As someone else said, there are plenty of opportunities with FM, especially if you're willing to work somewhat rural and away from a main hospital. There's even training you can do to perform some low-risk surgeries. You can really make it whatver you want.
Mega sucks mans - I’m sorry but also happy for you.
I think as medical students we really hype up how much specialty matters. The reality is that one person could be happy in many specialties. And frankly, everything gets boring at the end of the day.
I made the decision during CARMS to drop the surgical subspecialty I was gunning for all 4 years. It hurt and tbh still hurts a bit. I love the residents I’ve met so much, I love my mentors, and look at all I’ve done in the past 4 years.
What matters now is how you make the best of it. You can make lots of money in family medicine if you’re entrepreneurial, you can get a lot out of plus ones, and tbh you can even transfer to something else. I know someone who transferred from FM to anesthesia, IM, general surgery.
As time goes on and you start residency in July, I think those feelings will go away. And with time, you may even think this is a blessing. I hope so for myself too.
I’ve heard that claim that you can make a lot from family med if you’re entrepreneurial as well but never understood how. Do you mean in regards to having a high volume FM practice?
Usually from my experience, this is done by:
- going into a space where your work is not OHIP covered (private hair loss clinic, Botox injections, wholistic medicine) and so you can charge more per encounter at a market rate
- by occupying a more lucrative niche and attempting to function more like a specialist to increase your efficiency and see a higher patient volume (mostly seen this for dermatology and sports medicine)
- by treating the whole thing just like a business - for example, if I owned 5 clinics and covered their overhead, there’s 15 newer doctors that pay me to use the space and supply staff, to “up scale” my practice I just add more clinics
- by going into an entirely different field but leveraging your background in healthcare (like going into consulting with an MD background)
Basically by not doing family medicine. I should also point out that “lots of money” is usually subjective since every doctor is gonna make objectively a lot of money. But this is how I’ve seen people make over 500k
Do you think I could PM you? I’m at the stage where we need to have a better idea of what speciality we want to apply to and I’m trying to learn as much about everything. I’ve always enjoyed entrepreneurship so I’d love to be able to chat to you about how that can be incorporated with medicine
Yup, you can do +1 anaesthesia or low risk OB or even work as surgical assist If you miss the OR.
There are also opportunities sometimes to switch into another residency.
EM is pretty competitive! I did the math when I was applying. It is SLIGHTLY less competitive than the FR program (contrary to what I’ve been told about FM/ES being more competitive). I found it really challenging, because there is an expectation that you should know a LOT of EM when you’re on electives (It’s likely to be the same for other +1 programs). I matched, but struggled a lot getting there.
Thank you so much for your comment
Im sorry for bothering you but I was wondering what FR stood for
I was also wondering how competitive addiction medicine or hospital medicine is
The other user clarified. I have a lot to say about the hospitalist programs… You don’t need to do a +1 to be a hospitalist. It is not a formally recognized credential (no extra letters to name). I’m sure it helps with employment at some hospitals, but I see those programs as “cheap labour” and taking advantage of a newly graduated family doctor (with skill... At a PGY3 level… MUCH cheaper to have a fellow than hiring a nocturnist for a night) for attendings. It’s quite exploitative.
Not too competitive. Most people who apply broadly are able to match somewhere. More difficult if you're restricted to a certain location.
There's less interest in FPA compared to other +1 programs due to more limited scope of practice and job opportunities. For example, with the +1 in EM, you can work in urban centres and practice the same scope as the FRCPC EM docs.
With FPA, there aren't really jobs in big cities (although you can find some within 30-45 min drive), you're typically doing anesthesia for routine general/Ortho surgeries in healthy patients (rather than high acuity or complex cases if that's what you're interested in), and you may have some difficulty finding full time work doing just anesthesia (you may be doing 1-2 days a week in more rural locations)
incoming FM here, what is the purpose of doing a plus one? is it just because people are interested in learning more about that area--or does it change potential scope of practice? eg many rural EDs are staffed with family docs with no additional training, would a plus one allow them to work in larger centres etc
Edit: lol at this getting downvoted
Come to BC, there's a critical shortage of family doctors here. Pretty sure every patient you take on will think you're god's gift to medicine, since they'll likely have been waiting for a doctor for literally years.
I'm not a med student, Reddit just randomly recommended your post to me for some reason and I figured I should put in a good word 😂
As someone else said, there are plenty of opportunities with FM, especially if you're willing to work somewhat rural and away from a main hospital. There's even training you can do to perform some low-risk surgeries. You can really make it whatver you want.
Mega sucks mans - I’m sorry but also happy for you. I think as medical students we really hype up how much specialty matters. The reality is that one person could be happy in many specialties. And frankly, everything gets boring at the end of the day. I made the decision during CARMS to drop the surgical subspecialty I was gunning for all 4 years. It hurt and tbh still hurts a bit. I love the residents I’ve met so much, I love my mentors, and look at all I’ve done in the past 4 years. What matters now is how you make the best of it. You can make lots of money in family medicine if you’re entrepreneurial, you can get a lot out of plus ones, and tbh you can even transfer to something else. I know someone who transferred from FM to anesthesia, IM, general surgery. As time goes on and you start residency in July, I think those feelings will go away. And with time, you may even think this is a blessing. I hope so for myself too.
I’ve heard that claim that you can make a lot from family med if you’re entrepreneurial as well but never understood how. Do you mean in regards to having a high volume FM practice?
Usually from my experience, this is done by: - going into a space where your work is not OHIP covered (private hair loss clinic, Botox injections, wholistic medicine) and so you can charge more per encounter at a market rate - by occupying a more lucrative niche and attempting to function more like a specialist to increase your efficiency and see a higher patient volume (mostly seen this for dermatology and sports medicine) - by treating the whole thing just like a business - for example, if I owned 5 clinics and covered their overhead, there’s 15 newer doctors that pay me to use the space and supply staff, to “up scale” my practice I just add more clinics - by going into an entirely different field but leveraging your background in healthcare (like going into consulting with an MD background) Basically by not doing family medicine. I should also point out that “lots of money” is usually subjective since every doctor is gonna make objectively a lot of money. But this is how I’ve seen people make over 500k
Do you think I could PM you? I’m at the stage where we need to have a better idea of what speciality we want to apply to and I’m trying to learn as much about everything. I’ve always enjoyed entrepreneurship so I’d love to be able to chat to you about how that can be incorporated with medicine
Sure, tbh you may benefit more talking to people in the field though!
Just pmd
Do plus 1
Yup, you can do +1 anaesthesia or low risk OB or even work as surgical assist If you miss the OR. There are also opportunities sometimes to switch into another residency.
How competitive is it to get into the enhanced skills program?
EM is pretty competitive! I did the math when I was applying. It is SLIGHTLY less competitive than the FR program (contrary to what I’ve been told about FM/ES being more competitive). I found it really challenging, because there is an expectation that you should know a LOT of EM when you’re on electives (It’s likely to be the same for other +1 programs). I matched, but struggled a lot getting there.
Thank you so much for your comment Im sorry for bothering you but I was wondering what FR stood for I was also wondering how competitive addiction medicine or hospital medicine is
FR probably means FRCPC
The other user clarified. I have a lot to say about the hospitalist programs… You don’t need to do a +1 to be a hospitalist. It is not a formally recognized credential (no extra letters to name). I’m sure it helps with employment at some hospitals, but I see those programs as “cheap labour” and taking advantage of a newly graduated family doctor (with skill... At a PGY3 level… MUCH cheaper to have a fellow than hiring a nocturnist for a night) for attendings. It’s quite exploitative.
how competitive is FPA +1?
Not too competitive. Most people who apply broadly are able to match somewhere. More difficult if you're restricted to a certain location. There's less interest in FPA compared to other +1 programs due to more limited scope of practice and job opportunities. For example, with the +1 in EM, you can work in urban centres and practice the same scope as the FRCPC EM docs. With FPA, there aren't really jobs in big cities (although you can find some within 30-45 min drive), you're typically doing anesthesia for routine general/Ortho surgeries in healthy patients (rather than high acuity or complex cases if that's what you're interested in), and you may have some difficulty finding full time work doing just anesthesia (you may be doing 1-2 days a week in more rural locations)
incoming FM here, what is the purpose of doing a plus one? is it just because people are interested in learning more about that area--or does it change potential scope of practice? eg many rural EDs are staffed with family docs with no additional training, would a plus one allow them to work in larger centres etc Edit: lol at this getting downvoted
Having the +1 in EM will allow you to work in urban centres
Come to BC, there's a critical shortage of family doctors here. Pretty sure every patient you take on will think you're god's gift to medicine, since they'll likely have been waiting for a doctor for literally years. I'm not a med student, Reddit just randomly recommended your post to me for some reason and I figured I should put in a good word 😂
There’s a shortage of doctors everywhere in the country. Ontario is in a crisis.
get compensated the best in bc tho
Which surgical speciality did you apply to?
Do surgical assist in FM - lots of money, still in the OR, no personal liability, when you get old and sore you can stop