Switching into psych residency

[Smoke This]

Let's say that a resident in another specialty were considering switching into psych. I'm talking going through the match since this person doesn't have an equivalent PGY1 year that a psych program would accept. Does anyone have any experience with this? How would someone handle letters of rec? Get them from the current residency program? Let's go further and say this individual doesn't have anything that a psych PD would find important, such as psych research, psych sub-is, away rotations in it, etc. What would it reasonably require to match into a "good" program (ie one that's comprehensive enough to enable this person to be able to choose what area in psych to get a job in and not get pigeonholed into something, and to enable getting a "good" psych fellowship if that's what this individual decides to do)?

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[atsai3]

Let's say that a resident in another specialty were considering switching into psych. I'm talking going through the match since this person doesn't have an equivalent PGY1 year that a psych program would accept. Does anyone have any experience with this? How would someone handle letters of rec? Get them from the current residency program?

Please see this post for answers to some of your questions regarding transferring into psych should someone (or you) decide to go for it. Searching the SDN forums is likely to yield other useful information as well that may be applicable to the hypothetical resident's (or your) possible transfer application process.

-AT.

 

[Chewbacca Jung]

why search when you could just ask?

 

[jayman]

Smoke This!
What happened with surgery?! Everything okay up at Minn?

 

[sunlioness]

I did and it was surprisingly easy. Though I didn't go through the match a second time as I was completing an intern year in internal medicine in good standing. Now having said that, I also had no psych research and the only psych experience I'd had was my 3rd year clerkship. I got letters of recommendation from my program director and another faculty member at my internship. I sent my dean's letter from med school. I redid my personal statement for psych explaining what had happened my intern year that made me want to switch. And then I emailed the program directors at the two local psych residencies. One of them happily had an open PGY-2 spot, so I interviewed there and was offered the position. And I haven't regretted it since.