Trying to get some advice

[drtx]

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Hi guys,

I am having sort of a career crisis and would like some advice. I graduated from med school in Dallas in 2004 and matched in General Surgery. I completed 2 years and just had a HORRIBLE experience during those years that I resigned at the end of my second year and am doing 2 years of vascular surgery research at Yale.

You should know that I am married and also have 2 schoolage daughters.

The thing is...I am still really not sure I want to go back into surgery. I have just recently done some "career searching" and have really become interested in doing PM&R..Maybe being more procedure based.

Now what should I do? I have some general questions I hope people can answer...

1) How competitive is the residency to match into?
2) Does anyone know anything about the programs in Texas...I want to go HOME SO BAD!
3) Do you think I can use letters of recs from surgeons or should I go and get all the letters from physiatrists?

Thanks in advance for your help..🙂

 

[axm397]

Hi guys,

I am having sort of a career crisis and would like some advice. I graduated from med school in Dallas in 2004 and matched in General Surgery. I completed 2 years and just had a HORRIBLE experience during those years that I resigned at the end of my second year and am doing 2 years of vascular surgery research at Yale.

You should know that I am married and also have 2 schoolage daughters.

The thing is...I am still really not sure I want to go back into surgery. I have just recently done some "career searching" and have really become interested in doing PM&R..Maybe being more procedure based.

Now what should I do? I have some general questions I hope people can answer...

1) How competitive is the residency to match into?
2) Does anyone know anything about the programs in Texas...I want to go HOME SO BAD!
3) Do you think I can use letters of recs from surgeons or should I go and get all the letters from physiatrists?

Thanks in advance for your help..🙂

1) matching into a "top" residency is more competitive but getting a residency spot is not.
2) UT Southwestern is in Dallas and will have a PM&R faculty member in their pain fellowship program.
Baylor/UT Houston is one of the biggest programs in the country and has had many residents go into great fellowships.
UT San Antonio is also a wonderful program and one of the big EMG names is there.
3) a few letters from surgeons will be good to support your application but you definitely should get at least one if not two letters from physiatrists. If you have family in Dallas, would suggest doing a rotation at UT Southwestern and getting a letter. Can also search for mentors on the aapmr database near you to see if you can shadow them. In general, letters from private practitioners are not as strongly regarded as those from acadmicians.

hope this helps

 

[drusso]

You have many options in Texas. Your surgical training will be an asset to you. Your Texan "citizenship" will be of help to you! 😉

Start asking around. Start calling programs. Often times, people switch from PM&R to another specialty at the last minute or leave the field and spots open up.

 

[bbbmd]

I heard through the grapevine that my residency alma mater has some openings for incoming PGY2s. Contact the department for further info. PM me if you have questions or problems contacting them.

You can definitely do lots of procedures through PM&R with a fellowship in pain. The overall goal of PM&R docs is to improve function and quality of life. The procedures you learn in a pain fellowship improves pain and subsequently should improve funtionality (Im thinking idealistically here). Im doing simple spinal injections, vertebral augmentation with cement and implantation of stimulators and pumps... Given your background, you would probably be interested in doing what I do.

B

 

[drtx]

thank you so much for your help. I will need to look into physiatry electives for the summer/fall in TX. I can't get a letter from an academic doc here because there are no programs in this state but I wll definitely call these places ASAP. I also think I will need to go through the traditional match so that I can fullfill my commitment with the next year (my 2nd year of lab research) and give my husband some time to search around for employment. I am really excited about this change. Thanks again.