Combined Residencies Suck

Waste of time? Yes. Lost money? Yes. Lost Wages? Yes.

I always advise my medical students to avoid these residencies that promise everything and deliver nothing.

Doing IM/EM or FM/EM is a waste of time. Most of these students think that they are going to practice EM for a long time, then burn out and retire to a family practice or internal medicine clinic. Let me make it clear CLINIC IS NOT RETIREMENT!

Whenever I can moonlight in an ER, I do it. Why? Because it's easy money, and it pays a helluva lot more than clinic. I have to see 50 or more patients a day to make a decent living. Chase down insurance, chase down payments, hire staff to chase down payments.... deal with social issues and patient's social and economic problems.... IT'S NOT RETIREMENT!

If you do Emergency Medicine and want to retire at some point, just do 2 shifts per month. THAT'S RETIREMENT! Plus it still pays better than my job.

Doing a combined program tacks on an extra year or two of residency. That's two years of your lost wages that you will never make back. That's about $500,000 dollars you just lost working as a slave for someone else, as a highly qualified triage nurse. Don't fall for this. You will never make back that $500,000 in lost earnings.