osteo/allo Em residency

[IdontTakeCall]

So i spoke with the residency director of one of the D.O. em residency programs and he said that the AOA changed em residencies from 3 years to 4 years, thus making osteopathic em residencies a year longer than allopathic ones. has anyone else heard anything like this? the allo ones im looking at are all 3 years...so is it only the osteo ones that are now 4 and if so is it all of them?

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[Aloha Kid]

Yes, you are right. All DO EM residencies are 4 years. What you don't know is that MANY allopathic residencies are 4 years as well. The trend seems to be 4 year residencies.

 

[tkim]

Yes, you are right. All DO EM residencies are 4 years. What you don't know is that MANY allopathic residencies are 4 years as well. The trend seems to be 4 year residencies.

The ratio of 3 versus 4 year allopathic programs is roughly 3:1:

http://www.emra.org/emra_articles.aspx?id=29472

"As of January 2006, there are 102 PGY 1 - 3 programs, 16 PGY 2 - 4 programs, and 19 PGY 1 - 4 programs accredited by the ACGME. There are also five-year combined programs in Emergency medicine/Pediatrics and Emergency medicine/Internal medicine. Additionally, the American Osteopathic Association has accredited 33 Osteopathic Emergency medicine residencies, which require 4 years of postgraduate training (PGY 2 - 4 after a separate Osteopathic internship)."

 

[LadyGrey]

The only "change" in DO residencies is that in EM (and many, many others) it's no longer a one year rotating internship and then a three year residency -- the internship year is part of the EM residency and is EM-focused. (Though some programs maintain more of the feel of traditional rotating year than others). So tkim's quote is out of date wrt osteopathic EM -- this changed pretty recently.

The 3-vs-4 debate is a tough one, with (it seems to me at this point) good arguments on both sides. I've applied to and am interviewing at about equal numbers of each; although the 3 years may predominate overall, there's some geographical variation. My general sense, having interviewed at some of each so far, is that the 4-year programs claim to be the better route to academia; if you have any inclinations that way and do a 3-year, you're "required" to do a fellowship to be taken seriously.

 

[IdontTakeCall]

man that sucks an extra year of making no money is no fun. I was looking forward to only having to commit 3 years to 65 hour weeks at 40k.