Army - Starting psych at PGY-2?

[chemist157]

Is this possible after a year of Internal Medicine to start a psych res at the 2nd year level? Would that count towards your 48 months of requirements. According to the ACGME document it sounds like IM, FM, or peds year could count for PGY-1 and that year towards the 48 months. Is this program-specific?
Would you be behind because you missed all those PGY-1 inpatient months?

E.g. decide one does not like IM that much and made the wrong decision but does not want to screw his colleagues so stick it out for one year since already matched. THen, graduate internship and slide into psychiatry...?
can anyone corroborate this? Particularly in the Army programs.

Thanks!

[Gastrapathy]

Originally Posted by chemist157

Is this possible after a year of Internal Medicine to start a psych res at the 2nd year level? Would that count towards your 48 months of requirements. According to the ACGME document it sounds like IM, FM, or peds year could count for PGY-1 and that year towards the 48 months. Is this program-specific?
Would you be behind because you missed all those PGY-1 inpatient months?

E.g. decide one does not like IM that much and made the wrong decision but does not want to screw his colleagues so stick it out for one year since already matched. THen, graduate internship and slide into psychiatry...?
can anyone corroborate this? Particularly in the Army programs.

Thanks!

You still screw your colleagues to a degree but that is not a reason to do a specialty you don't like. You would probably have to make up some ward months for psych, as well. More than likely, you'd get sent out as a GMO and be able to apply back after that (but you never know, you might just be able to switch directly by applying to the coming GMESB).

[JGL9802]

it is possible to switch to Psych after internship in IM without losing time. I guy in the Navy did this without having to do a GMO tour.

[Ziehl-Nielsen]

I'm sure that it's all program dependent, but here at WRAMC, Psych interns only do 3 months of Psych in their intern year. They do however do another 3months of neurology which is a pretty ironclad requirement. I don't think that you could graduate in 3 years due to these requirements.

I would not say that a GMO tour is imminent should you decide to switch. WRAMC program almost never fills. Some of the residents are pretty poor (to be frank) causing a surprising amount of attrition during residency, and with the current reputation of the WRAMC psych program (unearned by the way, but nobody ever said life is fair) I don't forsee applicants clambering to train here.

Finally, at WRAMC there is the option of doing an IM/Psych combined residency. This program has a history of picking up intelligent psych and medicine residents who decide after their intern year that they really would like to be boarded in both.

[USUHS2008]

I'm a WRAMC (potentially pretty poor) psych PGY-2 right now, and every year we have 1-3 new PGY 2's added to our ranks, mostly from IM or FP but sometimes also from surgery. They all graduate on time, even with the Neuro requirements. There are about 6 months of elective time our PGY-4 year, so the off-cycle residents just make up those months then, or sometimes give up some of their elective time in their PGY-2 year to take care of one. It's really, really no big deal. Get in touch Dr. Moran ( scott. campbell. moran @ us.army.mil ), our program director, he could give you the absolute final word on what would need to be done.