Alternatives to 5th pathway

[Peeshee]

Hello,
I have heard that it IS possible to set up your own "5th pathway," meaning that you contact the hospital/school you are interested in doing an "internship" year and if they agree to provide you with the required rotations that you need for residency/licensure, then this can count as the 5th year.
I'd like to know though - has anyone done this route? Do you know anyone who has gone this way?
It sounds like an interesting option to pursue, due to the HUGE savings of money and also the ability to choose the location/hospital (possibly in a place you might want to do residency).
Hope to hear from someone.
thanks!

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[Skip Intro]

Fifth pathway, for all practical purposes, only applies to U.S. students of Mexican medical schools who are required by Mexican law to do two years of civil service free of charge before they officially graduate and give you a degree (i.e., before you can become ECFMG certified). If you do not want to stay in Mexico to do this service, you can instead come back to the U.S. and do a "fifth pathway" year to fulfill your degree requirements. If you are already a graduate of a Mexican medical school and have already fulfilled your social service requirement in Mexico, this does not apply to you.

Here is a link to more info on this program:

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/10255.html

If you are not required by the country in which the school you matriculated exists, you do not have to do a "fifth pathway" year (and I would highly recommend not to this if you are expecting to receive a diploma and graduate from your school, unless you have done ZERO clinical training in the U.S. and really believe you won't secure a residency in the match).

Because you are actually accepting a "fifth pathway" certification instead of a medical diploma, there are some very specific requirements you must fulfill. So, read this page in its entirety too: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/9306.html#pway1

-Skip

 

[Peeshee]

Skip,
thanks for the info. I do know about the 5th pathway program but I have been informed that it IS possible to set up your own 5th pathway program (meaning year of clinical experience in US hospital),instead of going to the already established one in NYMC. I just would like to see if anyone has actually done this and what their experience has been. I dont think it's very common and have never actually met anyone that has done so though.
thanks!

 

[Miklos]

Skip,
thanks for the info. I do know about the 5th pathway program but I have been informed that it IS possible to set up your own 5th pathway program (meaning year of clinical experience in US hospital),instead of going to the already established one in NYMC. I just would like to see if anyone has actually done this and what their experience has been. I dont think it's very common and have never actually met anyone that has done so though.
thanks!

I think that you are misinformed.

A Fifth Pathway program (as Skip correctly points out) is strictly an alternative way of having your diploma recognized without going through the ECFMG process. It is available only to US citizen grads from countries where an internship or social service year is part of the training. A Fifth pathway is governed by a US med school (e.g. NYMC or Ponce).

What you are describing is a year of clinical experience. This is not a Fifth Pathway (confusingly NYMC offers both at a relatively high price see http://www.nymc.edu/depthome/fifth.asp ). The problems in independently doing a year of clinical training outside of a med school program (e.g. like those in the Carib) before residency training are:

1) You need a sponsoring hospital/university who will accept you.
2) You need malpractice insurance.
3) Cost in the case of NYMCs program
4) Legal and institutional restrictions on length (e.g. in NY State unless your med school is approved, you can only do 12 weeks of clinical training pre-graduation)

These barriers are often insurmountable, unless you are looking for an observership or visiting electives (but no visiting electives I've ever heard of are a year in length.) There are hospitals that offer observerships (which may be longer than what visiting electives normally permit), however, legally in an observership program you literally cannot touch the patient. In addition, medical boards such as California's will not credit observerships towards diploma requirements.

Miklos