Later Interest in FM

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memehmaw

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I'm an M3 in my family med rotation, and I unexpectedly am in love with the specialty. I went to work happy and left even happier each day. My preceptors have made profound impacts on their patients lives and have been there through everything. I don't think I can see myself doing much else. I love the versatility, patient population, and different opportunities. I definitely like having the broad general knowledge. However, I have shown absolutely zero interest in primary care in med school. I have some research experience more in the realm of critical care. My step 1 score won't be a problem (> 245). Am I going to have issues because PDs think I am using it as a backup and doubt my legit interest for the specialty? Would an away help this?

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Should not be a problem at all. My buddy did an AI and an away in surgery before switching. It happens! Fortunately we are not as competitive, so your scores should certainly open a lot of doors, despite the late switch. Do an AI or the equivalent at your place, join the AAFP, try to get to a local conference and you should be all set.
 
Agree that going to a conference is the best way you can make sure family medicine realizes your are genuinely interested. membership in aafp also great move. The conference in Kansas City is this week though. The abfm meets in September. Not attending a conference doesn't mean we don't think you're interested. It's just a great thing you can do. The Kansas City conference you can meet lots of residency programs as well and decide which residents you mesh well with and would like to interview at. Meeting them ahead of time might help with getting interviews. Also just reread and realized you're an m3. Plan to do the Kansas City conference and tell your home program how much you like fm.
 
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Thanks so much for the responses! I'll get on all of this! There is also a local conference coming up in the Midwest I can go to. I'm definitely getting some pushback from my family (mainly because this is unexpected), but I just keep telling them that I've worked too hard to not choose the career I feel is best for me. They want me to go into something like Derm, which is just not something that would work well for me.
 
Thanks so much for the responses! I'll get on all of this! There is also a local conference coming up in the Midwest I can go to. I'm definitely getting some pushback from my family (mainly because this is unexpected), but I just keep telling them that I've worked too hard to not choose the career I feel is best for me. They want me to go into something like Derm, which is just not something that would work well for me.
I'm a 3rd year resident this year and cannot tell you how many job offers I get. Moonlight people get really excited when they realize I'm not peds or internal medicine since I'm comfortable with both. We have several people with very high step scores in my program who fell in love with family medicine. You can tell when someone is passionate about the specialty for the most part. You've still got a lot of 3rd year left and may find there's something else you like more but I can't imagine doing anything else. You can do some critical care in family medicine, but usually more rural areas, some programs still admit and staff the icus though and they may be ones you like more. You've got a while to pick one that seems like the best fit for you though.
 
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