Matching ER/Anesthesia after TRI

[rgDOc]

I am an osteopathic student who wanted to go into EM this year but only applied ACGME and did not match. I have a position at a DO TRI and was wondering my chances of matching EM or Anesthesia after the TRI? My alternative option is to go to a new anesthesia program far away from home in a more undesirable location. I believe my heart is in EM but I can see myself enjoying anesthesia as well. Should I do the TRI and reapply for anesthesia and EM or should I take the sure thing in this anesthesia position in an undesirable location?

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[Lexdiamondz]

I am an osteopathic student who wanted to go into EM this year but only applied ACGME and did not match. I have a position at a DO TRI and was wondering my chances of matching EM or Anesthesia after the TRI? My alternative option is to go to a new anesthesia program far away from home in a more undesirable location. I believe my heart is in EM but I can see myself enjoying anesthesia as well. Should I do the TRI and reapply for anesthesia and EM or should I take the sure thing in this anesthesia position in an undesirable location?

A few things

Firstly, have you been able to identify the weaknesses in your application that caused you to not match ACGME Emergency Medicine in the first place? For example
- Low/Absent USMLE?
- Lukewarm/Poor SLOEs
- Clerkship grades
- Not applying broadly enough tier-wise/geography-wise
- Late application

Secondly, if you do decide to take an osteopathic PGY-1 year, does that institution have an EM residency? Will you have opportunities to rotate at that institution's ED and make connections for the AOA match?

If you don't have opportunities to rectify the shortcomings in your application, or opportunities to build new connections for a second try in the AOA match next year, the likelihood that you'll match EM next year is pretty low and the Anaesthesia position may be a much better option long term.

 

[AdmiralChz]

@Lexdiamondz brings up some great points above that are important to consider, especially with your application. At this point you only have a single year guaranteed and are looking at going through the match again next year - my condolences, but you need to really evaluate your application closely. DO TRIs are pretty flexible in most places (so flexible that the ACGME for the most part won't recognize them but that's another story) so see if you can get Anesthesia/EM rotations early to help you decide and better delineate your interests.

At this point your primary goal has to be landing a residency, if it happens to be in the most random undesirable place ever at least you have the ability to get board certified. That is huge and something many SDN posters actively strive for! At this point, I don't think you can be picky about where you end up for just a short few years.