Is residency done in one place?

[Sloopy52]

I have searched sdn and can’t find the answer to this basic question. Please re-direct me if you know where to go!
How exactly does residency work? You go to medical school for 4 yrs and then you apply for residency via the whole match system thing…but are you applying to residency at medical schools or at hospitals? If you get accepted into a residency program, then do you stay at the med school/hosp. where you’re doing your residency for the whole 3 years or are you traveling around the country during that time to different schools/hospitals? Sorry for the basic ?s, I’m a new pre-med!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[fluffy0]

I have searched sdn and can't find the answer to this basic question. Please re-direct me if you know where to go!
How exactly does residency work? You go to medical school for 4 yrs and then you apply for residency via the whole match system thing…but are you applying to residency at medical schools or at hospitals? If you get accepted into a residency program, then do you stay at the med school/hosp. where you're doing your residency for the whole 3 years or are you traveling around the country during that time to different schools/hospitals? Sorry for the basic ?s, I'm a new pre-med!

Typically, residency will be at one hospital or hospital system. Often residency's are paid for by some government agency or a medical school, so a lot of times the residency will be listed at a specific medical school, although the actual resident will be at a hospital affiliated with that school, or the schools teaching hospital.

Some people do a 1 year rotating internship before residency to make their application more competitive and then apply for a residency...so in that case you'd be in two or more places.

Also, if you want to specialize/sub-specialize, you then have to do a fellowship, which may be at a different hospital.

 

[Sloopy52]

So let's say you get accepted to a specific hospital for residency...

You would serve as a resident at that one hospital for 3 years (or longer, depending on specialty)? You wouldn't have to move, you would stay in the same city for the legnth of residency? When I go for OMT appts at a private practice, there are residents there for about a month at a time...which leads me to believe that they are travelling around a lot.
I am trying to coordinate with my bf who's pursuing a phd and want to know if (pending I complete all pre reqs, get accepted, and actually make it to residency.....easy as pie 😉) I would hypothetically be doing residency in one city for the full 3(?) yrs.

Thanks for your help!

 

[DocEspana]

Some do. its program by program. If you see a program at a hospital and its an "obvious" that they need that many residents than its likely all in the same hospital/system. I understand this to be the most common situation.

If you see lots of residents in lots of programs that seem like overkill for the hospitals patient load, then the residents are likely farmed out pretty widely. A good example of this is the hospital I'm rotating at. St. John's Episcopal is the third, and smallest, of three hospitals serving the JFK/Jamaica/Far Rockaway Queens area. Despite this they have a huge number of residents in all sorts of stuff, including specialties like derm and ophtho. Sure the area needs ophtho's since JFK/Jamaica/F.R. is pretty crowded, and I'm not sure if Jamaica Hospital or Peninsula trains ophthos..... but its still far too many for the area. Their ophtho's (and their surgeons and their derms) are all farmed out to other hospitals in Brooklyn and Manhattan on a rotating basis. My cousin was a St. John's ophtho resident and his primary hospital was in Brooklyn with occasional months at St. John's in Queens or Lennox Hill in Manhattan

 

[MeowMix]

You match into a residency at a specific hospital or university or other med center. Hospitals may be private, community, large nonprofit or academic. In large cities/urban areas, residents may end up rotating through multiple hospitals across town. You usually do not go to different cities or states for extended periods.

Residency education is funded by the govt, but each program must have a sponsoring institution.

Med school is the bigger geographic question, especially for DOs. You could easily end up rotating across the country during 3rd/4th yr.

Your bf will probably be done with grad school by the time you're ready to match.

 

[LifeTake2]

When I go for OMT appts at a private practice, there are residents there for about a month at a time...

FYI, this sounds much more likely that you are seeing 3rd/4th year medical students on rotations rather than residents.