28 year old seeking lM career advice
Posting for a friend.
She’s an IM resident who transferred off-cycle after a TY year and started her current program in September. Her contract runs through the end of June, but she recently received a non-renewal due to not having a passing Step 3 score.
What’s become upsetting is that her program is now saying she failed to disclose prior exam attempts/results and is questioning her professionalism/integrity in their appeal response. However, she had uploaded her exam transcript during orientation week showing all attempts/results and also discussed prior Step attempts during interviews. She has screenshots/emails documenting this and has tried multiple times to explain/provide records, but feels admin has completely stopped listening to her.
The difficult part is that she has never had professionalism issues before. Attendings/coworkers have consistently told her she goes above and beyond for patient care and works well with staff. This situation feels very disconnected from the kind of resident she’s been.
Her mental health has also significantly declined throughout this process. She has disability insurance through the hospital and honestly isn’t sure if she’s mentally okay to continue working right now. She’s slowing down clinically, taking longer with notes/patients, and feels burned out to a degree she’s never experienced before.
Her plan was to retake Step 3 in August once she’s no longer working nonstop and can fully focus on studying/self-care. She genuinely believes she can pass once she has the ability to breathe and focus.
Main ideas:
\- Does she still actually have a shot at finishing residency somewhere?
\- Does passing Step 3 later significantly improve choice of finding a PGY-3 spot?
\- Should she resign vs try to take medical/disability leave?
\- How difficult is obtaining residency credit for an off-cycle partial year?
\- If residency ultimately doesn’t work out, what other careers/pathways in medicine are realistic? She’s always been interested in preventive/population-health medicine.
Just looking for honest advice from people who’ve seen similar situations before.