Hi, friends! I am a 2023 graduate and I want to pursue ophthalmology. I did not enter the match for rotating internships this cycle due to health problems/exhaustion. I planned to take a year or two working in GP to make money and have a better work life balance before applying to a rotating internship. However, I recently found out that for this specialty, a year in private practice will suffice as a pre-requisite for residency and specialty internships and rotating internships aren't needed. Has anyone done this route? Does it matter where I work (ex. Vetco, Banfield, etc.) Any advice or experience would be appreciated!
GP experience for residency
- Thread starter MS2DVM
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No specific advice regarding options. Just offering n1 my old mentor worked 7 years in mixed gp then got a radiology residency and is now board certified. So it's definitely possible!
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It may be possible with some specialties (not sure if ophtho is one of them or not) but not others. I would suggest working somewhere with an ophthalmologist at an ER/referral/urgent care facility or at a GP where you have nearby ophthalmologists so you can shadow them. It will be very difficult to obtain LORs from ophthalmologists otherwise.
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One of the previous doctors at my current practice did something similar! She started with a rotating internship but it went very sour during covid so worked private practice for a couple of years. She then got a specialty internship in ophthalmology, so it can be done!
While she was in private practice she was always looking for opportunities to work with ophthalmologists; labs, shadowing, etc to keep up her experience and network.
In general I don't think it matters where you work in the sense that they won't be looking for someone who worked at Banfield vs a local clinic. What will be important is having the work/life balance that lets you look for those CE and networking opportunities and go to them when you can.
While she was in private practice she was always looking for opportunities to work with ophthalmologists; labs, shadowing, etc to keep up her experience and network.
In general I don't think it matters where you work in the sense that they won't be looking for someone who worked at Banfield vs a local clinic. What will be important is having the work/life balance that lets you look for those CE and networking opportunities and go to them when you can.
Thank you so much! That was really helpful!
Thank you so much for the encouragement!
This is great advice! Thank you!
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I’m in clinical pathology and we don’t require but do prefer clinical experience. That can be an internship or time in general practice. For path at least, we don’t really care about the location you work at, it’s just about the experience gained being on “the other side” of pathology. I will say that who you know and strong letters of recommendation are extremely important (arguably most important), and I do feel like the people who went the private practice route have a bit of an uphill battle to maintain or develop those relationships. It’s much easier for someone at an internship or working at a specialty hospital with said specialist in-house to really get to know an specialist and get strong letters of recommendation. I do like seeing applicants with several years of practice experience, but sometimes they just don’t have the letters of rec that new grads or internship trained people do. I don’t say that to discourage you from taking that route, but if you do, make sure you maintain or develop a relationship with an ophthalmologist so you have a strong app in other aspects too.
