Questions about match list

[Scintillation]

I haven't started med school yet, so whenever I look at a match list I am not exactly sure what everything means. Can anyone fill me in on the following:

What does preliminary mean? I have seen it with "surgery" and "medicine" What specialties does this ultimately lead to?

And what about transitional? Is this for people that just haven't decided yet or what?

Also, why do some people have what appears to be more than one match.
Ex:
Surgery - Prelim at blah blah hospital
Radiology-Diagnostic at this and that hospital

I have seen surgery-prelim/urology or these two listed separately...whats the deal with that? I understand that urology entails surgery, but why are they listed separately?


love,
match *****

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[njbmd]

Preliminary Residency - PGY-1 or PGY-1 & 2 then on to something else like Anesthesia, Optho etc or person who was unable to match categorical into Surgery or Medicine doing a Prelim year.

Categorical Residency - All years if satisfactory progress

Transitional - One year with rotations thorough Med, Peds, Surgery (if desired)

Prelim Surgery Uro - Designated surgery PGY1 slot for person who has matched in Urology.

 

[pillowhead]

Several specialites, such as PM&R, radiology, radiation oncology, anesthesiology, ophthalmology, urology, otolarngology, etc, require a one year internship in a different field before beginning the more specific training for one of the above fields. For surgical subspecialties, this is usually done by doing one or two years of preliminary general surgery before then entering neurosurgery, urology, etc. If one wanted to pursue general surgery as a residency, one would choose to to a categorical general surgery residency instead or a preliminary one. Therefore, a match list may show two matches for one person with one of those being the preliminary intern year position and the other being categorical, final training.

For non-surgical specialites, one could choose to do a preliminary year of internal medicine (a categorical internal medicine residency would lead a person to be qualified for practicing internal medicine) or a transitional year. A transitional year usually has more electives than either a prelimnary year in internal medicine or surgery and can involve all specialties.

Finally, some people unfortuantely do not match into the field of their choice and are left with doing an internship in anything rather than nothing at all. Many people do a preliminary year in internal medicine or general surgery hoping that the program will keep them on to finish training. Others do a transitional year in the hopes that next year they will match into a more competitive specialty dermatology. Of course, there are no guarantees and those folks may end up having nowhere to finish their training after completing a preliminary or transitional year.

hope that helps!