Available Options

[med.goals]

Hi everyone,

 

I applied to plastic surgery in CaRMS  and received 3 interviews, and ultimately matched to my top choice location in my back-up specialty (FM). At the time, I thought that I would be okay about being in FM, but now I feel regrets and I am not excited about starting FM residency in few days.  Of note, I got into this specialty, although I showed no interest in it ( other than applying to it) and have done no electives in it....  I am not sure what are available options for me at this point. Looking back, I wish I applied to general surgery or IM. What are options available to me? I will try to keep an open mind and like FM- but what if i don't like it? 

 

Thanks!

[zoxy]

Someone else was in a similar situation with plastics but had matched to IM as their backup specialty. The following advice was given by forum members. I hope that you find this helpful.

As I said in the other thread, I think that transferring into GenSurg since they usually have some attrition, followed by a three year Plastics fellowship in the US would be the most feasible option for ending up in Plastics. If you don't like FM and if you manage to transfer to GenSurg and you'll have the option of an ACGME fellowship in plastics down the road that would make you eligible to sit the boards in both the US and Canada.

 

[bearded frog]

In brief you have 3 options:

-stay in FM, do minor cosmetic stuff as a niche

-transfer into something else. Plastics isn’t going to happen for sure, and I think transfers overall are not common and difficult but do happen. Lots of threads on this in the residency forum

-apply to an open spot in 2nd round carms next year. Also a competitive proposition and generally not high demand options left over if you don’t speak French. Refer to carms forum to see what kind of spots are available in second round

[JohnGrisham]

An acquaintance recently transferred from FM to plastics after failing to initially match plastics first go. It is possible, but difficult. Continue to shine on your FM off service rotations and get a hard working reputation and give it a try. 

Another aquaintance the previous year failed to match plastics, went unmatched and kept doing electives and matched to Plastics. Anecdotally plastics seems accepting of re-applicants if you prove yourself and/or just get lucky. A lot of luck.

Otherwise your options are laid out.

[rmorelan]

On 6/24/2021 at 1:12 AM, JohnGrisham said:

An acquaintance recently transferred from FM to plastics after failing to initially match plastics first go. It is possible, but difficult. Continue to shine on your FM off service rotations and get a hard working reputation and give it a try. 

Another aquaintance the previous year failed to match plastics, went unmatched and kept doing electives and matched to Plastics. Anecdotally plastics seems accepting of re-applicants if you prove yourself and/or just get lucky. A lot of luck.

Otherwise your options are laid out.

very hard to do but still things happen. One issue is the number of years - FM funding for 2 years and needing 5 etc. Plus the school he is going to has to have capacity in plastics. Fortunately sometimes people in 5 year problems drop to FM so some funding can be freed. 

I have a friend that backuped up into FM  - did end up doing FM minor procedures mostly for cosmetic work. Of course that is a small part of most plastics even if it gets the most attention.