Please help me

[drvongooru]

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Hi,
I have signed for IM (Prelim),starting 2006,june. with the hope that I could apply to IM ( Ctegorical) for 2007. Now one of my friends said that then I can only apply for a second year position and not a first year position again because of some funding problems. Is that true? If that is true then I should consider that I have made a very big mistake my accepting a prelim position becuase the availability of second year spots will be much less than that of first year spots. Can any one help me in this regard and clarify my doubt. your help will be greatly appreciated.
Thankyou.

 

[southerndoc]

It's only true at smaller programs. Large university programs are accustomed to losing money for resident education.

 

[inositide]

Medicare has assigned limits on the number of years for each postgrad MD that Medicare will pay a program. It is true that some programs might not want you to start at the PGY1 level after already completing a PGY1 year because of this medicare funding issue. However, keep in mind that medicare pays a teaching hospital $80,000+ for each house staff member, even though the housestaff salary is only a fraction of this amount. what this means is that if the program really needs someone, they can afford to take you even they dont get medicare funding for your spot as a repeating PGY1.

I would not second guess your decision to accep the prelim spot. At least you are now "in the system" and there are a lot of programs where pgy2 openings came available. You should not have a problem finding something. Worst case scenario, if you dont match to a pgy2 spot in next year's match, you can always join the NRMP's "Find a Resident" listing and there will certainly be some pgy2 spots opening up. In medicine there are so many spots that a program has to fill that some spots do open up during the year unexpectedly.

So the bottom line is that you did the right thing and you should be able to pick up a pgy2 spot for next year.

 

[analu]

drvongooru,
i wouldn't worry too much if you want to continue on as a categorical IM. very first step is to talk to the program director at your prelim program and express interest in continuing on as a categorical resident. when i interviewed for prelim med, i was told that "space would be made for me" if i chose to forgo my specialty training and opt for a categorical im spot. the same might be done for you at your current program. good luck.

 

[drvongooru]

Thankyou for your reply

 

[radonc]

agreed with above. plus more people drop out of IM than you think, and PGY-2 spots open up frequently.

 

[drvongooru]

I thankyou all very much for your replies and support.
Hey,I only know of Find a Resident to find PGY-2 spots do you suggest any other way of finding PGY-2 spots. Please tell me what all I can do to find an open PGY-2 spot.
Thanks,
Haree