Doing a PGY-4 child year and then becoming an attending

[psychtorads]

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Is it inappropriate to join a child and adolescent fellowship program as a PGY-4 and then stop after one year to become a general psych attending?

 

[PsychedUp]

This situation does happen, though rarely, probably due to the exposure to child rotations in general residency training and the resultant insight into the specialty of C/A (people typically either love it or hate it, and many initially interested in child decide against it).

I'm not entirely clear on the proposed scenario...

If you're already in a fellowship and it's not your cup of tea, letting the director know and ending after one year will leave you board eligible in general psychiatry. Also, it would avoid any resentment/performing at a level less than you're capable of, which you might not be able to hide if you've been dreading the first year in its entirety.

If your plan is to do one year to get more training in child and then leave to sit for the general boards, this would probably be considered inappropriate in that it leaves the program and your colleagues with one less person to share the workload. Also, it would be quite unlikely that another person would transfer in and fill the vacant 2nd year fellowship slot (unlike a vacant PGY2 slot, which would have a decent chance at being filled). As an example, if I were to leave after this year I would leave 40ish outpatients to be transferred to other providers, not to mention leave one less person in the call schedule rotation and in the rotation schedule.

Just my thoughts, as a current first-year child fellow. If you know you're interested in child and adolescent psychiatry, I'd encourage you to do the full fellowship.

 

[whopper]

It can be done.

I've known 2 people who entered into Child Fellowship, but after doing 1 year of it didn't think it was right for them.

They were able to graduate as general psychiatrists.

But I would advise doing it if that's your plan from the beginning. Its unfair to the fellowship, and they would deserve to know it if that is your intention.

 

[notdeadyet]

But I would advise doing it if that's your plan from the beginning. Its unfair to the fellowship, and they would deserve to know it if that is your intention.

And if you were interested in more exposure to Child Psych but not enough to complete a fellowship, could that be accommodated by choosing child-heavy electives in 4th year of a gen psych program?

(Almost said "more exposure to children", but that just sounded wrong...)

 

[whopper]

Correction, and I apologize because I really do type too fast & sometimes write the wrong word or forget to write a needed word even though my thinking process was correct.

I meant to write "advise against it".

I would hold to that recommendation. When people apply to Child programs they are trying to convince the fellowship that they want to go into the field for real, not just get a little more exposure. Programs interview people based on that assumption.

Going there, and really only intending to be there for 1 year from the beginning is in bad faith unless you explain that to them. If you really just want more child exposure, do some during residency, ask your program to do what they can to expose you to more Child psyche.

If that still isn't enough, well there are Child Psychiatry lecture series, seminars, and such. (All of which point to the importance of going to a program with good overall exposure to the various areas in psychiatry).

It can be strange because there sometimes is a small portion that has a desire to see much more than their program provides, but may not want to do fellowship. Usually people that want to maximize their exposure to Child psychiatry want to go into it, and want to do the fellowship.

 

[GoneGirl824]

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[PikminOC]

Is it inappropriate to join a child and adolescent fellowship program as a PGY-4 and then stop after one year to become a general psych attending?

Are you psych or radiology?

 

[hamstergang]

curious about this and re-visiting an old post.

Advice for those who are currently in CAP but decided that they hate it? Program not what I expected. Don't love the field. Understaffed. Financial obligations... etc etc. Who knows the procedure for leaving? Tried calling ACGME and ABPN. No one has the step by step process.

Advice appreciated.

I would imagine the procedure is to tell your program and not sign a contract for next year. Your program would do whatever they do for making you 'graduated.'

 

[GoneGirl824]

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[GoneGirl824]

Thanks for responses!