Surgery Intern --> Psych pivot help.

[Enik]

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Hello All,

I recently did not match into my intended specialty but did secure a prelim surgical year. After much self-reflection, I feel like I've made a mistake not applying psych in the first place. Psych rotations were always my favorite as a med student and it doesn't hurt that not a single psych I've met worked a full 40 hour day. Anyhow, I'm a DO applicant with high 240s on STEP1/2, no red flags, and lots of publications (non psych related) . I wanted to ask if anyone is familiar with this process. I'd love to jump into a PGY-2 spot if possible but am unsure how limited those spots are. Also unsure if most programs would just start me as fresh intern or give some sort of leeway since i've already done intern year by the time i start. On ERAS there are no psych "R" spots which are for physician only.

1. Does anyone have a list of programs that accept residents directly into the pgy-2 spots? (I'll be forever in your debt if anyone does). These do not appear in ERAS.
2. If applying now am I looking at repeating intern year? If none of the few programs that offer PGY-2 entry work out?
3. Is it possible to get any kind of credit in residency if starting from PGY-1, some unreliable souses told me that some programs may grant a 6 month credit to the intern year.


Anyone have any other suggestions and/or tips I am all ears. Thanks!!

 

[Ironspy]

1. Yale and a few others do. This has been discussed and available with a forum search. You should also contact programs of interest or programs in locations that work for you to see if they have openings as residents transfer and leave for various reasons
2&3 You should be prepared to repeat at least part of intern year depending on your pgy1 rotations and program needs. Psych has a lot of elective time so you might be able to start as a pgy2 if your receiving program does not need pgy1 coverage and lose some elective time from pgy3&4 to do required rotations.

You should target programs that have at least 1 DO. If your current institution has a psych residency you should contact them ASAP. Welcome& good luck

 

[Merovinge]

Congrats on figuring things out during this time, you still have a chance to make this work well for yourself. I would absolutely not be offended by a PGY-1 spot, as although you have a seemingly amazing CV, there are some yellow flags with the DO and not applying to psych initially. 1 year will be a flash in the pan in the long run. Best of luck.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

More days than not, I'm emailing back to people asking if we have any PGY-II openings. Although there are some programs with PGY-II expansions built in, most of the PGY-II opportunities are from programs where people are leaving or transferring somewhere else. This happens to both good and bad programs and is not frequent event, but it is a universal thing. If you look hard and are very flexible about where you are willing to move to this can work. If you are tied to a particular location and sit and hope someone drops out near by, prepare to get your arms around being a PGY-I again. Surgery rotations do close to nothing if not nothing to fill psych RRC requirements anyway. You can try to negotiate out of some repeat rotations during interviews, but the programs will have about 500 other applicants that aren't trying to negotiate.

 

[Monocles]

nice OP.

I had friends who were surgery pre-lims who transferred into various psych programs as pgy2s. They had to repeat some basic pgy-1 level intro psych rotations but basically had their medicine months waived. Psych is flexible that even if you enter as a pgy2 you'll get all your core ACGME requirements filled by pgy4 (entirely elective year)

cheers

 

[CalmAndCollected]

Hello All,

I recently did not match into my intended specialty but did secure a prelim surgical year. After much self-reflection, I feel like I've made a mistake not applying psych in the first place. Psych rotations were always my favorite as a med student and it doesn't hurt that not a single psych I've met worked a full 40 hour day. Anyhow, I'm a DO applicant with high 240s on STEP1/2, no red flags, and lots of publications (non psych related) . I wanted to ask if anyone is familiar with this process. I'd love to jump into a PGY-2 spot if possible but am unsure how limited those spots are. Also unsure if most programs would just start me as fresh intern or give some sort of leeway since i've already done intern year by the time i start. On ERAS there are no psych "R" spots which are for physician only.

1. Does anyone have a list of programs that accept residents directly into the pgy-2 spots? (I'll be forever in your debt if anyone does). These do not appear in ERAS.
2. If applying now am I looking at repeating intern year? If none of the few programs that offer PGY-2 entry work out?
3. Is it possible to get any kind of credit in residency if starting from PGY-1, some unreliable souses told me that some programs may grant a 6 month credit to the intern year.


Anyone have any other suggestions and/or tips I am all ears. Thanks!!

University of Washington also has PGY2 spots available.

Psychiatry Residency Training Program Vacancies is a good resource to find psych vacancies as well.

 

[Enik]

nice OP.

I had friends who were surgery pre-lims who transferred into various psych programs as pgy2s. They had to repeat some basic pgy-1 level intro psych rotations but basically had their medicine months waived. Psych is flexible that even if you enter as a pgy2 you'll get all your core ACGME requirements filled by pgy4 (entirely elective year)

cheers

That's where my question lies. I know that there are some programs that hold pgy-2 spots open for transfers. However, most of those are the Ivy-league-ish programs which I don't think I have a high chance of obtaining.

So these pre-lims you speak of, did they apply through ERAS for Pgy-1 spots and the programs basically waived their requirements, or did they apply to designated Pgy-2 spots and/or vacancies outside of ERAS.

 

[Enik]

Congrats on figuring things out during this time, you still have a chance to make this work well for yourself. I would absolutely not be offended by a PGY-1 spot, as although you have a seemingly amazing CV, there are some yellow flags with the DO and not applying to psych initially. 1 year will be a flash in the pan in the long run. Best of luck.

The D.O red flag haha. If only during my pre-med years somebody would tell me that simply going to DO school closes many many doors no matter how good an applicant some one can be. I feel bad for the future DOs once step 1 transitions to P/F.

 

[Merovinge]

The D.O red flag haha. If only during my pre-med years somebody would tell me that simply going to DO school closes many many doors no matter how good an applicant some one can be. I feel bad for the future DOs once step 1 transitions to P/F.

I wouldn't internalize anything with the letters, the single best clinical psychiatrist I know is a DO and one of my best mentors was a DO. It's a bit like saying that I went to a well above average state school for my MD, but make no mistake that closed off doors compared to going to Hopkins. With your step scores, if you buy into the humanity behind psychiatry and embrace evidenced based medicine, you'll be in great shape going forward.

 

[CalmAndCollected]

The D.O red flag haha. If only during my pre-med years somebody would tell me that simply going to DO school closes many many doors no matter how good an applicant some one can be. I feel bad for the future DOs once step 1 transitions to P/F.

In general, Psych views applicants more holistically and are much more open to people transferring from other specialties than most.

Psych programs are also quite DO friendly, there are plenty of DOs in top tier programs. I wouldn’t rule out anywhere because you are a DO.

 

[Monocles]

That's where my question lies. I know that there are some programs that hold pgy-2 spots open for transfers. However, most of those are the Ivy-league-ish programs which I don't think I have a high chance of obtaining.

So these pre-lims you speak of, did they apply through ERAS for Pgy-1 spots and the programs basically waived their requirements, or did they apply to designated Pgy-2 spots and/or vacancies outside of ERAS.

nooo that's the wrong way to think about it. "Ivys" aren't nearly as insular and incestuous as most people make them out to be. Just as many psych residents figure out that maybe they don't want to be a psychiatrist/doctor in "ivy programs" (in fact, I would actually argue there's a higher rate anecdotally just because of people saying "**** it" to more rigorous training).

The friends that I know who transfer into psych typically obtain their spots outside of ERAS. They reach out to PDs directly, or have their home program faculty write a referral on their behalf.

Keep in mind a lot of times programs would rather fill their spots with warm bodies than be known as "the ivy program that didn't fill"

the sky's the limit OP, go for it! worse thing is you don't get in but at least you know you've tried!

 

[moto_za]

JHU has a program like that which takes 2nd years from other programs

 

[Enik]

Thank you for the responses and the help everyone! I'm excited to join the psych club!