Insider Medical Admissions: Emergency Medicine Should Not be your Back Up

Monday, July 15, 2013

Emergency Medicine Should Not be your Back Up

I've recently heard from several residency applicants who are considering emergency medicine as a back up specialty for the coming Match. These candidates are interested in applying in their field of primary interest and using emergency medicine as a safety specialty. I would not recommend this strategy! Emergency medicine's popularity has waxed and waned over the years, but currently it is pretty hot. It's far from a back up.

For more information about emergency medicine candidacies and careers, take a look at my piece "Why Are Emergency Physicians Burning Out" on KevinMD.

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About Me

Years of candidate selection at Harvard taught me what characteristics comprise a desirable applicant and how even bright candidates make mistakes that undermine their admissions success. I am a practicing Emergency Physician with nine years of experience training medical students, residents and fellows. I won three teaching and mentorship awards while at Harvard. Please see Insider Medical Admissions for the full array of personalized services I offer to clients applying to medical school, residency, fellowship and post baccalaureate programs.

Dr. Finkel thanks David Presser, MD, MPH for his contributions to the content of her blog entries. Dr. Presser is a practicing Emergency Physician who has written several primers for applicants to medical school and Emergency Medicine residency. Dr. Presser is a graduate of Stanford University, UCSF Medical School, the UCLA/Olive View-UCLA Emergency Medicine Residency Program and the Harvard School of Public Health.

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