Switching areas of medicine?

Question

I am not in college yet but am playing with ideas for a career in the medical field. I have always had a particular interest in Neurology, a Neurologist sounded like a good choice, but I was also considering Neurosurgery or some other type of specialty in surgery. My question is however, lets say I go through four years undergraduate, four years med school, the one year internship and the years of residency, then finally become a Neurologist. In addition, lets say that I am in my thirties now with plenty of experience in Neurology and have plenty of money and decide to become a Neurosurgeon. Do I or Do I NOT have to go back to medical school? I could be wrong but I believe I don't have to. I was under the impression that once you get your M.D you then just go into training for what you want to specialize in. For a Neurologist the residency is a few years I believe, but for a surgeon you are looking at 7-8, so how would I go about switching? I am just a bit confused.

Answer 1

If you're not in college yet, don't sweat it.  By the time you get into your clinical rotations, you'll know whether you're surgeon material or not.   It's something you either love or hate.

On the off chance that you do want to switch, then you just have to do a new residency.  I know a few people who have done that.

The chance that you'll choose a specialty other than what you think you want to do when you start med school is very high.  I had a lot of classmates who KNEW what they wanted to do, and ended up in something entirely different.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

Answer 2

After completing med school and 4 years of neurology training (including the internship) you will be a board eligible neurologist.  If you then can tolerate the pay cut to go back into training (which is huge, especially if you have a family by then), and IF you can find a neurosurgery residency willing to accept you, then you can go into it and may even get a year of credit for your prior training.  Neurosurg is a 6 year program (including internship) but most programs require an extra year of "research", so make it 7.  That is a long time for a grown man or woman to live at $40K per year (especially if you are used to $180K as a neurologist and paying off med school debts).  But to answer your question, you definitely do not have to repeat med school.  Neurosurg programs are VERY competitive and getting into one through a non-traditional pathway (i.e., not right out of school) may be a near impossibility, but good luck.