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VascuPath: Navigating Fellowship

Fellowship

Applying to Fellowship – Fellowship applications occur in the fall of the academic year prior to the final year of residency. Think carefully about what your personal and career goals are before and during this process; your mentors are a resource to identify the right programs to apply to. Interviews proceed through the winter and early spring leading up to Match Day in May.
Fellowship – Fellowship is a two-year clinical experience focused entirely around learning the practice of vascular surgery. Although each fellowship will be structured slightly differently this provides graduated autonomy in the domains of open vascular surgery, endovascular procedures, interpretation of vascular studies, and patient management. 
Fast-track General/Vascular Surgery Joint Training Program (4+2) – a handful of institutions have an accelerated combined general and vascular surgery training program for certain highly-selected individuals. These programs allow for early specialization in the senior years of residency resulting in one year less of overall training than the Traditional Fellowship. The actual structure of these programs iis otherwise similar to what has bene outlined above. Again, these programs are only available at a handful of institutions and only to certain trainees.
 
Beginning Your Career as a Vascular Surgeon – In the last year of training a resident or fellow will apply for jobs. Depending on the specific interests of the surgeon they may apply to jobs in private practice (usually joining and established group in the community), academia (a university appointment within a medical school), or in some cases “privademics” (hospital-employed groups with training programs but not formal academic appointments). Within each of these groups there will be opportunities to tailor practice to fit specific clinical interests. Once a job is decided upon the surgeon should apply for a medical license in the state in which they will be practicing. Once out in practice the surgeon will take their two-part licensing examination and achieve board certification.