Breaking up a residency in two locations

[Dr. Whatever]

I am wondering if it is possible to break up an internship year from the rest of the residency years. For instance, if I wasn't completely sure that I would like to live in a particular city for 4 years if I could plan on spending my internship year and complete the remainder of my residency somewhere else. Is this highly unusual or impossible. My concern is that this is a major commitment of time and you never really know what a place is like until you have lived there. Interviewing does not necessarily give you an honest feel for the location.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

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[njbmd]

Hi there,
If you are interviewing for a residency like pathology, anesthesia, radiology, ENT, orthopedic surgery and others that require a preliminary year, you would be OK doing this doing a prelim year in a city or location that is different from where you do your main residency.

Most of the residencies that require a preliminary year are very competitive so you want to have the rest of your residency set while you are doing your preliminary year.

Some residency programs that require a preliminary year will want you to do that prelim year at their institution so beware of this.

The best thing to do is to not interview in places that you don't want to live. It doesn't make much sense to apply to a program if you can't stand the city. Even in Internal Medicine, Peds or Family Medicine where you have a shorter residency, you are going to be miserable if you hate where you live.

The other thing to consider is that many people tend to practice where they do their residency. You may want to take this into consideration when selecting your programs for ERAS. By the time you are filling out ERAS, you should have some idea of which programs and locations are most desirable for you and what your chances are of actually matching into those programs.

Good luck!
njbmd