Is the USMLE necessary if you want to get a fellowship afterwards?

[PIacebo]

Wanted to know if the USMLE was necessary to take if you are thinking of getting a fellowship after residency (for psych). I understand you would need to take all 3 COMLEX levels as an osteopathic student. Would you be limited in getting fellowships if you did an AOA residency vs an ACGME residency too? With the merger going on by 2020, I would be towards the end of my residency so that is why I am not sure if it would make a difference if you take USMLE or not.

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[Dharma]

I think it's best to take it so you can pocket the beast and stomp out any worries. No clue how not having may affect future prospects but I won't lose a wink since not taking it has never been an option in my mind.

 

[psychattending]

Licensure is completely a different issue than training. One can be in an ACGME approved program and be licensed via the COMLEX.

I do know that an ACGME approved residency program can only count previous ACGME approved training towards credit for a transferring resident. Thus, I would think that ACGME fellowships would require one to have finished an ACGME approved residency program but do not know for certain. I am not up to date on when the different training tracks begin to merge. That info should be out there.

Some fellowship programs want their fellows to have a permanent license so that they can bill for their services. You have to be permanently licensed for that.

A fair number of residency programs and/or states require passing of Step 3 (either COMLEX or USMLE) at some point during residency training.

 

[peppy]

If you are confident you can do well on the USMLE (for example, if you're the type who is naturally good at standardized tests for example) then I'd take it, but if you have any concerns you might bomb it I wouldn't bother. Your accomplishments during residency (publications, leadership roles, clinical experiences) would probably be a bigger factor to most fellowships.

 

[Ψ-117]

I'm a PGY-3 D.O. who will be starting fellowship this year in child & adolescent psychiatry at an ACGME program. When I applied for residency, the rule at the time was that if you wanted to do an ACGME fellowship, then you had to do an ACGME residency (or at least an ACGME-approved intern year), but in the past this didn't matter. With each year that goes by it seems like there are new developments with the AOA and ACGME merging, so I don't really know if this is still necessary. Most ACGME residency and fellowship programs accept the COMLEX, though there may be some which give preference to applicants who took the USMLE. I have never taken a single step of the USMLE and got plenty of interviews for both residency and fellowship.

 

[whopper]

I would give preference to someone that had taken all of their licensing exams. Why? Cause you really can't focus on a specialty as well until you get that last exam out of the way. I wouldn't expect the person's head to be in the game for real with having that exam still on their back.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

So far, C&A is the only fellowship that allows fast tracking. I can understand why someone shouldn’t be allowed to do 3 years in an AOA program, and then 2 years in an ACGME program and be considered board eligible. Licensing is a whole other beast. If you are ACGME trained and obtained a license via COMLEX, I don’t think there are any problems. If there is a problem, it would be because the fellowship recruitment process decided it didn’t like COMLEX. I really don’t think many programs give a hoot about USMLE scores once you are fully licensed. They are much more interested in PRITE scores and clinical performance than USMLE.

 

[Mass Effect]

I would give preference to someone that had taken all of their licensing exams. Why? Cause you really can't focus on a specialty as well until you get that last exam out of the way. I wouldn't expect the person's head to be in the game for real with having that exam still on their back.

That wasn't the question though. The OP is asking if one has to take the USMLE for fellowship prospects versus the COMLEX. They're not asking about completed versus incomplete licensing exam series. At least not by my interpretation.