Jobs after sports medicine

[Sportsbound]

Hey All!

The question has been asked in a few other forums but now that we have a dedicated forum, I'll post a similar question.

I will be starting a primary care sports med program this July. I didn't have a huge amount of interaction with non ortho sports guys in med school or residency. It seems like all I spoke to (prior to applying and during application/interview trail) either go on to work for an ortho group, stay academic or maintain their primary specialty but do sports medicine on the side. I've talked to a few people that worked for sports teams primarily or university clinics. Galactus also mentioned someone being a WWE ringside physician in an older posting, which is a pretty unique use of the specialty.

I'm curious to hear what other jobs (if any) people have heard of sports med graduates going on to do. I've checked the AMSSM jobs posting but they don't seem to post too much.

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[galactus]

Yeah there are your traditional tracks:
Private practice (primary specialty + SM)
SM only
Joining an ortho practice
Academic (mix between ortho and primary specialty), or fellowship faculty

Each of these tracks can get you into working with local HS/college/pro teams. Depends on the situation I guess. I've seen private practices be team docs for a college, as well as a giant health care system (university/academic) take care of college/pros.

Personally I know of a few situations some sports med graduates have done:

EM + SM - do ER shifts and do a few half days in SM clinic. I also know of a SM fellow grad that does only ER work now.
Private practice + med spa. Opened up a FM practice + SM clinic + med spa. Does joint injections, as well as Botox!
Concierge - Does FM/SM concierge house calls. Also works in urgent care on the side.
Urgent care
I'm sure there are plenty of other different scenarios.

If you log on to the AMSSM website, Go under membership > surveys & assessments.
- Under this you can see the pdf's of the graduate practice and salary surveys over the last few years, so you can see what kind of practices people tend to go into in each geographic region of the US, as well as starting salaries. They're good data points to go over when it's time to go look for a job post fellowship.

 

[Sportsbound]

Just to clarify, the person/people who did EM + SM or only ER work...was EM their primary specialty?

 

[Sportsbound]

Thanks

 

[galactus]

Just to clarify, the person/people who did EM + SM or only ER work...was EM their primary specialty?

One person I know did FM to SM and now does ER work only, the others I know did EM as their primary specialty, but still do EM (ER shifts) and SM (via ortho clinic)

 

[Synophrys]

don't forget about occupational medicine - workers compensation injuries are almost 100% musculoskeletal.

 

[Niko17]

Congrats! Are you family medicine or another specialty?


I'm not family med and worried about my chances

 

[Meowster007]

One person I know did FM to SM and now does ER work only, the others I know did EM as their primary specialty, but still do EM (ER shifts) and SM (via ortho clinic)

Sorry for such an old reply. I had a question. Would it be feasible or even possible or sensible (I am looking at this from an incoming student perspective so please forgive me) to be a specialist as well as be a sports med doc? Ex.) Gastro +Sports Med if you had interest in both those areas and then possibly run a clinic with both populations for clinic (sports and GI)?

 

[Lurts]

Sorry for such an old reply. I had a question. Would it be feasible or even possible or sensible (I am looking at this from an incoming student perspective so please forgive me) to be a specialist as well as be a sports med doc? Ex.) Gastro +Sports Med if you had interest in both those areas and then possibly run a clinic with both populations for clinic (sports and GI)?

Sports medicine is a specialty and you are a specialist. While not technically impossible to do both a GI and SM fellowship, it is not a feasible or sensible route for practice.

 

[Meowster007]

Sports medicine is a specialty and you are a specialist. While not technically impossible to do both a GI and SM fellowship, it is not a feasible or sensible route for practice.

Thanks for the info!

 

[runfastnow]

Agree - the more breadth you do in unrelated specialties the worse you will do overall in both. Furthermore, your referral sources would have no idea what to do with you which could hurt referrals. i.e. Med-Peds, a lot of people end up do IM or pediatrics (there are a few who do continuity/transition type medicine between child to adult for rare diseases which is incredibly useful, but rare).

Pick the one you like best and then tailor your practice to the other interest. For example, one of the leaders in sports cardiology and EKGs in athletes is a family med-sports med trained person. If you like GI and sports then you could be a GI doing endoscopies/colonoscopies but also be the guy/gal that people refer athletes to with chronic nausea/vomiting/diarrhea/etc. with exercise.

 

[Meowster007]

Agree - the more breadth you do in unrelated specialties the worse you will do overall in both. Furthermore, your referral sources would have no idea what to do with you which could hurt referrals. i.e. Med-Peds, a lot of people end up do IM or pediatrics (there are a few who do continuity/transition type medicine between child to adult for rare diseases which is incredibly useful, but rare).

Pick the one you like best and then tailor your practice to the other interest. For example, one of the leaders in sports cardiology and EKGs in athletes is a family med-sports med trained person. If you like GI and sports then you could be a GI doing endoscopies/colonoscopies but also be the guy/gal that people refer athletes to with chronic nausea/vomiting/diarrhea/etc. with exercise.

Interesting take! I didn't think of that before! Thank you!

 

[Meowster007]

Agree - the more breadth you do in unrelated specialties the worse you will do overall in both. Furthermore, your referral sources would have no idea what to do with you which could hurt referrals. i.e. Med-Peds, a lot of people end up do IM or pediatrics (there are a few who do continuity/transition type medicine between child to adult for rare diseases which is incredibly useful, but rare).

Pick the one you like best and then tailor your practice to the other interest. For example, one of the leaders in sports cardiology and EKGs in athletes is a family med-sports med trained person. If you like GI and sports then you could be a GI doing endoscopies/colonoscopies but also be the guy/gal that people refer athletes to with chronic nausea/vomiting/diarrhea/etc. with exercise.

Just wanted to pick your brain or anyone else's but how does an ER doc manage SM? Like is it a gig to escape the ER when age comes?

 

[Calizboosted76]

Just wanted to pick your brain or anyone else's but how does an ER doc manage SM? Like is it a gig to escape the ER when age or burnout comes?

Fixed that for you.

Its kind of the same setup as ER docs practicing hospice medicine or opening suboxone clinics, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Meowster007]

Fixed that for you.

Its kind of the same setup as ER docs practicing hospice medicine or opening suboxone clinics, if I'm not mistaken.

Thanks for the insight!

 

[AJFKPU]

Why is the job market so rough for sports medicine ? Should one expect some openings in the second half of the fellowship?, Because it's very disappointing to experience that based on how competitive is it to get into sports medicine.

 

[Febreeze]

Why is the job market so rough for sports medicine ? Should one expect some openings in the second half of the fellowship?, Because it's very disappointing to experience that based on how competitive is it to get into sports medicine.

I'm hopefully gonna be a fellow in July, but wondering what your experience has been looking for jobs. You can PM me if you prefer!

 

[deleted732978]

Why is the job market so rough for sports medicine ? Should one expect some openings in the second half of the fellowship?, Because it's very disappointing to experience that based on how competitive is it to get into sports medicine.

Rough in what way? I see a ton of openings when googling around in my large city. Planning to start applying to some of them once I match

 

[AJFKPU]

Rough in what way? I see a ton of openings when googling around in my large city. Planning to start applying to some of them once I match

Many of them might be there for the past 8 months and never taken off after getting filled. Whenever a job is posted, there is already some work going on for recruitment inside the department. The number of fellows graduating every year are >260 nationwide (not sure about the exact number). I have been monitoring the postings since March 2021 and I can tell you there aren't too many jobs (definitely way less than 260). This is also one of the reasons for a 2 year fellowship proposal so that less people can apply to it and it would become less competitive, because the job market is horrible. Bottom line, you have to know someone inside the department if you want to get a sports medicine job, and if you are not trained in Residency or Fellowship in the state you want to settle down then you don't have many connections and it is harder to land by a pure sports medicine job.

 

[AJFKPU]

I'm hopefully gonna be a fellow in July, but wondering what your experience has been looking for jobs. You can PM me if you prefer!

Me and my co-fellow are thinking to take jobs in our primary speciality. If you do not have good connections in the state you want to settle down then you need to be open to neighbourhood states or smaller towns. This isn't to say you cannot land the job you are looking for. But the truth is there is a lot of interest with fairly saturated job market.

 

[deleted732978]

Many of them might be there for the past 8 months and never taken off after getting filled. Whenever a job is posted, there is already some work going on for recruitment inside the department. The number of fellows graduating every year are >260 nationwide (not sure about the exact number). I have been monitoring the postings since March 2021 and I can tell you there aren't too many jobs (definitely way less than 260). This is also one of the reasons for a 2 year fellowship proposal so that less people can apply to it and it would become less competitive, because the job market is horrible. Bottom line, you have to know someone inside the department if you want to get a sports medicine job, and if you are not trained in Residency or Fellowship in the state you want to settle down then you don't have many connections and it is harder to land by a pure sports medicine job.

I hear you that it’s a mismatch, and I should have realized you meant 100% sports only. I’m seeing a ton of FM/sports mix opportunities or UC/sports. Basically it seems like demand for primary care is what brings a lot of opportunities to the FM trained sports job seekers. Are you not FM?

 

[Febreeze]

While we are on this topic haha, any leads for EM/Sports combo jobs?

 

[AJFKPU]

Are you on the coasts/ in a difficult physician job market in general?

No I'm not

 

[AJFKPU]

I hear you that it’s a mismatch, and I should have realized you meant 100% sports only. I’m seeing a ton of FM/sports mix opportunities or UC/sports. Basically it seems like demand for primary care is what brings a lot of opportunities to the FM trained sports job seekers. Are you not FM?

No I'm IM trained. And yes if you are open to mixing it with primary care then you have a better chance of landing a job. Most competitive ones are college/student health services jobs. Then come Ortho jobs. You have to inquire a primary care practice how much sports medicine you would be doing and you have to build your practice from the scratch in any setting regardless. However, keep in mind that primary care groups have to compete with nearby Ortho groups for sports medicine patients. So getting a 50% primary care and 50% sports medicine job isn't easy either.

 

[deleted732978]

While we are on this topic haha, any leads for EM/Sports combo jobs?

Not the OP but I’m peds. Curious how this would impact my future (I’m NOT applying to the peds sports programs): truthfully, I have no idea

Happen to work with an attending that is peds and did both a sports + PEM fellowship and basically doubles as a sports doc with ED shifts. He’s also the one that advised me to look for jobs in an oldschool way e.g. cold calling, selling yourself to the place you want to work. They basically created the position for him

 

[deleted732978]

Well look how that came full circle lol

Do you know if he did a peds specific sports program? To make me even more confused my mentor told me recently that you can do a peds specific sports program and still have the scope of regular sports. I still can’t wrap my mind around it

100% sports is the dream but wouldn’t mind 50/50. Not ideal but hey that’s life

he did Lutheran! That’s an FM one. He did discourage me from looking at peds sports programs precisely for what you’re describing because he sees adults in his sports practice and feels the peds fellowships are too limited.

Honestly most of what surgeons see in clinic is non op and a lot of them quite frankly want to be in the OR as much as possible. If you put your wolf of Wall Street face on and really sell it to those guys I think it’s not bad advice to try.

I’m hoping to take a stab at private practice myself

Sell the pen!

 

[deluxedeluxe]

Does anyone know when fellows start looking for jobs? Right after match, first half of fellowship, second half, etc? Most of my co-residents secured jobs at the beginning of their third year and some during second year, but I’m not sure how it works with fellowship.

 

[Moose A Moose]

Does anyone know when fellows start looking for jobs? Right after match, first half of fellowship, second half, etc? Most of my co-residents secured jobs at the beginning of their third year and some during second year, but I’m not sure how it works with fellowship.

Half way through fellowship.

 

[AJFKPU]

Half way through fellowship.

I would say start in early September. I know a few people who have locked down the jobs already. I started soon as my Fellowship started and still haven't found anything. There is so much interest with a very few jobs.

 

[I_Cant_tell_you]

I just signed a contract today. I started applying almost immediately. Had several interviews and no one seemed to really want to move forward up until recently. Most wanted to bring someone on sooner than I was available.

I was fortunate to have had two to pick from. This is for a combination sports and family medicine btw. I’ve realized 100% sports would be too boring for me. I’ll have an ultrasound to do all my injections and diagnostic scans, but also be able to do my primary care. I’m excited.

 

[AJFKPU]

Congratulations for getting a job. I finished my Fellowship and I'm starting again in my primary speciality. I did IM residency and worked a lot in an busy program to get the fellowship. I didn't match in the first cycle with more than 10 interviews. Found out this year that getting a job in sports medicine can be harder than getting a Fellowship in itself. Extremely disappointed and demoralized now because I wanted to work as a specialist. Moving your family and kids with changing jobs for a year is not a piece of cake. I put my family through a lot of emotional and economic strain to do this fellowship. Turns out it wasn't worth doing anyways. I think new sports medicine applicants need to know the reality that they only way to get a job is know someone on the inside who can hire you and getting a sports medicine job will not be easy. Most of the jobs select their candidates and then they post them online to portray that they are playing by the federal fair labor reporting laws... Pathetic.... If I have to do it all over again then I will not.chose sports medicine.

 

[timisdaman]

Congratulations for getting a job. I finished my Fellowship and I'm starting again in my primary speciality. I did IM residency and worked a lot in an busy program to get the fellowship. I didn't match in the first cycle with more than 10 interviews. Found out this year that getting a job in sports medicine can be harder than getting a Fellowship in itself. Extremely disappointed and demoralized now because I wanted to work as a specialist. Moving your family and kids with changing jobs for a year is not a piece of cake. I put my family through a lot of emotional and economic strain to do this fellowship. Turns out it wasn't worth doing anyways. I think new sports medicine applicants need to know the reality that they only way to get a job is know someone on the inside who can hire you and getting a sports medicine job will not be easy. Most of the jobs select their candidates and then they post them online to portray that they are playing by the federal fair labor reporting laws... Pathetic.... If I have to do it all over again then I will not.chose sports medicine.

Honestly, if you are IM and having trouble finding a job, you are probably being too selective. Most Sports Medicine jobs are a combo of sports and your primary specialty. If you are willing to do primary care and sports, there are tons of jobs out there. If you want to do traditional sports; ie: be a team/school physician, you are already at an advantage over all the PM&R folks as far as the hirers are concerned.

However, you are correct. Who you know matters a lot. And many university postings already have their candidates in mind when they make the post.

 

[I_Cant_tell_you]

Congratulations for getting a job. I finished my Fellowship and I'm starting again in my primary speciality. I did IM residency and worked a lot in an busy program to get the fellowship. I didn't match in the first cycle with more than 10 interviews. Found out this year that getting a job in sports medicine can be harder than getting a Fellowship in itself. Extremely disappointed and demoralized now because I wanted to work as a specialist. Moving your family and kids with changing jobs for a year is not a piece of cake. I put my family through a lot of emotional and economic strain to do this fellowship. Turns out it wasn't worth doing anyways. I think new sports medicine applicants need to know the reality that they only way to get a job is know someone on the inside who can hire you and getting a sports medicine job will not be easy. Most of the jobs select their candidates and then they post them online to portray that they are playing by the federal fair labor reporting laws... Pathetic.... If I have to do it all over again then I will not.chose sports medicine.

My gig is basically a FM and acting as an internal referral for my partners. I agree job market is horrible. I don't know why there are so many programs still popping up (I mean, I know why--free labor, but it's not fair to the fellows to make it seem like there are jobs out there).

 

[AJFKPU]

Honestly, if you are IM and having trouble finding a job, you are probably being too selective. Most Sports Medicine jobs are a combo of sports and your primary specialty. If you are willing to do primary care and sports, there are tons of jobs out there. If you want to do traditional sports; ie: be a team/school physician, you are already at an advantage over all the PM&R folks as far as the hirers are concerned.

However, you are correct. Who you know matters a lot. And many university postings already have their candidates in mind when they make the post.

I don't agree if you want to do primary + sports combo then there are tons of jobs. Most of them are tailored to family medicine anyways. And even in those jobs, applicants are out numbering the available positions. I didn't work hard to get and (then) do a fellowship so that I can leave a combo job and go back to my primary speciality. This awful job market is real.... Secondly, if by team/school physician you are mentioning the student health services jobs then they are the hardest to land. Noone knows before starting a Fellowship that they might not be able to get a job in their specialty, which is the sole purpose of doing a fellowship.

 

[AJFKPU]

My gig is basically a FM and acting as an internal referral for my partners. I agree job market is horrible. I don't know why there are so many programs still popping up (I mean, I know why--free labor, but it's not fair to the fellows to make it seem like there are jobs out there).

I don't think they need to open any new programs. Don't get me wrong, being an MSK doctor you provide health services to the community and influence the lives of people/athletes. But if they keep a blind eye to the whole situation and open new programs then I would call this system a PARTIAL SCAM to the sports medicine applicants.

 

[TheGreatestTrochanter]

It may depend on what your primary specialty is. ED I think has the hardest go because it is hard to mix the two... one is clinic based the other is not at all. I could imagine that being a more foreign concept to IM just because that is an uncommon pairing so that could be challenging. FM is a known commodity, but I have heard that in many cases you get told it will be FM sports split but its up to you to build it. PMR you should always have a job if you have learned spine care, but then run into the problem that it becomes more spine heavy rather than true MSK or sports. Same thing with EMGs

So I would say make sure you are ok with still doing some of your primary specialty because the high majority of positions contain some of that still. Most of the people I have met that do pure sports/MSK medicine took some time to craft it to this out of fellowship, and had to make a name for themselves to get a good referral base going for just MSK.

 

[timisdaman]

I don't agree if you want to do primary + sports combo then there are tons of jobs. Most of them are tailored to family medicine anyways. And even in those jobs, applicants are out numbering the available positions. I didn't work hard to get and (then) do a fellowship so that I can leave a combo job and go back to my primary speciality. This awful job market is real.... Secondly, if by team/school physician you are mentioning the student health services jobs then they are the hardest to land. Noone knows before starting a Fellowship that they might not be able to get a job in their specialty, which is the sole purpose of doing a fellowship.

Care to share what you are looking for, and what your background is? Procedural skills? Any red flags?

 

[AJFKPU]

Care to share what you are looking for, and what your background is? Procedural skills? Any red flags?

Looked for a PCSM job or an Ortho job. Graduated from IM residency 2 years ago, board certified in IM, worked as an IM faculty for a year and had medical students and residents in my team and then did a one year SM fellowship and completed all the procedural competencies of an ACGME accredited program and no red flags in any of my trainings or my time as a provider.

 

[timisdaman]

Looked for a PCSM job or an Ortho job. Graduated from IM residency 2 years ago, board certified in IM, worked as an IM faculty for a year and had medical students and residents in my team and then did a one year SM fellowship and completed all the procedural competencies of an ACGME accredited program and no red flags in any of my trainings or my time as a provider.

Geographic limitations? Academic vs. Private? I see a bunch of listings, and I doubt all of them are already taken.

 

[AJFKPU]

No preference for academic vs private. Geographically I was restricted to MI, OH, IN, WI, MO, IL and FL and TX. I didn't look at northeast and west part of the country but I still think that my search area was pretty big. I interviewed at a place during fellowship, turned out that orthopedic surgeons blocked the PCSM job because they thought that the patient volume will be low. Another place looked interested after the interview but then they had an internal applicant🤣. I agree that not all the posted jobs on AMSSM website are taken. But many of them just keep on waiting for the candidates they want to hire and they block/hold the positions for them. There is so much interest for a handful of jobs. And just to let you know I started looking for a job before I even started my Fellowship. It appears that you are in an academic setting. If that's the case then guide your fellows and help them landing jobs in a timely fashion. Studying for boards when you know that you will not be hired for the speciality you are doing your training in is very frustrating towards the end.

 

[timisdaman]

No preference for academic vs private. Geographically I was restricted to MI, OH, IN, WI, MO, IL and FL and TX. I didn't look at northeast and west part of the country but I still think that my search area was pretty big. I interviewed at a place during fellowship, turned out that orthopedic surgeons blocked the PCSM job because they thought that the patient volume will be low. Another place looked interested after the interview but then they had an internal applicant🤣. I agree that not all the posted jobs on AMSSM website are taken. But many of them just keep on waiting for the candidates they want to hire and they block/hold the positions for them. There is so much interest for a handful of jobs. And just to let you know I started looking for a job before I even started my Fellowship. It appears that you are in an academic setting. If that's the case then guide your fellows and help them landing jobs in a timely fashion. Studying for boards when you know that you will not be hired for the speciality you are doing your training in is very frustrating towards the end.

Don't limit your search to AMSSM.

There are many job boards - doccafe, indeed, careermd, practicematch. Check other journal websites, etc.

But your program director should have guided you on getting employment, or be helping you now.

 

[AJFKPU]

I have an account on Doccafe, indeed and practice match and I follow them as well. In an ideal world PDs should help. I did bring it up to my PD a few times. My training period has taught me that just like your residency has nothing to do with your fellowship, your Fellowship has nothing to do with your future Job. I'll keep on exploring the opportunities and see if I can get lucky with anything, but most likely I'll start my own office at some point since my family life won't allow me to do another fellowship if I want to work as a specialist. Thanks for your advice though.

 

[galactus]

I think the fallacy here is that primary care sports medicine is different sub specialty feel than other sub specialties (ie cards, endo, any “organ” specialty). The emphasis is primary care, and the fellowship is to complement your primary specialty. Yeah I’m sports med but I always say I’m a family doc first. My EM-sports colleagues still do ED shifts doing regular EM stuff. All my peds-sports folk say the same thing. Also never expect the perfect job straight out of training. I signed up for an academic FM job (it was never posted as a sports job) and over time built my sports med practice from my primary care. My current job is working in an ortho clinic, but I’m hired by FM and collaborate between both departments (academic). Even in the orthopedic surgery world, the sports med trained docs still do hand, foot/ankle, joint replacements, etc. it’s not all scopes or ACL’s. My ortho sports colleagues still do hip and knee replacements. That’s def not sports, so why would one expect a primary care trained one to see all sports as well. To me, 100% sports med really isn’t a thing, and in reality we all do a bit of our primary specialty.

 

[AJFKPU]

I think the fallacy here is that primary care sports medicine is different sub specialty feel than other sub specialties (ie cards, endo, any “organ” specialty). The emphasis is primary care, and the fellowship is to complement your primary specialty. Yeah I’m sports med but I always say I’m a family doc first. My EM-sports colleagues still do ED shifts doing regular EM stuff. All my peds-sports folk say the same thing. Also never expect the perfect job straight out of training. I signed up for an academic FM job (it was never posted as a sports job) and over time built my sports med practice from my primary care. My current job is working in an ortho clinic, but I’m hired by FM and collaborate between both departments (academic). Even in the orthopedic surgery world, the sports med trained docs still do hand, foot/ankle, joint replacements, etc. it’s not all scopes or ACL’s. My ortho sports colleagues still do hip and knee replacements. That’s def not sports, so why would one expect a primary care trained one to see all sports as well. To me, 100% sports med really isn’t a thing, and in reality we all do a bit of our primary specialty.

Very disappointed to read that someone like you have used the word FALLACY rather than acknowledging a real issue. Your own comment from 2016 is reflective of various types of jobs available. And now you are emphasizing that everyone should take an FM job out of fellowship and build your practice and that's the only way. Sometimes we need to speak the truth because too much diplomacy can be misleading for others. I'm not trying to be disrespectful. Just being honest. I appreciate all the guidance you have been doing on this form for years though.

 

[galactus]

Fair enough and point taken. Didn’t mean to disrespect! I agree with you. I felt like in 2016 that was the case. I saw lots of people find sports med jobs right after fellowship and thriving. Over the last few years, I’ve been seeing pure sports medicine jobs harder to find both for fellows looking to graduate and others looking for a change in scenery (me included). Through the small lens I had in academia that did not have a SM fellowship, I didn’t see that. Since I have changed jobs that can see how hard it really was. The market saturated a bit these last few years. That was actually one of the talking point reasons of extending the fellowship to two years.

Covid also made a hiring freeze for a lot of postings, especially a year or two ago. When no sports was going on, was there even a reason to hire a PCSM? Thankfully that has mostly recovered.

Now are there sports med jobs available? Absolutely. Some of them are posted on AMSSM website, but a lot of them aren’t. Mine wasn’t, and was posted on family medicine academic job website.

Now some jobs available are also due to networking. For example, a practice that has a doc that trained at your program, or your PD has a connection with someone that may have an opening. AMSSM conference is a great example of networking and job opportunities. join a committee. Stay active academically. Talk to people at the conference. Have former fellows you know or have attendings introduce you to their colleagues. I have seen positions/jobs created this way. Putting your name out there helps. I would not be in my current job position if it wasn’t for the work I’ve done in my previous one, and staying active in the sports medicine world. Our specialty is really small so any little bit of effort will pay dividends.

My residency PD had some good advice when I was a graduating resident. We always laughed it off but he was actually right. “It’s never about your first job after training. It’s about your second one.” I think your first job after fellowship is what helps build/gain your skill set . Grow the practice and you learn to know what you like and don’t like. If things aren’t growing to how you want it, then at least you have some “hard” needs when you are looking for another opportunity.

Sorry for the long post. I always like to help out any future and current sports med peeps! Always wish people the best, don’t be discouraged and there is an opportunity out there for everyone! I finished fellowship in 2014 and it took until 2022 to find a job where I can concentrate on 100% sports and be faculty for a fellowship now.

 

[enthesis]

Is the fellowship turning into a 2 year fellowship still happening? It would help curb this problem….

 

[sloh]

Is the fellowship turning into a 2 year fellowship still happening? It would help curb this problem….

lol for current attendings looking for a job or upcoming/current fellows?

 

[enthesis]

lol for current attendings looking for a job or upcoming/current fellows?

Upcoming fellows lol. I had heard this got permanently put on the back burner bc of the pushback from everyone. Does anyone know if they are going to revisit this?

 

[AJFKPU]

Fair enough and point taken. Didn’t mean to disrespect! I agree with you. I felt like in 2016 that was the case. I saw lots of people find sports med jobs right after fellowship and thriving. Over the last few years, I’ve been seeing pure sports medicine jobs harder to find both for fellows looking to graduate and others looking for a change in scenery (me included). Through the small lens I had in academia that did not have a SM fellowship, I didn’t see that. Since I have changed jobs that can see how hard it really was. The market saturated a bit these last few years. That was actually one of the talking point reasons of extending the fellowship to two years.

Covid also made a hiring freeze for a lot of postings, especially a year or two ago. When no sports was going on, was there even a reason to hire a PCSM? Thankfully that has mostly recovered.

Now are there sports med jobs available? Absolutely. Some of them are posted on AMSSM website, but a lot of them aren’t. Mine wasn’t, and was posted on family medicine academic job website.

Now some jobs available are also due to networking. For example, a practice that has a doc that trained at your program, or your PD has a connection with someone that may have an opening. AMSSM conference is a great example of networking and job opportunities. join a committee. Stay active academically. Talk to people at the conference. Have former fellows you know or have attendings introduce you to their colleagues. I have seen positions/jobs created this way. Putting your name out there helps. I would not be in my current job position if it wasn’t for the work I’ve done in my previous one, and staying active in the sports medicine world. Our specialty is really small so any little bit of effort will pay dividends.

My residency PD had some good advice when I was a graduating resident. We always laughed it off but he was actually right. “It’s never about your first job after training. It’s about your second one.” I think your first job after fellowship is what helps build/gain your skill set . Grow the practice and you learn to know what you like and don’t like. If things aren’t growing to how you want it, then at least you have some “hard” needs when you are looking for another opportunity.

Sorry for the long post. I always like to help out any future and current sports med peeps! Always wish people the best, don’t be discouraged and there is an opportunity out there for everyone! I finished fellowship in 2014 and it took until 2022 to find a job where I can concentrate on 100% sports and be faculty for a fellowship now.

Thank you for your detailed insight. I always appreciate your willingness to help others. Yes it appears that the job market is very saturated now and things are not the same as 2016. Now I also hear that healthcare systems want to recruit 3-4 PAs to do non-op Ortho stuff rather than recruiting a sports medicine doctor as it suits their economic layout (another reason to be good in MSK US). We have NPs, PAs, primary care physicians, Rheumatologists, Ortho, PMR and even neuro pain doctors who are doing similar procedures and seeing similar MSK patients. It is totally different from the specialities like Oncology and Hospital medicine e.g, where health care systems are constantly looking for physicians since they cannot satisfy the needs of their communities. I came from an IM background and it was a rough journey to match into sports medicine. I didn't find a spot in the first cycle after decent number of interviews. It is a competitive fellowship and takes a lot of work during residency. It demands sacrifice from family time, moving to a new state with kids for a one year fellowship, studying for boards, and financial commitment. Now I'm restricted to collect some money and eventually start my own office in 1-2 years due to spousal job and childcare (health) issues. My sole purpose of being vocal was to raise the awareness about the current job market so that upcoming fellows should be mindful of this situation.. Unfortunately AMSSM doesn't mention about it much. I have lived through this and I think it's my moral obligation to communicate the fair information. Thank you again for your elaboration on this forum.

 

[enthesis]

Thank you for your detailed insight. I always appreciate your willingness to help others. Yes it appears that the job market is very saturated now and things are not the same as 2016. Now I also hear that healthcare systems want to recruit 3-4 PAs to do non-op Ortho stuff rather than recruiting a sports medicine doctor as it suits their economic layout (another reason to be good in MSK US). We have NPs, PAs, primary care physicians, Rheumatologists, Ortho, PMR and even neuro pain doctors who are doing similar procedures and seeing similar MSK patients. It is totally different from the specialities like Oncology and Hospital medicine e.g, where health care systems are constantly looking for physicians since they cannot satisfy the needs of their communities. I came from an IM background and it was a rough journey to match into sports medicine. I didn't find a spot in the first cycle after decent number of interviews. It is a competitive fellowship and takes a lot of work during residency. It demands sacrifice from family time, moving to a new state with kids for a one year fellowship, studying for boards, and financial commitment. Now I'm restricted to collect some money and eventually start my own office in 1-2 years due to spousal job and childcare (health) issues. My sole purpose of being vocal was to raise the awareness about the current job market so that upcoming fellows should be mindful of this situation.. Unfortunately AMSSM doesn't mention about it much. I have lived through this and I think it's my moral obligation to communicate the fair information. Thank you again for your elaboration on this forum.

NP’s, PA’s and PT’s are all doing diagnostic msk now. The rmsk exam is now open to midlevels and PT’s, even though the “P” in APCA was supposed to be for “physician”. Aside from sonex procedures (current and future), they can do MSK U/S, injections, casting, splinting, tenex, coolief…it’s getting harder and harder for systems to find value in sports medicine physicians.