questions regarding psychiatry fellowships

[prominence]

---

Members don't see this ad.

a few questions:

1. how difficult is it to get a psychiatry fellowship?

2. how long are psych fellowships? (2 or 3 years)

3. which psych fellowships are the most difficult/competitive to place into? how hard is it to get a child psych or forensic psych fellowship?

4. are there any combined 5 year psych residency-fellowship programs which you can apply to directly? (i.e. psych-child psych or psych-forensic psych)

5. what factors are looked at as far as getting a psych fellowship? (i.e. USMLE step 1/2 scores, LORs from attendings during residency, etc.)

if anyone can provide some insight, i would be thankful.

 

[Asher]

I have no clue what the answers are for some of your questions, but I'll share what little I do know about fellowships. One thing you might want to do is look on frieda at the various fellowships in psychiatry -- by looking at the various program websites you can develop a general sense of what the fellowships are like.

Most psychiatry fellowships are one or two years. Child psychiatry is a two year fellowship which in many cases can begun following the third year of the adult residency, making it a total of five years to complete residency and fellowship. I think in most other cases, fellowships are one year in length and are begun after the completion of PGY-4. The ACGME-approved (at least I think it is the ACGME that is the accrediting body) fellowships include forensics, geriatrics, addiction, sleep medicine, and the newly approved psychosomatic (i.e., consult-liaision). Some programs also offer clinical fellowships in which you can gain additional training in research, mood disorders, etc. I'm not sure but I think you can possibly track into a pain management fellowship from psychiatry but I could be wrong about that.

The combined programs that I'm aware of are the pediatrics/adult psychiatry/child psychiatry "triple board" programs. I briefly considered applying to these but was not certain enough of my interest in child psych to justify the additional commitment for training.

Anyway, hopefully other people can help answer your questions (and correct me where necessary) in between interviews. Again, I would recommend looking up programs on freida.

 

[boards032003]

"1. how difficult is it to get a psychiatry fellowship?"
You can get one. Less people apply than those that apply to general psychiatry. Of course, difficulty depends on where but if you are just trying to get in, there is no problem.

"2. how long are psych fellowships? (2 or 3 years)"
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry is the only "true" fellowship and lasts 2 years but can be entered into after completion of PGY-3. All others are "Additional Qualifications in . . ." and are 1 year after completion of PGY-4.

"3. which psych fellowships are the most difficult/competitive to place into? how hard is it to get a child pscyh or forensic psych fellowship?"
See above and other posts. Child psychiatry is probably the current biggest shortage and even if everyone on the interview trail goes into it for the next 10 years, there will still be a shortage. But geriatric psychiatry is poised to be ridiculous with the aging population. Forensics, addiction, and consult-liason are also the next runners.

"4. are there any combined 5 year psych residency-fellowship programs which you can apply to directly? (i.e. psych-child psych or psych-forensic psych) "
There are triple board child psych-psych-peds, and double board psych-neuro, psych-med, psych-family med, and now a few have come up with the integrated psych-child psych recently. But remember, you can enter child psych after PGY-3 if you want and make it 5 years. There are no combined forensic programs.

"5. what factors are looked at as far as getting a psych fellowship? (i.e. USMLE step 1/2 scores, LORs from attendings during residency, etc.)"
I don't know the answer to this question but I suspect it is like most other fellowships with probably less emphasis on the scores and more on the recommendations, interview, etc.

 

[Dr.Wolkower]

just do well in your residency and you will get your psychiatry fellowship

good-luck😎