Unmatched Ortho MS4 - want to reapply to PMNR

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nkdoc

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Hello all, I am an MS4 at a DO school on a student visa. I applied to ortho and went unmatched. This upcoming cycle I want to apply to PMnR with a back up of FM. The chances of finding a TY or prelim position right now are slim. I have two options. Either (1) do a research year or (2) accept any open residency spot. Which one is a better plan, and how can I strengthen my application in the next few months? Step 2 is 253, I have 12 ortho pubs, 20 abstracts, and multiple leadership positions during med school.
For 1, I only found ortho research positions. Do you think I can justify that during my interviews?
For 2, does anyone have experience going into FM and then switching residency specialties?

If anyone has experience applying for a visa and securing an H1b, please let me know as well.

Thank you so so much! Appreciate any guidance.
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nkdoc said:
Hello all, I am an MS4 at a DO school on a student visa. I applied to ortho and went unmatched. This upcoming cycle I want to apply to PMnR with a back up of FM. The chances of finding a TY or prelim position right now are slim. I have two options. Either (1) do a research year or (2) accept any open residency spot. Which one is a better plan, and how can I strengthen my application in the next few months? Step 2 is 253, I have 12 ortho pubs, 20 abstracts, and multiple leadership positions during med school.
For 1, I only found ortho research positions. Do you think I can justify that during my interviews?
For 2, does anyone have experience going into FM and then switching residency specialties?

If anyone has experience applying for a visa and securing an H1b, please let me know as well.

Thank you so so much! Appreciate any guidance.
Click to expand...
You will have to have a convincing story as to why PM&R - in the past PM&R was used as a gateway for ortho peeps who didn't make it into Ortho. These days PM&R has far more applicants than spots likely in correlation to sky rocketing salaries.
So I would recommend you find some reasonable PM&R rotations, research or something that says hey PM&R rocks! and I want in.
I do a lot of MSK and enjoy it and work closely with surgeons. I would imagine that with the right experiences and spin on stuff it's feasible. They are also opening a program it seems in
Sanford, FL - you might want to inquire there. It's on the forum listed above somewhere.
 
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Iamnew2 said:
You will have to have a convincing story as to why PM&R - in the past PM&R was used as a gateway for ortho peeps who didn't make it into Ortho. These days PM&R has far more applicants than spots likely in correlation to sky rocketing salaries.
So I would recommend you find some reasonable PM&R rotations, research or something that says hey PM&R rocks! and I want in.
I do a lot of MSK and enjoy it and work closely with surgeons. I would imagine that with the right experiences and spin on stuff it's feasible. They are also opening a program it seems in
Sanford, FL - you might want to inquire there. It's on the forum listed above somewhere.
Click to expand...

What kinda salaries are you guys seeing? Considered PM&R during med school, so I'm curious, lol
 
I agree matching PM&R will be hard without some experience. Your Step 2 is great, and research always looks great, but your research clearly says "I want ortho." An application to PM&R residency without anything different is going to raise a lot of questions. As most program directors are concerned about competency and commitment, they may question your commitment to PM&R (and whether you'd stay).

So if you do a research year, make it as PM&R-relevant as possible and do a few PM&R rotations if possible. Talk with your school about what they can work out.

DO NOT go into an FM (or any other program aside from a prelim/TY) with the plan to switch residency programs. You can read way too many cases of people who change their minds and want to change residency specialties during residency, and the bottom line is most are advised to finish their current program. If you insist on leaving, you would need to tell your current program director so you have their support (you'll need a LOR from them), which means they will start looking for someone to replace you and you could end up with a scenario when you don't match into your new specialty and your program has given away your spot.

You could try to SOAP into unfilled prelim programs (IM, surgery, TY). There are typically lots of them, they just might not be that desirable.
 
I didn’t match into Pm&r and scrambled into a family medicine residency program. A few months in, I decided that the specialty wasn’t for me and wanted to reapply for pm&r.

I agree with everything stated above. It is pretty awkward asking the program director for a letter of recommendation but in my scenario, my whole application was Pm&r so they understood. I also found a spot outside of the match so I kinda knew I had a spot before I left.

Pm&r has become pretty competitive and I’m not sure how feasible it is to secure a visa spot. You could also consider other routes to end up to your career goal - for example, sports medicine via family medicine.

Feel free to DM me if you have any questions
 
You're a borderline PM&R applicant. Truthfully, you likely wouldn't match at my program. Fit is incredibly important and there are enough folks on review committees that will be scared off by you having PM&R as a second choice. We're competitive enough that we can take strong applicants with PM&R as their first choice.

But the good news for you is that there are a number of PM&R residency programs sprouting up like dandelions all over the country. HCA has a clear business model to recruit residents into their new rehabilitation hospitals to get cheap labor and increase the likelihood of retention in otherwise difficult to fill spots. True story, about 7-8 years ago I was being recruited to a department to be the 2nd PM&R attending. I learned that it would be q2 call and that was enough for me to say "peace-out". Well, that same department within three years had an ACGME residency program. Since then I have been sent two HCA recruitment letters to become Program Director at their sites. I looked on the intraweb to learn that both rehab hospitals had been built within the past few years, and neither had more than 3 PM&R physicians on staff.

It is clear that HCA rehab hospitals are opening hospitals with the plan to have PM&R residents from the jump. The business model is quite ingenious actually. They know that PM&R has too many applicants for the number of spots so that are guaranteed that they match on a yearly basis. So there should be slots opening (including slots for PGY-2 and PGY-3, because they don't have any interest in developing PM&R residents, they are looking for workers. So the opportunities may be there for you, but of course you'll have to balance that with the likelihood that you'll get a decent education. The standards set by the ACGME are not particularly high.
 
Iamnew2 said:
400-600k is not hard to do
Click to expand...
There’s a reason why Pain has been less competitive in recent years. It becomes harder to justify the year of lost income when general PM&R and general anesthesiology are doing so well. The ones pursuing Pain now are doing it for better reasons (they’re passionate about caring for that population or the desire to gain that skillset).
 
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