Since so many of my friends and family are interested in what's next for my future, and since my future is currently dependent upon Casey's professional development, I thought I'd blog about the next step in Casey's work/training.
So, will Casey be specializing in anything? I've been asked this question many times and one of Casey's patients asked him this same question. There are 2 things wrong with this question. First, it's always asked in the future tense, but for us, it is a present tense reality. Casey's residency is his specialty training. His specialty is Emergency Medicine. The second problem is that it's a yes/no question. From a training point of view, all doctors specialize in something. At the end of medical school, they have to choose a residency, which is their specialty. That may be internal medicine, family practice, cardiology, etc. Now, a doctor can continue his/her training to be further specialized by completing fellowships after his/her residency is finished.
So, where is Casey in his training now? Casey started his 3rd year in July. (All US residency and fellowship programs start on July 1.) His Emergency Medicine residency is 3 years long, so this is his last year!
So, what will Casey be doing next? Good question. His first choice is to complete a fellowship in emergency ultrasound. If he can't a get a fellowship position, he'll start looking for a real job.
So, what's a fellowship? A fellowship is further specialized training within one's field of medicine, usually started right after residency. It is usually about 2 years, but it can be less or more depending on type of fellowship. As far as pay and benefits, it's just like continuing in the residency program for a couple more years, but I think the hours are supposed to be a little bit better and there are more opportunities for moonlighting to make extra money. The ultrasound fellowships are only one year.
So, when will Casey know about the fellowship? He's interviewed with 2 programs already and will interview with one more program next week. Hopefully he will know something in November. And if he doesn't get any offers, he'll start interviewing for real doctor jobs. (Casey doesn't like it when I call them "real" doctor jobs because he says he's a "real" doctor already. So when I say "real" job, I mean the job that pays well so we can start paying off his med school debt, saving for retirement, college funds, and maybe get to take a vacation)
If you are interested in learning more than you'd ever want to know about Emergency Medicine training, check out Casey's blog: The Emergentologist.
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