Posts tagged residency

Road to Residency

Steven McGaughey, first featured here with his Gastric Subway illustration, has been hard at work on a new website for medical students. A primer to the residency journey, he and his fiancée have worked over the last few months compiling information and useful resources for the application, the interviews, and the match. Check it out.

I have a board exam in five days and I am freaking out. This is the culmination of my life. If I fail it I will have no job.
A R2 stresses over her upcoming OSCE and board exam.
Returning to Base. Having finished my elective, I am set to return to my regular rotation. The last two weeks have seemingly whizzed by like a blur. It was challenging but also a great learning experience and one that I think will really influence my residency choices. I will miss the great team of colleagues I had an opportunity to learn with and learn from. With that said, I will be mostly travelling today back home. See you all on the other side. Onward,Tom of the Medical State of Mind

Returning to Base.

Having finished my elective, I am set to return to my regular rotation. The last two weeks have seemingly whizzed by like a blur. It was challenging but also a great learning experience and one that I think will really influence my residency choices.

I will miss the great team of colleagues I had an opportunity to learn with and learn from.

With that said, I will be mostly travelling today back home. See you all on the other side.

Onward,
Tom of the Medical State of Mind

Even after consecutively long days, can I wake up and look forward to working?
The quintessential question that we must all ask ourselves as we consider our careers.

Becoming a Physician

For many students, finding the right specialty for themselves is a nebulous process. The direction one’s career takes slowly crystallizes in third and fourth year of medical school. It is during this time period that students are exposed to every major specialty and differentiate into their areas of interest.

In a previous post, I wrote about a Canadian guide to residency programs. While it is a good primer for medical students edging closer to graduation, it serves little practical purpose for the outside.

For the prospective medical student, here is a guide to 35 different medical specialties created by the Canadian Medical Association. Follow the link for more details.

Canadian Medical Residency Guide

Third year is an opportunity for us to be exposed and familiar with all of the various specialties of medicine. In the second half of the year, we must also begin choosing electives for fourth year, specialty experiences in our fields of interest. 

This guide, recommended to us by fourth year students, is a primer that goes through the programs available, where they are and what they entail. As I go through the specialties, this will be something I will need to keep in the back of my mind.

Nothing Lasts

  • Doctor: So what year are you guys in?
  • Student: We are still in second year.
  • Doctor: Oh yeah. I remember that time.
  • Student: Any tips that you can share with us?
  • Doctor: Enjoy yourself while it lasts.
Will all medical students automatically get a placement in a residency programme or are residency places limited? — Asked by Anonymous

I am not quite at the stage yet but from what I have gathered, a residency placement is not guaranteed. When you are nearing graduation, you apply for various residency positions in specialties that interest you. These placements have limited seating. You rank your preferences before matching. It is therefore possible that you are accepted to your first choice, or second choice and so on. However, depending on what specialties you have chosen, especially if you narrowed your focus and chose highly competitive specialties, you may be left without a spot. You would have to take some time off and reapply at the next matching.

You have until we reach the top of these stairs to come up with a differential,” he would say. Of course, he would then run up the stairs to give us less time to think. “Well? What have you guys come up with?
A doctor’s anecdote of how his senior physician would quiz the residents while going up the stairwell during his training years. 
Hi! I just discovered your blog and it's very informative so thank you for putting it together. I'm just about to start medical school at Western and was wondering if you have any insight into how to get a competitive residency position? Residency isn't really something I'm thinking about now per se but should I be? Is it anything like getting into medical school itself i.e. keeping on top of your grades along with ECs and research? I just don't want to drop the ball in first year because it'd be nice to keep my options open when CaRMS comes around.

Thanks for the help! — Asked by estherglass

Thanks for reading and thanks for your question estherglass. First congratulations on getting into medical school. I wish you the best on this new journey. It will be both exciting and hard and worth every minute of it. :)

From my talks with some upper years, competitive residencies get ultra competitive. They usually take very few students and you are competing nationwide so it does get tough once you put in your choices. When residency reviews come along they see the H, P or F. If you made it that far you have gotten Ps or Hs. I am not sure if they see the grades or not. What I have been told is more important are the reference letters. Getting a great recommendation from a doctor in that field that you did a rotation with can make a huge difference. These are typically more crucial than EC and research.

Having said that, I have heard conflicting information on research. Some say it’s important; others say it’s not that important. While it is nice to have done research and it does kind of impact your standing in CaRMS, it will most definitely benefit those who have done a lot of research. When you think of comparing a PhD/MD with multiple publications to a student MD who has his name onto a two-month project, those two are not equal. Given that though, I think if you can do research it is always nice. It is a different experience to being a physician. If you are thinking to incorporate some clinical research into your practice in the future, this can be your first look at whether that is right for you.

Hope that answered your questions. If not, feel free to message me again. Cheers! :)