Want to switch from Surgery to EM?

[GunnerBMS]

Hello all,

I am a 4th year med student who really enjoyed my EM and Surgery rotations during my 3rd year and decided to go into surgery. I scheduled my 4th year with surgery electives so far. However, now I am getting cold feet about doing surgery. Although I loved the operations and impact surgeons have on their patients, ultimately I feel the hours are just too brutal. Also, some of the personalities in surgery turn me off, whereas emergency medicine docs have been some of the coolest and intelligent people I've met.

Right now, I don't know how to proceed to switching into EM. I do not have any SLOEs and I never did that new video interview that EM residencies are using this year. All I have are letters from surgeons. Also, since apps just went out, I don't know if its a little too late to apply to some programs now.

I wanted to know if anyone has been in a similar situation to me and successfully switched to EM from a different specialty this late in the game. Also, has anyone been successful doing one year of residency and then switching to EM? Should I apply to a prelim Surgery year then to a 3 year EM program? Can I apply without SLOEs to some programs? I've seen some of the older threads on this topic, but I am interested to hear from you now.

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[alpinism]

Unfortunately unless you can get 2+ SLOEs before November your chances are slim to none for this cycle.

Your best option would be to defer graduation for a year and schedule EM audition rotations for next July and August.

 

[EMhopeful13]

Hello all,

I am a 4th year med student who really enjoyed my EM and Surgery rotations during my 3rd year and decided to go into surgery. I scheduled my 4th year with surgery electives so far. However, now I am getting cold feet about doing surgery. Although I loved the operations and impact surgeons have on their patients, ultimately I feel the hours are just too brutal. Also, some of the personalities in surgery turn me off, whereas emergency medicine docs have been some of the coolest and intelligent people I've met.

Right now, I don't know how to proceed to switching into EM. I do not have any SLOEs and I never did that new video interview that EM residencies are using this year. All I have are letters from surgeons. Also, since apps just went out, I don't know if its a little too late to apply to some programs now.

I wanted to know if anyone has been in a similar situation to me and successfully switched to EM from a different specialty this late in the game. Also, has anyone been successful doing one year of residency and then switching to EM? Should I apply to a prelim Surgery year then to a 3 year EM program? Can I apply without SLOEs to some programs? I've seen some of the older threads on this topic, but I am interested to hear from you now.

I think this may be just cold feet. You made this choice knowing everything you put above as your EM and Surgery rotations were both 3rd year. Nothing has changed but now you feel anxious about your choice.... that is normal. Think more about this and maybe you'll find that you do in fact like surgery and the choice is just messing with your head (I'm currently struggling the same but in the reverse, applied EM but now kind of wish I went surgery).

If your concerns are not cold feet and you would really rather do EM than surgery then the only option I can think of is like the above person said, take a year and get two SLOEs.

 

[deleted547339]

Unfortunately unless you can get 2+ SLOEs before November your chances are slim to none for this cycle.

Your best option would be to defer graduation for a year and schedule EM audition rotations for next July and August.

I received similar advice when I was a ms4 and it was patently wrong.

 

[BoardingDoc]

Hello all,

I am a 4th year med student who really enjoyed my EM and Surgery rotations during my 3rd year and decided to go into surgery. I scheduled my 4th year with surgery electives so far. However, now I am getting cold feet about doing surgery. Although I loved the operations and impact surgeons have on their patients, ultimately I feel the hours are just too brutal. Also, some of the personalities in surgery turn me off, whereas emergency medicine docs have been some of the coolest and intelligent people I've met.

Right now, I don't know how to proceed to switching into EM. I do not have any SLOEs and I never did that new video interview that EM residencies are using this year. All I have are letters from surgeons. Also, since apps just went out, I don't know if its a little too late to apply to some programs now.

I wanted to know if anyone has been in a similar situation to me and successfully switched to EM from a different specialty this late in the game. Also, has anyone been successful doing one year of residency and then switching to EM? Should I apply to a prelim Surgery year then to a 3 year EM program? Can I apply without SLOEs to some programs? I've seen some of the older threads on this topic, but I am interested to hear from you now.

I have nothing useful to contribute but I saw your avatar and immediately realized you needed to see this: .
It's SFW.

 

[seebelcherrun]

I would talk with your local PD about this and get some better advice. If you're a strong applicant, they'll go out of their way to help you. If not, they can give you the best advice on matching. EM is becoming very competitive. Switching last minute could be disastrous.