sleep medicine application

[WHOIZME]

Hello,

I am a resident interseted in applying to sleep medicine. Just had a quick question for the people applying to sleep medicine in terms of how much exposure they have had to the field. Did you guys do a 2 week to 1 month elective in sleep and/or spend a lot of time in the sleep lab? Or do most applicants go into sleep without much exposure to the field? Especially those applicants from neurology, psychiatry, and anesthesia.

Thanks

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[Shikima]

I applied coming out of residency, with little exposure and a desire to learn about sleep (as I'd been deprived over the previous 4 years). Fortunately (or unfortunately) I didn't get a lot of sleep and had an excellent education. Changed the way I approach patient care completely. If you're hungry to learn about a subject and want to do it, then pursue the training!

 

[munnabhaiMD]

Hi Shikima, not sure of your primary speciality but what are your thoughts about the current job scenario for psych/sleep. It seems that being adult or child psych trained, one might have some difficulty finding a position. Thanks

 

[Shikima]

Too dang difficult. Employers want a box filled.... Psych. Period. Round hole with a round peg. Problem in sleep medicine I'm facing now is the poor follow-up from the sleep apnea mills - they're happy to get the charges and boot them out the door. DMEs are equally piss-poor with their compliance reports, they mostly care about usage to get the insurance company reimbursements.

 

[munnabhaiMD]

Thanks Shikima. How competitive is a sleep fellowship with a psych background. What are the programs usually looking for? For myself, I've done electives in sleep during my training but am out of training for the last 2 years.

 

[Shikima]

Last I heard there were programs open. I'd just start calling programs in areas you'd like to train and ask them questions about the process and how they approach sleep.