Transitional year before FM?

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limabeen

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I think I want to go into Family Medicine but I am not 100% sure yet (not even 80% sure!) Anyhow, I am an MSIII right now and am realizing I have to make this decision pretty soon and I don't know if I will have enough time in the beginning of my fourth year to rule out all the other specialites I am consdering (Right now, PM&R, Optho, Neurology Pscyh, etc... and not Surgery, Medicine or Peds.) Anybody have any advice in what should I do? I was thinking that perhaps, I could do a transitional year and thus, use my entire fourth year and perhaps the beginning of my transitional year to figure this all out. Would the transitional year count for FP? I suppose I would have to go through the entire application process again in the fall of my transitional year. Is this even possible? Wise? Stupid?
I don't know what to do- please let me know if you have any advice for this confused medical student- Thanks!

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I feel your pain. This was the most frustrating thing for me in med school - not enough time to decide. Try to schedule a rotation in all 4 of those fields as early as you can. Don't worry about being prepared for them or doing other rotation in prep for them (ie, neuro before PMR). Just do them ASAP because the clock is ticking. I did some extra time shadowing a doc in third yr on weekends just to get some early exposure. Eliminate fields as soon as you can (don't have grades for optho, lifestyle, etc). You'll be surprised how quickly your choices narrow in 4th yr.

As for TY, are you talking about a MD TY or a DO TRI? MD TY's are very competitive, so that may not be a real option depending on your numbers. The schedule is usually something like 1 month of peds, surg, im, er, fp, maybe ob, and then 6 mo of electives. And they do/can count towards a fp residency but you would have to find a program that would be willing to work with your schedule and had an open 2nd yr spot (not hard). However, if you used your 6 mo electives on crazy rotations (rather than ones usually done in 1st yr fp programs), you may only get 6 mo credit. This happened to a DO friend of mine (TRI with many electives in surg switched to IM).

good luck!
 
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