Programs with an integrated internship

[Toadkiller Dog]

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Howdy, all--

I've been digging around for ops programs with an integrated internship year that includes some ophthalmology. So far I've found only 2: U of Washington and Utah. Anybody know of any others?

On another note--my decision to go into ops was sealed the other day with the receipt of my Step I scores: 246/99! Dig it! Needless to say, I was ecstatic. Sorry, just needed to toot my horn a little bit. 🙂

 

[glacayo]

Toad Killer,

Rush/Presbyterian/St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago has an integrated PGY-1 if accepted into their residency program:

Rotations:
3months of general surgery
2 months of medicine wards
1 month of Derm
1 month of Neuro
1 month of ID
1 month of Plastics
1 month of Neurosurgery
1 month of ENT
1 month of Ophtho at the end of the year

The schedule is pretty sweet and there are 4 call free months and four weeks vacation.

Check it out

I just did Derm (heaven on earth) and started Neuro, which is great.

good luck

 

[Primate]

Why was derm "heaven on earth?" Hours alone? Interesting?

Just (very) curious.

P

 

[Gottschalk]

William Beaumont also has an integrated program. While I have heard that they are strong in retina, I don't know how their general ophthalmology residency compares.

Also if you go to the SF Match website, the integrated programs are denoted 1+3 while the non-integrated programs are 1/3.

Hope this helps.

 

[GlaucomaMD]

I'm not sure why you'd actually want to go to a program that forces you to do the internship at the same program. Often that means working a lot for general surgery department, etc.

For anyone that matches at Baylor (Houston, Texas), you are guaranteed a spot in their transitional year program. (But you do NOT have to take it, of course) Medicine Ward months can be little tough but you can schedule several months of electives like radiology and derm where you are done before lunch (if you want) and also do up to 3 months of ophthalmology (if you want; key is you are NOT required). You would be acting almost like a first year ophth resident, except that each patient needs to be checked out to ophth resident or attending.

I think you should look for a program that gives you flexibility. If they are forcing you to do the internship at a particular place, you have to wonder WHY?

 

[Toadkiller Dog]

Thanks, Dr. Chang, for the insight. I guess I hadn't thought of it that way!

My chief motivation is the appeal of not having to move twice. I have two children, one of whom will be ready for school my internship year. The schools here are lousy, and moving a family of 4 twice is a pain to say the least.

UW appealed to me b/c they have (I think) 3 months of ophtho in their internship year. The less time I have to spend on extraneous services, the better, IMO.

It seems a lot of places offer an internship year, but not many have it integrated (i.e, it has no ops rotation).

If all else fails, we'll just hang here for the first year and home school. Heck, my wife was a teacher, after all!

 

[7ontheline]

You can always take the chance that you'll find an intern year program in the same city you match in ophtho. Maybe you might need to consider some slightly less cush programs, like perhaps an IM prelim year, but you could probably find one. I tend to agree with Dr. Chang. I've heard only bad things about integrated programs. C'mon, look at that Rush schedule for instance: Sure the previous poster likes it OK, he's only done Derm and Neuro. Wait till he gets to all those surgery months. 4 months of no call and 4 weeks vacation is not that special, I think, especially with so much gen surg, neurosurg, etc. My IM prelim year had 4 weeks vacation and 5 months of no call, and no surgery. I did have a month of night float though, which made all my call months a LOT easier.