Three Year Medical School

Started by SIGO
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Well Texas also has a program such as that. Basically if your interested in primary care you can opt out of 4th year rotations and go on to a primary care residency a year early. Which is a seemingly smart choice as you save money and begin earning money. However you got to know that you only want primary care.
General opinion well who knows, I don't think the medical community really cares as your helping to end the primary care gap.
 
SIGO said:
Does anyone have any input on LECOMs 3-year program (Primary Care Scholars Pathway)?

Seeing as this is the first time i've heard of a 3-year medical school, (with independent study options to boot), i was wondering what the general opinion was in the medical community.

Any advice is appreciated.

http://www.lecom.edu/college_medicine.php/primary-care-scholars-pathway/76/0/2018/7361
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If the market ever gets tight for PCPs it may come up, but very doubtful. And besides I doubt the market is ever going to get tight for PCPs, at least not in my professional lifetime.

With that said, this is the main reason I applied to LECOM-Erie
 
I take it you can't do this three year program and then snake your way into radiology? 😀
 
I was at the open house last Friday when they talked about it. They said first year they had 3 then 6 and now 12 people go through (numbers are rough estimates, they could have varied a little bit, I don't remember).
 
ILikeDrugs said:
I take it you can't do this three year program and then snake your way into radiology? 😀
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I believe if you end up doing this you pay what your fourth year tuition would have been plus some...there are other posts on here about it.
 
I think this program is unfortunate, especially if it starts a trend (as the Texas school seems to suggest). We keep moving medicine into a more generalized field with fewer training hurdles. I really believe that, if anything, more training needs to be added, especially primary care. I hate the BS attitude that's prevelent and behind such ideas as this degree suggesting that primary care is somehow easy or not a real specialty. The idea of 'hey, anyone can do it so let's remove some of the red tape' is ludicrous. Primary care requires you to know a hell of a lot about many fields of medicine, which is precisely the rotations getting shaving off since they 'must not be necessary' if you're not going into them.

I have no intention of going into primary care, but it's the complete garbage we spew about primary care that enables programs like this to exist since these guys "aren't specialists" and "only generalists" and "really just need to rotate through FP rather than waste time with radiology or derm".
 
Gentlemen,

Thank you for you points of view. However, st2205, wouldn't the "FP" residency actually make up for that fourth year they're "shaving of"?

Also MLT2MT2DO, can you post the link for the other threads on this same subject? Maybe my concerns have already been addressed there.

Thank you all.
 
So lets say you attend this program and by the time approaches to apply to residencies you decide to apply to Emergency Med, then what? As a graduate of such program, could you apply to non-primary residecies?
 
I'm sure you could, but nobody know how an EM, surgery, or anesthesia program is going to look at someone on a 3-year program with limited (any?) clinical experience outside of their core rotations, especially since you're more-or-less applying fresh out of pre-clinicals.
 
And applying after doing 1-2 rotations, you won't have any letters of recommendation.
 
I think a 3-year program is a great idea if you are sure you want to practice primary care. Especially since the real shortage in doctors is in primary care. I would do this program in a heartbeat if UMDNJ-SOM or PCOM offered it. I bet that other osteopathic schools are watching the LECOM 3-year program with great interest to see how this idea really pans outs (i.e. high graduation rate of primary care doctors vs. switch artists). Good luck 🙄
 
Yea I would be too if it was offered anywhere else in a bigger type city...not interested in living in Eerie.....

Manipulate said:
I think a 3-year program is a great idea if you are sure you want to practice primary care. Especially since the real shortage in doctors is in primary care. I would do this program in a heartbeat if UMDNJ-SOM or PCOM offered it. I bet that other osteopathic schools are watching the LECOM 3-year program with great interest to see how this idea really pans outs (i.e. high graduation rate of primary care doctors vs. switch artists). Good luck 🙄
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In some areas of the country, mainly rural, there is a shortage of ED docs and the ED is staffed by FPs and IM docs at least part of the time.
 
Just like someone asked, what if you go into a joint IM/EM or FM/EM? Do you guys think this could be possible?
 
Also passing COMLEX is key. Its hard to get everything done in 3yrs or miss out on elective time
 
I just finished the PostBac at LECOM and will be moving on to finish the MS in Biomedical Sciences this year.

Ok, the PCSP.

Nobody 'starts out' in the PCSP. At LECOM Erie, you have 3 different pathways: LDP, PBL, and ISP. The reason I say at Erie is that Bradenton and Seton Hill are PBL only. The way the PSCP works is that you apply for the program but you MUST start out (fall semester) in LDP. If you seem to be making it...good grades, etc...you then can apply to the PCSP. The PCSP then starts winter semester at which point you break away from the rest of the LDP group. Last year ended up with 11 of the 12 slots filled.

The PCSP can be a good option for some people...but can also be dicey if it's not absolutely where you want to end up. The reason I say 'dicey' is you will absolutely be handicapped when it comes to picking a residency...and yes, you're going to be stuck doing primary care.

Anyone seriously contemplating the PCSP would be well served to speak with a number of different physicians regarding the program before making a decision to attend it.

A simple reality when picking, interviewing, and matching at a residency is that you have to consider the following...something that isn't ALWAYS the case...but is generally true. Most, if not all, programs directors are: Republicans, very conservative, and view any 'pathway' other than normal 'lecture discussion' to be fairly sketchy. They most certainly look at PBL students with a large amount of skepticism...and will, without a doubt, look at PCSP students likely with some form of disdain.

The PCSP is a good option for some people, but know what you're getting.

Good luck.
 
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