switching careers to psychiatry

[tesla]

For many reasons, I am considering switching careers. I am already board certified in another specialty.

Would I have to do the whole four years of psych residency? Or could I get any credit for at least the internship year? How would I even find out about openings in the PGY2 year?

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[Blain77]

Would it be too invasive of me to ask what some of the reasons you want to switch are?

I'm looking at psych and the experience gained buy those ahead of me is valuable in my decision process.

 

[Doc Samson]

You'd get credit for the rotations you'd already done. Most transfers easily meet the IM requirement, the 2 months of neuro is another question. Typically, you could be done in 3 years, but you may have to give up some elective time to cover required 1st year rotations that you did not already do in internship. Open PGY-2 positions are sometimes advertised in pubs like Psychiatry News, but are also often available by "word of mouth" (e.g., I know that the U of Arizona/UPHK program just expanded it's class size, so are recruiting an extra PGY-2) - calling programs in a geographic area you ahve interest in wouldn't hurt.

 

[whopper]

How long have you been out of residency? That could also factor in if your past rotations could count.

 

[tesla]

How long have you been out of residency? That could also factor in if your past rotations could count.

I am two years out of residency.

 

[psychattending]

You'd get credit for the rotations you'd already done. Most transfers easily meet the IM requirement, the 2 months of neuro is another question. Typically, you could be done in 3 years, but you may have to give up some elective time to cover required 1st year rotations that you did not already do in internship. Open PGY-2 positions are sometimes advertised in pubs like Psychiatry News, but are also often available by "word of mouth" (e.g., I know that the U of Arizona/UPHK program just expanded it's class size, so are recruiting an extra PGY-2) - calling programs in a geographic area you ahve interest in wouldn't hurt.

Doc has it correct. Psych boards require internal medicine to be in the PG1 year; so if you have that you will probably get it done in 3 years. If you did something like a path, radiology or surgery and did not have any good internal medicine experience you might need to do 4 years (Look on the ABPN website). Psych boards do not like it when people do part years so you really can't do part years. Distance from previous training is not officially a criterion for the ABPN.

PGY2 positions are usually not advertised; so you will need to contact each program directly. Some programs do take PGY2 residents routinely. San Diego used to do so but I have not checked recently.

 

[HoodyHoo]

hey guys I'm an internal medicine resident at an osteopathic program that has decided to switch to allopathic psychiatry. I know that in the past we have had trouble switching into PGY2 spots secondary to the fact that all of our first years were considered "traditional intern years". Currently starting this year the first year has changed into a PGY1 residency.....thus I was wondering if that may now count toward some credit for psych?

any of you guys know where I can find out about this? thanks so much

 

[BobA]

hey guys I'm an internal medicine resident at an osteopathic program that has decided to switch to allopathic psychiatry. I know that in the past we have had trouble switching into PGY2 spots secondary to the fact that all of our first years were considered "traditional intern years". Currently starting this year the first year has changed into a PGY1 residency.....thus I was wondering if that may now count toward some credit for psych?

any of you guys know where I can find out about this? thanks so much

Are you talking about your osteopathic intern year? Admittedly, I'm an allo student so I'm not too sure how all that works. However, I am good friends with a DO resident at my home allo program who did an osteopathic intern year and then entered our allo psych program as a PGY-1 and repeated intern year. She says that in retrospect she could've pushed to get credit for some of it, but she didn't. She ended up fast-tracking into child, so that might have had something to do with it.

I think the bottom line is that you could get some credit for what you've done, but it will depend on the program and whether you want to fast-track into child or not.

 

[Wednesday]

The RRC only requires that you do a year of "clinical" work to count for a PGYI year. This means that even surgery will count. Pathology doesn't. I did a year of ob/gyn and went right into my PGY 2 year and will graduate in 4 total years including intern year (could have fast tracked, but not going into child). There are many programs that have built in PGY 2 openings (the class just expands a bit that year). You can usually find this info out on the program websites. I am on the West coast and found four programs with built in PGY2 spots and ended up also interviewing at a program that had an intern drop out opening up a PGY2 position. Programs often have openings for whatever reason and contacting any program you are interested in and inquiring about PGY2 spots can be very high yield. Luckily most programs have LOTS of elective time in the 4th year so doing the extra stuff you need (usually neuro if you didn't do this) is no problem. AND you don't have to go through the match. Since most have rolling admissions, getting apps in ASAP is also a good idea. For the current cycle, there may be few spots left. As for rotations being old, it doesn't matter officially but the program may be more hesitant to accept someone many, many yrs out of residency, just because you might be a risk. Two yrs out however, is no biggie. Good luck. You can PM me if you have more questions.

 

[michaelrack]

Doc has it correct. Psych boards require internal medicine to be in the PG1 year; so if you have that you will probably get it done in 3 years. If you did something like a path, radiology or surgery and did not have any good internal medicine experience you might need to do 4 years (Look on the ABPN website)..

I believe that FP and peds are also acceptable

 

[medicienne]

bump

 

[Faebinder]

I am in FM but strongly considering getting double-boarded in psych as well. Unfortunately my program does not have a psych residency on-site so I cannot do a dual FM/Psych residency. I am interested in a program that is moderately heavy on research, prestige is not that big of a problem for me.
I was wondering if anyone has anecdotes of others who have done this? Would I have to join from PGY-2 level since my PGY-1 in FM covers most of Psych Intern year rotations?
Thanks a lot!

Switching to Psychiatry from almost anything remains very easy. The reason for this is that they will happily substitute your rotation for IM requirements and electives... even neurology if you have some rotations in it.

 

[peppy]

hey guys I'm an internal medicine resident at an osteopathic program that has decided to switch to allopathic psychiatry. I know that in the past we have had trouble switching into PGY2 spots secondary to the fact that all of our first years were considered "traditional intern years". Currently starting this year the first year has changed into a PGY1 residency.....thus I was wondering if that may now count toward some credit for psych?

any of you guys know where I can find out about this? thanks so much

I am not an authority on this topic but I think ACGME psych programs require you to have completed your first year rotations at an ACGME accredited institution, so that may be the issue that poses a problem in getting credit for a first year at an AOA accredited program. You may want to try contacting programs you are interested in and seeing what they have to say about the situation.
Good luck getting ti sorted out. As someone doing a traditional rotating internship year before going for psych next year, I've been trying to figure out what my options are, and it is an confusing issue!

 

[futuredo32]

I met an applicant at one of those pre-interview dinners and he didn't match in psych the year before and did an intern year at a dually accredited program. He had four interviews for psych residencies when I spoke with him. Arrowhead (in California) was willing to give him credit for his intern year. Three other programs were going to start him out as a PGY-1 if he matched at one of those programs. This was going through the match and not looking specifically for a PGY-2 spot.