Child psych "track" question

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When are you required to let your program know that you want to do the child & adolescent fellowship

  • Before the start of intern year

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Half way through intern year

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Before the end of intern year

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Half way through 2nd year

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Before the end of 2nd year

    Votes: 2 66.7%
  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    3

Not_a_psychic

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Was talking to a friend who is interviewing for psych this year and the topic of child psych fellowship came up. He said that he was interviewing at a program and the residents at the interview dinner said that in order to do the 3 (adult) + 2 (child) fellowship, residents had to enter what the program called the child fellowship "track." This seemed pretty standard except for one caveat, in order to do so, the residents have to let the program director know that they want to do the child fellowship by January....of intern year. If not, they were forced into doing 4 (adult) + 2 (child) if they wanted to do the fellowship. My first guess was that maybe the program was small. No, they take over 7 residents/year & both their inpatient units have less than 15 beds.

Is this common practice? How would the program expect you to know you want to do the child fellowship by January of intern year, BEFORE you've done a child rotation as a resident? Am I taking crazy pills or does this sound ridiculous? Would this be a deal breaker for you when deciding where to rank the program if you were considering the child fellowship?

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With most programs, it's really just a matter of being able to plan. I imagine the "notify by Jan of G1" programs are trying to ensure that those residents can get the appropriate CAP exposure in G2, or ensure that they have all of their required rotations done before transferring out.
In addition, even though most programs don't depend on their G4s to cover call, etc., being able to anticipate the # residents you "lose" from your general program determines how many new G1 positions you can offer in the match in the following year based on your allowed caps on # positions and Medicare funding, and it's really good to know that by January if it will vary year to year. I like to have a pretty good idea by mid G2, but I don't make residents sign their life away either direction.
 
Yeah, our shop used to be very flexible about people switching into the child track until in one class 11/13 people ended up in the child track. Now we are requiring applicants to apply specifically to it.

And if they don't get "accepted?" They cannot fast track..?
 
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