seventeenfour44 Posted June 20, 2017 Report Share Posted June 20, 2017 Hi all! I haven't even started medical school yet (starting this September), but I had a question regarding family medicine. Of course my interests will probably change, but family medicine is something I've always wanted to do. I know that in family med you have the option to do an extra year of residency in various fields (e.g., EM, maternity care) to learn additional skills. I was wondering if I did decide to 'specialize' and do an extra year, how would this change my future career? For example, if someone does an extra year in emergency medicine, how will their work be different than someone who didn't do the extra year? Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted June 20, 2017 Report Share Posted June 20, 2017 You can do extra competencies in various different areas. They would simply allow you more training comfort in performing those procedures and work in that field. I.e. doing the EM 1 year fellowship(or challenging the exam by gaining hours over time), would then allow you to be more readily able to work in EM. Not all hospitals would even require this pathway, but if you seriously want to do EM after FM, getting the certification will help for a lot of places. I.e. some places would require the certification to grant you privileges etc. So someone who didnt do the extra year in EM, probably wouldn't be nearly as employable as the person who did, but again varies by jurisdiction and how your initial FM residency was set up. For example, someone who does a more urban FM training, may have very different experiences and opportunities than someone who did a more rural FM training.... Lots of variables. With or without extra training post FM residency, everyones pathway and focus will be different. Just the nature of FM being a very diverse field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralk Posted June 20, 2017 Report Share Posted June 20, 2017 1 hour ago, seventeenfour44 said: Hi all! I haven't even started medical school yet (starting this September), but I had a question regarding family medicine. Of course my interests will probably change, but family medicine is something I've always wanted to do. I know that in family med you have the option to do an extra year of residency in various fields (e.g., EM, maternity care) to learn additional skills. I was wondering if I did decide to 'specialize' and do an extra year, how would this change my future career? For example, if someone does an extra year in emergency medicine, how will their work be different than someone who didn't do the extra year? Thank you +1's really just allow you to tailor your practice towards that area of study more comfortably or reliably. They don't generally affect your ability to get a job or your pay in that job, more what you'll be doing with your time. +1's in Sports Medicine allow people to, well, focus on MSK problems related to athletics. +1's in Women's Health can lead to a set-up where you do almost exclusively low-risk deliveries and gynecological care. Most of this work can be done without the +1, but the career path to it may not be as smooth and, of course, the comfort level in these settings would probably be lower. In addition, many people with these +1's still have a run-of-the-mill primary care practice, even if they focus more heavily on certain populations. The exception is the +1 in Emergency Medicine, which for most practitioners is a complete change of work into Emergency Medicine only. While FPs with a +1 in EM can technically work as primary care providers and just pick up EM shifts, most do EM 100% of the time, functioning pretty much exactly as Emergency Medicine physicians who did the full 5 year Royal College residency. To the extent that there are FPs who just pick up the odd EM shift while doing mostly FM clinic work, they're FPs in rural settings with no +1's, working in small community hospitals that don't have a volumes to justify dedicated EM docs. You've still got plenty of time to explore the options in FM, if you go that route. Whether you want to do a +1 and what the +1 should be in can be figured out later in the process. Heck, as an incoming PGY-1 in FM, I'm still not sure what direction to take on finishing my residency! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangliocytoma Posted June 20, 2017 Report Share Posted June 20, 2017 What would be the benefit of doing 5 yr EM residency if you could just do FM +1 yr EM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted June 20, 2017 Report Share Posted June 20, 2017 ^that has been discussed exhaustively on the forums. Try searching and youll find lots of threads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralk Posted June 20, 2017 Report Share Posted June 20, 2017 49 minutes ago, gangliocytoma said: What would be the benefit of doing 5 yr EM residency if you could just do FM +1 yr EM? Short answer is that the +1 program is crazy competitive, many EM docs don't want to do FM for 2 years (or potentially forever if they don't get into the +1), and only 5 year graduates can really access fellowships. There's of course more to it, but as JohnGrisham says, there's no shortage of places to look for that discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangliocytoma Posted June 20, 2017 Report Share Posted June 20, 2017 2 hours ago, JohnGrisham said: ^that has been discussed exhaustively on the forums. Try searching and youll find lots of threads haha sorry lol, just had that thought come up when I was reading this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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