Transfer from surgery to psych in 3rd year

[PsychSwitch]

Dear Premed101 community, your expertise and experiences would be helpful to help me organize and criticize a decision I have been thinking about. I am a 3rd year resident in Gen Surgery in Quebec and a few months away from my 4th year. During my Carms match, I was torn between Psych and Surgery. Ended up ranking surgery higher becaues of the emotional load related to psych. In the last two years, I have been grieving a long term relationship and have started thinking way more about the meaning of our training, my purpose in life and what drives me. I have been nostalgic about my psych rotations and have felt regrets about choosing surgery. That feeling has been within me for the last 2 years but I feel like I invested so much of my time in surgery so far that it would be foolish to transfer at this point. Especially knowing that I will only get 6 months credited. Any inspirational stories ? Any rational arguments? Should I just suck it up and feel lucky I'm 2-3 years away from being a surgery staff? 

[GH0ST]

Hey I hope you get the opportunity to speak to someone. Sending you well wishes. 

I think before any switching... can you see yourself slogging it out as a gen surg staff though? It feels as though you can't really see yourself doing that after your revelation and that is ok. Have you had opportunities to speak to psych residents and staff instead? 

Maybe ask yourself how much you can tolerate being gen surg staff before switching. 

- G

[shikimate]

If you have difficulty with  "grieving a long term relationship", I think you may benefit from talking to a psychiatrist. But switching to psych, I am not sure that would really help. Personally I found psych interesting in the diagnostic aspect but the emotional drainage from treating people wasn't worth it. If you switch to psych, wouldn't the emotional burden of psych add to your emotional problems rather than solving it?

[retrosneaker]

3 hours ago, shikimate said:

If you have difficulty with  "grieving a long term relationship", this could mean missing a partner who lives in a different city (not having a support system), or grieving a breakup - both of which are normal to an extent  I think you may benefit from talking to a psychiatrist most grief experiences and reactions do non require psychiatric care. But switching to psych, I am not sure that would really help fair point. Personally I found psych interesting in the diagnostic arent you in rads/path? Makes sense you would find the diagnostic part the most interesting  aspect but the emotional drainage from treating people wasn't worth it to you If you switch to psych, wouldn't the emotional burden of psych add to your emotional problems rather than solving it? Could be true, agree here 

Just some food for thought to balance this thought process. 
 

Psychiatry can be draining to some and rewarding to others. Physicians aren’t all made as one. Certain things are true - surgery is physically demanding and psych is emotionally demanding for example. But if being close to your loved one you are grieving or close to a support system if you are grieving losing someone, a transfer may not be the worst idea. Seek mentors, maybe counselling, and do some soul searching. 

Edited March 23 by retrosneaker
Incomplete post

[Curiousaboutapps1]

Hey there is a young psychiatry staff at my UGME institution who did this. Is you message me I can give you their info and maybe you can reach out to them?

[bearded frog]

On 3/22/2024 at 11:01 AM, PsychSwitch said:

Dear Premed101 community, your expertise and experiences would be helpful to help me organize and criticize a decision I have been thinking about. I am a 3rd year resident in Gen Surgery in Quebec and a few months away from my 4th year. During my Carms match, I was torn between Psych and Surgery. Ended up ranking surgery higher becaues of the emotional load related to psych. In the last two years, I have been grieving a long term relationship and have started thinking way more about the meaning of our training, my purpose in life and what drives me. I have been nostalgic about my psych rotations and have felt regrets about choosing surgery. That feeling has been within me for the last 2 years but I feel like I invested so much of my time in surgery so far that it would be foolish to transfer at this point. Especially knowing that I will only get 6 months credited. Any inspirational stories ? Any rational arguments? Should I just suck it up and feel lucky I'm 2-3 years away from being a surgery staff? 

Do you have a good relationship with your PD? Talk to them about your feelings. In my experience good PDs care about their resident's feelings, and if you're not happy in your current residency, then it might be worth chatting to them about your thoughts. In addition, or alternatively, if you have any connections to your local psych program, you could approach them. In terms of transfer you have 3 options: informal transfer within your institution to your local psych program, apply for the national transfer program to see if there's psych spots available, or apply to second round CaRMS for any still open psych spots (15 this year). In terms of what's most likely, generally it's easiest to transfer to a different specialty within the same institution, and the national transfer program is the most difficult, anecdotally. The CaRMS option is heavily variable. You will need the support of your PD for the first and 3rd option, so that's where I would start. I assume your local program would have just filled or be filling their spots through CaRMS right now and so if you do transfer it will likely be after you finish 4 years. Only you can answer if your desire to do psych over surgery is worth doing 9 years of residency. You should also realistically brace yourself for the more-likely-than not situation that you are unable to transfer prior to finishing residency. In that case, and even if you are pursuing other options, just do the final year at that point, pass your Royal College exams, and see how you like surgery as an attending. You can always apply for a second round spot at that point (although I don't know if that would hurt your relative chances vs being a 4th year surgery resident.)