Question regarding purpose of surgical prelim

[drpapaya]

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Under what circumstances would one choose to do a surgical prelim year as opposed to a categorical year?

Ex. If a M4 wanted to do orthopaedics but instead matched to surgical prelim, what does that mean?

 

[drizzt3117]

It means they failed to match and scrambled into it.

That said, not everyone who does prelim surgery is someone who failed to match. I'm planning to do prelim surg before diagnostic radiology. I imagine a few people who are doing anesthesia and rads might do the same thing (probably no derm people, though)

 

[Smurfette]

Actually, the ortho, GU, ENT and ophtho residents at my hospital had a 1 yr (designated) surgery prelim spot that they matched into with their (advanced) categorical spot. In order to meet RRC requirements, they had to have some 'core' surgery rotations. People who failed to match but wanted to do something surgical/procedural also would do a surg prelim year---this would give them the possibility of finding a PGY1 categorical position (go thru the match again) or a PGY2 spot (to not match and fill a spot that opens up) in a field that granted credit for the prelim year so they won't have to repeat internship.

Edit: we once had a derm resident choose to do a surg prelim year. She was a fantastic intern, and loved doing all the minor procedural stuff---lumps/bumps, suturing, wounds. She thought it would give her more experience and comfort dealing with skin lesions....

 

[OveractiveBrain]

(1) Advanced vs Categorical. Some positions have both. Advanced means you matched into your residency of choosing (Rad-Onc, Optho) but THAT program has no intern year for you. So you have to go find somewhere else to do a year. Categorical means they not only have the residency of your choosing (Rad-Onc, Optho), but they also have an intern year for you.

The advanced person will match preliminary surgery, University of Surgery AND match Dermatology, University of Dermatology

The categorical person will match Radiology-Oncology University of High Step 1 Scores

(2) Fail to match. Some one who has ONLY a prelim program is some one who failed to match and likely scrambled. Since basically ALL spots except family medicine (likely not their intended career choice) and prelim surgery were taken, it is better to do a year of internship, then try again, than it is to do nothing and try again.

Some programs take prelims so that interns intentionally exceed categorical spots. This allows programs to fire categoricals and take prelims. Great for the prelim, terrible for the categorical that got fired.

Some programs will take a prelim PGY-1 graduate and hire them into a PGY-2 spot at a different hospital. This is rare.

Basically every other prelim-only match is going to do ANOTHER year of internship as they match this year "as they would have" into a categorical program. That first prelim year was just to say "i practiced medicine and I done good, let me in!"

This person will read Preliminary Surgery - University of Didnt Match, sorry dude