Prelim Medicine vs Surgery

[RickKane]

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Many of the programs I am interested in only offer advanced postions. I am having a difficult time trying to figure out if I should do Prelim Medicine or Surgery. Applying for both adds up quick$$$. Any comment on the pros and cons of either would be appreciated. Which will better prepare me to be a CA-1?

 

[Trisomy13]

Many of the programs I am interested in only offer advanced postions. I am having a difficult time trying to figure out if I should do Prelim Medicine or Surgery. Applying for both adds up quick$$$. Any comment on the pros and cons of either would be appreciated. Which will better prepare me to be a CA-1?

If you enjoy slamming your fingers in a car door repeatedly, I recommend a Prelim Medicine year. Be sure to ask for extra clinic days!



Do a search - this has been covered. The bottom line is both "prepare you" equally, i.e. not vey much, for that first day alone with your machine. Pick one that makes you less nauseated, and go for it. Or do a transitional year and do some months of both.

 

[milrisome]

I did a medicine year, and I think it was a good way to go. A) I didn't have to put up with surgeons yelling at me all year B) I already knew stuff like how to eval pt's for surgery preop from cardiac and pulmonary, how to treat acute MI's, COPD, DM, resp. failure, etc. Of course, I also spent a lot of time doing stuff like adjusting cholesterol meds and telling pt's to quite smoking.

If I had to do it again, tho, I might do transitional year so I could have a life.

 

[TayShaun]

I'm currently doing a transitional internship before starting anesthesiology residency next year. I HIGHLY recommend doing the transitional year over prelim medicine and prelim surgery. I also suggest applying to a couple of prelim med places for backup. Advantages of transitional:

1) Most (at least all that I applied to) have no clinic.

2) Having done both medicine and surgery, I can say that you learn a *lot* more on medicine than on surgery, though surgery is much more fun. Transitional programs let you get the best of both worlds (or the worst of both worlds, depending on your outlook).

3) You will most likely get more elective months in transitional programs than prelim med/surg.

4) Transitional interns -- i.e. your co-interns -- tend to go into anesthesiology, derm, rads, optho, among others. These are pretty smart people who are also laid back. Makes intern year more enjoyable.

5) Transitional programs tend to be more cush than other internships.

Good luck.

 

[milrisome]

Some anesthesia programs have a prelim year attached to their residency for a few slots. This might be nice b/c you get to spend some time in the OR which gives you a HUGE advantage over the peeps coming in to the OR for the first time on July 1. And you get to know the attendings, senior residents, etc that you will be spending your next 3 years with.

 

[dionysios]

Definitely find a transitional year!! I am doing a peds transitional year and it is great. I have 4 months of electives and a month of peds anesthesiology.

 

[Noyac]

Some anesthesia programs have a prelim year attached to their residency for a few slots. This might be nice b/c you get to spend some time in the OR which gives you a HUGE advantage over the peeps coming in to the OR for the first time on July 1. And you get to know the attendings, senior residents, etc that you will be spending your next 3 years with.

That advantage is short lived/

I wouldn't do any OR time in the first year if I had the choice. You have the rest of your life to spend in the OR. Use the time to learn something that will be useful to you.

 

[bigdan]

I thought there was a push to get all the residency programs to have 4 year programs (ie anes. dept controlled intern year + 3 anes residency) around 2008 or so. Not true? Not gonna happen?

dc

 

[pjl]

It is only 60 dollars to apply to ten places, so 120 for both types. You can always go to a few interviews of each type and see if you can find a less angry surgery department or a less roundy medicine department. Don't worry about going on a bunch of interviews for a prelim year, there are MANY more spots than applicants at all but the most choice places, and you can always scramble without trouble.