Switching rads to ortho...chances? Please Help.

[rh2010]

Hi Everyone,

I know many people ask this but I'm trying to figure out what my chances of getting into ortho would be. I'm a PGY-1 matched into rads, but on my first rotation in my transitional year I'm really liking ortho and thinking it might be a better fit for me. Here are my stats:
Step 1: 268
Step 2CK: 281
clinical rotations: mostly honors and received AOA

Down side: only did a 2 week mandatory ortho rotation in med school and I only passed it. I have no ortho aways under my belt and I have no ortho contacts at my home school.

I know ortho generally plays up the importance of away rotations and clinical grades so that's where I think I might be hurting. My other issue is that if I switch I have only a couple of months to do it and can at best expect only 2 letters of recommendations, each from private practice ortho docs. I would also have to try to figure out a way to do interviews while still doing my residency rotations.

My thoughts initially were to apply to about 35-40 programs with most in the "middle tier" category and hopefully interview at about 8-10 programs, and then hopefully match.

Any thoughts? Thanks so much.

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[basupran]

go here- orthogate.org

does your institution have ortho? if so, try talking to the pd to see if the program is willing to work with you. I think you would have to repeat intern year as most ortho programs ask for a gen surg 1st yr.

best of luck and think long and hard before you make the move. the rads lifestyle truly is unbelievable. ortho can be quite a bit more fun, but while you guys are usually out by 4pm, we work for quite a bit longer...and we take quite a bit more call... and we don't really get lunch hours... and we get in at 5am... etc

 

[skiz knot]

go here- orthogate.org

does your institution have ortho? if so, try talking to the pd to see if the program is willing to work with you. I think you would have to repeat intern year as most ortho programs ask for a gen surg 1st yr.

best of luck and think long and hard before you make the move. the rads lifestyle truly is unbelievable. ortho can be quite a bit more fun, but while you guys are usually out by 4pm, we work for quite a bit longer...and we take quite a bit more call... and we don't really get lunch hours... and we get in at 5am... etc

You routinely get in at 5 am? That sucks.

 

[Mr. Freeze]

Everything made sense until you said you want to switch from rads to ortho.

 

[rh2010]

I have been thinking long and hard. It's a really tough decision. There are all the lifestyle factors of radiology, but there's also the fact that you get to see quite the wide variety of pathology; plus I could always do interventional radiology-which I haven't seen much of, but conceptually it seems pretty cool. I guess my main draw to ortho is that I'm just really liking the OR atmosphere, and I like the surgeries. I think ORIFs are super cool. My concern is that sitting at a desk all day might get boring eventually, but it's tough to say since you don't actually do much in the way of continuously reading films yourself.

Thanks for the input so far.

 

[phospho]

I think ORIFs are super cool.

not that I have anything to contribute to this thread

But, I broke my right calcaneus bone a few months ago and had to do ORIF, which in my opinion is the coolest procedure EVER!!! It just pissed me off though when I heard that most people who do ORIFs get arthritis when they grow up, and that I might have to get my subtalar joint fused.

But anyways, I've always hated surgery, and always thought I'd never go into a surgical specialty. But just the interactions I've had with him and his staff have made me so crazy about ortho! I love how you have just the right amount of surgery, the right amount of patient interaction, and the continuity factor, i.e. he saw me from ground zero (the night my friends carried me into the ER) up until I could walk again. He was a trauma fellow though (not sure if that changes things).

Supercool dude with supercool staff. The second they found out I was a med student that night at the ER they made sure they went into details about everything. His team broke every stereotype I had about orthos. There were women who were orthos and you could be skinny and really short

But I'm a 2nd year, so I'm probably gonna change my mind when $hit hits the fan in 3rd year.

 

[PharmaTope]

go here- orthogate.org

does your institution have ortho? if so, try talking to the pd to see if the program is willing to work with you. I think you would have to repeat intern year as most ortho programs ask for a gen surg 1st yr.

best of luck and think long and hard before you make the move. the rads lifestyle truly is unbelievable. ortho can be quite a bit more fun, but while you guys are usually out by 4pm, we work for quite a bit longer...and we take quite a bit more call... and we don't really get lunch hours... and we get in at 5am... etc

gotta tell you i love the STEP 1 + 1RM BENCH hahaha

 

[MossPoh]

gotta tell you i love the STEP 1 + 1RM BENCH hahaha

I constantly wonder who thought up that joke, because truth be told, those are all pretty crappy benches. I'm going to guess that it was a pediatrician.