This isn't specific to OU or anything, but it seemed as good a place as any to post it.
Does anyone know a good resource that tells your how long of a residency to expect for a given specialty? I have also discovered that fellowships are optional... what is the benefit of taking on a fellowship when you are already in say, a cardio-thoracic surgery residency?
I'm a non-traditional student to begin with, and I am fairly certain that I will want to specialize. I am just trying to get a better time frame to when I may actually begin to practice.
Oh, one more thing, what is the definition of an attending? Obviously, it is the doctor in charge of a patient, but is that always going to be someone who has completed their residency? Will that include a fellow?
I am positive this is posted somewhere in this forum, but all of my searches yielded far too much information.
Attending = actual doctor sending the bill to the insurance company, typically board certified (did a residency). The doctor of record even though in an academic setting, the patient is often likely to never see the attending. Buck stops there.
If you are a fellow, you are still PGY (post graduate year) even though you are probably already board certified and licensed. A PGY-5 in an IM subspecialty is already a fellow. A PGY-5 in radiology is still a "resident." Many schools give uniform compensation that is doled out according to PGY-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. independent of resident/fellow status.
Try
www.studentsofmedicine.com as a good starting place. Click on specialties. Some of it is not 100% correct, but it gives a list that you can navigate from easily.
CT surgery requires a fellowship. Med school 4 years, general surgery 5, CT an additional 2 (I think). Not sure, anything surgical is already off of my list.
Internal med, family practice, peds are considered primary care and take three years. Usually the benefit of doing an additional fellowship is more salary, and there is more competition at the level of fellowship (not every internist gets to become a cardiologist, GI doc, or hemonc).
Some of the more competative specialties require a year of PGY that used to be called an intern year. These include derm, EM, rads, anesthesiology, and psych (which isn't a competative specialty). It's basically a year of preliminary IM that helps you with your step III so you can be licensed. For some reason, path has never needed it. If you are a superstar and want to move away, you can opt to do the year as a transitional internship which samples from a broad menu of specialties.
Minimum time from matriculation to starting practice is seven years unless you just want to work in a doc-in-a-box (then you can practice with a license after step III without being board certified but don't expect to be on anybody's insurance).
You can be an IM attending and then go back and do a fellowship years later, or you can do multiple fellowships. Fellowships vary widely with respect to residency.
Now a fellow COULD be an attending if he or she is moonlighting away from their training program. Make sense?
That is my attitude towards them.
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