Preliminary Residency

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oxford

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What exactly is a preliminary residency. I saw it listed on scutwork.com and am not really sure what it is.
thanks :p

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Hmmmmm....here's my guess,
If you match to a residency like cardiology, anaesthesiology (sp), I think you have to do a one-year internal medicine internship and then go to your residency. I know a guy who matched anaesthesiology (sp, again) in NY, but is doing his internship in Denver.

This is the best answer you'll get until someone comes along with a better one, or the point at which my lovemaster Queen Kim will give you the definitive answer and then move this thread to R&R.

Eric
 
Some programs require a "transitional year" as stated above by EricCSU. I think examples of this include some 4-year EM programs. Some of the Surgery programs have transitional year requirements also.

You might want to check the NRMP site to investigate this further.

All DO residencies require a general "intern" year prior to entering the residency of choice as I understand it.
 
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That's pretty much correct. There are some residency programs that require you to do a year of either preliminary medicine or preliminary surgery, or a transitional year. What this basically means is that you have to do a medicine or surgery internship before you start training in the field of your choice. You may do a preliminary year at the institution that you will be continuing your training in, or you can do it somewhere else. From what I understand, a transitional year is basically like glorified med school (with responsibility) -- you do a mix of a whole bunch of specialties, including surgical as well as medical.

Examples of programs that require this are some EMed programs, radiology, ophthomology, dermatology. Cardiology does not fit into this category -- you have to do a full 3-year internal medicine residency, then you do a 3-4 year cardiology fellowship after that.
 
Thanks for answering the question guys! yes, Preliminary residencies are DESIGNED as initial introductory years to other residencies. Most commonly things like Anesth, EM, Radiology, Psychiatry, etc. You can do one in Medicine or Surgery.

We have several Prelims in our program: some of them took prelim spots because they didn't get into the specialty of their choice and are trying to do so again next year after having the Prelim year (otherwise hardly anyone does a Prelim Surgery year because in most specialties you can do either Med or Surg and the hours and lifestyle are worse in Surg, so why choose it?)

Hope this helps. :D And now we'll move to Rotations and Residencies.
 
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