Seeking open R1 spot

[TheVagüs]

Surgical subspecialty intern looking to swap for R1 spot starting July 2022. DM if interested. Also general advice welcome on making the switch. Yes I know it seems crazy, but intern year has been very illuminating regarding my strengths/weaknesses, likes/dislikes, and long term goals.

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[odyssey2]

Surgical subspecialty intern looking to swap for R1 spot starting July 2022. DM if interested. Also general advice welcome on making the switch. Yes I know it seems crazy, but intern year has been very illuminating regarding my strengths/weaknesses, likes/dislikes, and long term goals.

Why would that be crazy? Makes perfect sense to me
What led you to this point?

 

[TheVagüs]

Why would that be crazy? Makes perfect sense to me
What led you to this point?

Happy to answer!

Rads was the last specialty I ticked off my list as a 4th year. It seemed like a great fit for my strengths and personality, but I felt I couldn't let go of the potential to operate (it's why I applied to medical school!). I'm a medicine prelim now (this may tattle on my specialty), and I've found I can be perfectly content without the OR. While there is plenty I don't like about my work on the wards, being involved in the full spectrum of human disease has been really engaging. I have even enjoyed ICU the most after hating it in medical school!

After 2 months on my subspecialty service I missed the full breadth of medicine and found it unfulfilling in a way I didn't expect. My wife even commented on how much happier I seemed on my medicine time. I missed the problem solving. Although I still enjoyed how visual it was, I was counting down the days until I got back to medicine. I also found myself most engaged with the diagnostic and cognitive aspects of medicine over the past 6 months. And across all of it I still found the patient interactions in clinic and the wards completely exhausting. My faculty reviews so far as an intern commend my people skills, but I have come to dread a lot of the face to face patient time, which I feel is also incompatible with the busy clinics in my specialty of choice. All the above (and more but I don't want to bore anybody!) brought me back to the bottom of my original decision tree, to radiology.

In summary, the rigor of intern year gave me a lot of clarity about what I want (broad medical knowledge base, minimal patient contact, lots of thinking, working with other physicians, heavy visual component to my work) and what I don't want (OR, busy clinics, contained knowledge of one region of the body).

 

[letmebe]

Why would that be crazy? Makes perfect sense to me
What led you to this point?

I see you searching for the best alternative fields. I’ll quote you what you responded to me a while back:

“it is so so so early. Give it some time before you're certain rads is wrong for you.”

 

[Taurus]

Patient interactions and paperwork are the worst and most soul-sucking aspects of medicine. Just wait til you get a demanding, ungrateful, unpleasant patient who will complain about you or threaten a lawsuit. You will never be seen as a “hero” as radiologist because you’re behind the scenes but it’s worth it to avoid the headaches of clinical medicine.

 

[TheVagüs]

Patient interactions and paperwork are the worst and most soul-sucking aspects of medicine. Just wait til you get a demanding, ungrateful, unpleasant patient who will complain about you or threaten a lawsuit. You will never be seen as a “hero” as radiologist because you’re behind the scenes but it’s worth it to avoid the headaches of clinical medicine.

Fortunately I haven't had any patients complain about me or threaten to sue yet! I am completely comfortable with the "working behind the scenes" aspect of radiology. I actually see it as a positive. I've always been a bit attention averse anyway.

 

[TheVagüs]

We need to change the system to make it easier to switch after intern year. Its so different from being a medical student and seeing vs doing. I'm a psych intern and I feel like I could have written a lot of what you have. I was told all about how there's so much medicine in psych but it seems like that hasn't really been the case so far. I miss having that broad medical knowledge, critical thinking, and meaningful interactions with physicians (currently they just call when they don't want to deal with a difficult person).

I had dual applied but switched my ranking at the last minute and matched psych. Wish I could go back and undo it. Seriously looking to see if its possible to switch to rads; obviously this is tougher than coming from a surgical subspecialty

It is certainly proving difficult so far. I know I am a very qualified applicant, but trying to make things happen outside the match cycle is not easy. It seems there is usually quite a bit of luck involved to find an R1 spot/swap, or you reenter the match the next year and have 2 years to fill between finishing intern year and starting R1. I am OK with reentering the match if I have to, but I have a family and a spouse in medicine which complicates my situation significantly.

I wish you luck in your search as well. It's not an easy spot to be in.

 

[GoPelicans]

I'm guessing you are ophtho if you're doing a medicine year? Honestly I would just give ophtho a chance before you jump the gun with a switch, seems like a pretty sweet job. There are 2 neuro attendings in my dept who say they would do ophtho if they could go back in time.

 

[TheVagüs]

I'm guessing you are ophtho if you're doing a medicine year? Honestly I would just give ophtho a chance before you jump the gun with a switch, seems like a pretty sweet job. There are 2 neuro attendings in my dept who say they would do ophtho if they could go back in time.

It is a sweet job for the right person, or if your only goal is to have a sweet life. After 2 months on ophtho in addition to the rest of my intern year, I have come to the conclusion it is not right for me. In my defense, I started having doubts earlier in the year when ERAS was still an option, but I decided give it some time as intern year is intense and there is always the concern for pipe dreaming. Unfortunately the feelings and thoughts I described above only got stronger with more time on both medicine and ophtho.

Ironically, neuro is my favorite and a fellowship I could see myself doing in rads haha.

 

[odyssey2]

It is a sweet job for the right person, or if your only goal is to have a sweet life. After 2 months on ophtho in addition to the rest of my intern year, I have come to the conclusion it is not right for me. In my defense, I started having doubts earlier in the year when ERAS was still an option, but I decided give it some time as intern year is intense and there is always the concern for pipe dreaming. Unfortunately the feelings and thoughts I described above only got stronger with more time on both medicine and ophtho.

Ironically, neuro is my favorite and a fellowship I could see myself doing in rads haha.

Do you feel like you're trading in a "sweet life" for your passion by moving to rads?

 

[TheVagüs]

Do you feel like you're trading in a "sweet life" for your passion by moving to rads?

To some degree yes. I think rads still offers a well balanced life compared to many specialties. However, from what I understand as an attending in rads I will work longer and perhaps more stressful hours than I would as an attending ophthalmologist. I am a bit skeptical about passions in general, but I do think I am following what is best for my strengths and personality, as well as what I find most intellectually engaging.

 

[letmebe]

To some degree yes. I think rads still offers a well balanced life compared to many specialties. However, from what I understand as an attending in rads I will work longer and perhaps more stressful hours than I would as an attending ophthalmologist. I am a bit skeptical about passions in general, but I do think I am following what is best for my strengths and personality, as well as what I find most intellectually engaging.

Hey, so I was actually considering ophthalmology and experienced it a little bit at the request of a close friend’s continued recommendation who happened to be an ophthalmologist. My advice to you is to strictly follow what your heart desires while simultaneously recognizing that sometimes the desired outcome can overshadow reality in the mind. It sounds like you have a very reasonable approach and have basically figured things out. But if you have any questions regarding differences between the two specialties or anything else let me know. As far as an R1 spot goes, I’m limited in what help I can offer there. Good luck in whatever you decide.

 

[Warped Apostle]

Props to the OP for recognizing what was important to them and making a change early in their career. Best of luck!

 

[TheVagüs]

I wanted to make an addendum to this thread for anyone who stumbles upon it. I didn't know this initially and had to find out on my own (none of the faculty I spoke to seemed to know either!), but in ERAS programs will list PGY-2+ positions as "physician only". You have to inquire to see exactly what post graduate year they are looking for, but there were a lot more postings than I expected to find. Unfortunately I submitted my ERAS too late for most of them to consider me, but for anyone looking to switch specialties that is the first place I would look. Don't be like me and cold call/email every program when there is a tidy list of (possibly) open spots available to you.

 

[shadowlightfox]

I wanted to make an addendum to this thread for anyone who stumbles upon it. I didn't know this initially and had to find out on my own (none of the faculty I spoke to seemed to know either!), but in ERAS programs will list PGY-2+ positions as "physician only". You have to inquire to see exactly what post graduate year they are looking for, but there were a lot more postings than I expected to find. Unfortunately I submitted my ERAS too late for most of them to consider me, but for anyone looking to switch specialties that is the first place I would look. Don't be like me and cold call/email every program when there is a tidy list of (possibly) open spots available to you.

Would this also work for transferring to another program in the same specialty?

 

[AzBasRad]

Thread '2022-2023 PGY-2 IR/DR Position Available'
2022-2023 PGY-2 IR/DR Position Available

 

[TheVagüs]

Thread '2022-2023 PGY-2 IR/DR Position Available'
2022-2023 PGY-2 IR/DR Position Available

Thank you for this!

 

[TheVagüs]

Thread '2022-2023 PGY-2 IR/DR Position Available'
2022-2023 PGY-2 IR/DR Position Available

Heads up to everyone, the Stanford program coordinator confirmed this isn’t real (or perhaps was not intended to be public). But who cares because I matched to a radiology position! 💫💫💫💫

I hope this thread remains of use to folks in the coming years. If anyone stumbles across this thread and needs advice on switching feel free to DM me.