Residency Transitions

[gflanag]

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I'm preparing to choose where to go to medical school and I am trying to familiarize myself with the transition from med school to residencies to fellowships etc. For example.. does a student aspiring to be an ortho surgeon apply for this residency right away or do they apply for a gen surg spot and then apply again as they try to specialize more and more. And since this is only one example I used b/c it is a very specialized and competitive option, does the answer to this hold true for most options? In other words: do you apply for your final decision the first time you attempt to match, do you take it step by step as you get more specialized, or do both scenarios happen depening on your choice?

 

[Winged Scapula]

I'm preparing to choose where to go to medical school and I am trying to familiarize myself with the transition from med school to residencies to fellowships etc. For example.. does a student aspiring to be an ortho surgeon apply for this residency right away or do they apply for a gen surg spot and then apply again as they try to specialize more and more. And since this is only one example I used b/c it is a very specialized and competitive option, does the answer to this hold true for most options? In other words: do you apply for your final decision the first time you attempt to match, do you take it step by step as you get more specialized, or do both scenarios happen depening on your choice?

There are a variety of paths to medical specialization. To use your example of Orthopaedic Surgery, the applicant applies for his residency position in Ortho early in the 4th year of medical school. Many who are unsuccessful in getting into Ortho may use Gen Surg as a back-up but this is not the typical route.

Other surgical subspecialties (ie, ENT, Ophtho, Urology, etc.) are also applied for during the final year of medical school and either include the required PGY1 internship in Gen Surg, or the applicant matches for that separately. The same is true for other PGY2 (or advanced) matches like Derm, Rads, Anesth - a first year either in Prelim Gen Surg, Transitional Year or Prelim Medicine is applied for at the same time that training for the advanced position is applied for (to start in 2 years).

Those who are interested in subspecialties which require fellowship training do their basic residency training and apply for the advanced training usually the 2nd to last or last year in residency. Thus an Orthopaedic resident interested in Spinal Surgery would apply for this fellowship as he nears the end of his basic Ortho training.

Unlike the European model, in which physicians do engage in a period of basic training before applying for more advanced positions, in the US, residency is applied for during the final year of medical school.

 

[gflanag]

Thanks for the help 🙂