Quitting Residency

My interview at UW went well. Quite well actually. They have funding for a 4th fellow starting this summer, and have offered the position to me. This would mean I would have to leave my residency program a year early. This isn't as unusual as it sounds... there are 2 or 3 people from our program who do this each year, called "short-tracking." It's a way for people who are interested in academic medicine to spend more time doing research. I'm not sure of all the requirements... I'm meeting with our program director next week to find out if I can even do it. You need to have completed certain rotations during your first two years in order to be eligible for board certification in internal medicine, and then I would need to complete a 4 year endocrine fellowship in order to be board certified in endocrinology.

Besides the practical issues of finishing residency early, and the fact that I'm on call in the ICU the day that I would have to be in Seattle starting fellowship and the fact that I would have to take two weeks off in August for my honeymoon, I'm not sure if I want to start fellowship this summer. There are many good things about it: I get out of the match and am guaranteed a spot for my fellowship in Seattle, I get to go back to Seattle, I don't have to do my 3rd year of residency, I never have to work in the ER again. But I had a 3 year plan. If I go to Seattle this summer, my 3 year plan suddenly becomes a 2 year plan and I have some adjustments to make. Part of me wants to stay here and finish residency like I had originally planned. But the other part of me thinks I should just go to Seattle and get on with my life.

The big deciding factor will be whether or not I am limiting my options by leaving residency early. I need to be board eligible in internal medicine and endocrinology. I don't want to close any doors. With medicine, there is always more to learn, and I will be giving up some experiences. But most of 3rd year for internal medicine is spent doing electives. I've had the same responsibilities this year as a ward resident that I would have next--2nd and 3rd year residents function at the same level, unlike other specialties where each year you gain more responsibility.

So we'll see... if I don't take the oppoturnity, I can still go the regular route, take my chances with the match and start fellowship in 2009 as I had been planning. And in many ways, that would be easiest, but is easiest always the best way to go? Who knows.