Switching Residency Programs

[EDlover23]

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Hi all before I get destroyed for asking this question please bear with me. I did match psych and know I am very fortunate to have done. I interviewed at many top 20 schools and ended up at upper tier academic program. However this program does not have things I wanted (lack of access to new interventional psych, research, moonlighting). I know psych has a lot of PGY2 spots such as yale, hopkins, UW, etc. Is it worth it to try and apply to these?

 

[MusicDOc124]

Hi all before I get destroyed for asking this question please bear with me. I did match psych and know I am very fortunate to have done. I interviewed at many top 20 schools and ended up at upper tier academic program. However this program does not have things I wanted (lack of access to new interventional psych, research, moonlighting). I know psych has a lot of PGY2 spots such as yale, hopkins, UW, etc. Is it worth it to try and apply to these?

My understanding through the grapevine is that when programs have spots open consistently (notably the programs you listed), they often intend to take people from IM switching into psych in place of the people who fast-track out into child-psych. It may be a misunderstanding as I haven't looked into it, though.

Worth looking into? Yes.

There is no guarantee though, so I wouldn't hedge bets. Many people look each year to get into psych coming from other psych programs, re-entering after leaves of absence, from IM, from FM, and even other fields sometimes. We just interviewed for a PGY2 opening this year, and we had people interview from IM, FM, psych, anesthesia, and surgery.

 

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Residency Vacancies, Unfilled Openings, and Swap Positions in Internal Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Neurology, Emergency, Family Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Otolaryngology, Surgery, Preventive Medicine, Psychiatry at PGY1, PGY2, PGY3 level

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[Merovinge]

If you matched a top tier academic program there must be clearly be a lot of research going on and I'm sure you can find or make something you are interested in happen. I would be very hesitant to try and swap from something that good for risk of burning bridges, it's like having 2 in the hand and 2.1 in the bush where the risk/benefit ratio is terrible. Also moonlighting is fine for extra attending experience in the pgy4 or 5 (if fellowshiping) year, but is still a miniscule amount of lifetime earnings and should not in any way be a priority for residency unless you have unusual financial burdens (and this would directly conflict with the research desire you express).

 

[EDlover23]

If you matched a top tier academic program there must be clearly be a lot of research going on and I'm sure you can find or make something you are interested in happen. I would be very hesitant to try and swap from something that good for risk of burning bridges, it's like having 2 in the hand and 2.1 in the bush where the risk/benefit ratio is terrible. Also moonlighting is fine for extra attending experience in the pgy4 or 5 (if fellowshiping) year, but is still a miniscule amount of lifetime earnings and should not in any way be a priority for residency unless you have unusual financial burdens (and this would directly conflict with the research desire you express).

Sorry i meant theres not much interventional psych research/ clinical practice of it going on which is something I was very much interested in. I'm gonna give the first 4 months a chance but was wondering if its worth trying for the swap. Thank you for the advice.

 

[Merovinge]

Sorry i meant theres not much interventional psych research/ clinical practice of it going on which is something I was very much interested in. I'm gonna give the first 4 months a chance but was wondering if its worth trying for the swap. Thank you for the advice.

I'm certainly not going to try to talk you out of it if that's your passion. But to do what you are saying, I think you really need to feel like you cannot be happy in your career in psychiatry unless you are going this type of research and practice. I feel like that might apply to 0.01% of psychiatry residents, but if you are that one in 10,000, then I suppose your path forward is clear.