution dropped out of the program, and I hear rumors (just rumors/hearsay) that 1st choice specialty tried to 'poach' one of the other 2nd choice specialty residents to their program. I've heard from 1st choice specialty residents that because one of their residents dropped out, this would mess up and cause huge problems in their call schedules especially for senior coverage in the later years. I have also heard PD from 1st choice specialty may recruit an extra resident in Match 2014.
Now my questions are:
1) How would I go about trying to transfer residency at the same institution? Should I first approach my own program director, or first sound out my idea with 1st choice specialty and gauge my likelihood of getting transferred before approaching my own PD?
2) Is it too late to start the process of transferring? I matched into a surgical subspecialty with integrated gen-surg intern year, so I think technically, I would already have passed the 50-day limit or whatever for dropping out of my NRMP match. There's still about 6 weeks until rank list deadline, so as long as 1st choice specialty PD doesn't match an extra applicant for 2014, then I should be okay?
3) I had a bit of a rough start in intern year, having graduated from a foreign medical school (albeit well-respected European) and also having taken a year out to do research. There were two rotations so far where I got comments about not meeting expectations etc. However, this was rectified, and I have been getting great feedback on my more recent rotations.
4) Would it be easier for me to transfer to 1st choice specialty because of the shortstaffing that will result from the dropout? Also, our two surgical specialties are related and do joint cases regularly.
Again, I would greatly appreciate any advice/experience! Thanks!
Mike
Incidentally, one of the PGY-1 residents at 1st choice specialty at my institution dropped out of the program, and I hear rumors (just rumors/hearsay) that 1st choice specialty tried to 'poach' one of the other 2nd choice specialty residents to their program. I've heard from 1st choice specialty residents that because one of their residents dropped out, this would mess up and cause huge problems in their call schedules especially for senior coverage in the later years. I have also heard PD from 1st choice specialty may recruit an extra resident in Match 2014.
Now my questions are:
1) How would I go about trying to transfer residency at the same institution? Should I first approach my own program director, or first sound out my idea with 1st choice specialty and gauge my likelihood of getting transferred before approaching my own PD?
2) Is it too late to start the process of transferring? I matched into a surgical subspecialty with integrated gen-surg intern year, so I think technically, I would already have passed the 50-day limit or whatever for dropping out of my NRMP match. There's still about 6 weeks until rank list deadline, so as long as 1st choice specialty PD doesn't match an extra applicant for 2014, then I should be okay?
3) I had a bit of a rough start in intern year, having graduated from a foreign medical school (albeit well-respected European) and also having taken a year out to do research. There were two rotations so far where I got comments about not meeting expectations etc. However, this was rectified, and I have been getting great feedback on my more recent rotations.
4) Would it be easier for me to transfer to 1st choice specialty because of the shortstaffing that will result from the dropout? Also, our two surgical specialties are related and do joint cases regularly.
Again, I would greatly appreciate any advice/experience! Thanks!
Mike
