Training flexibility in residency

[Freak]

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I was wondering if there were someone who could discuss training flexibility in some AP/CP programs (such as UW, UCSF, WashU, Brigham, MGH, Stanford, OHSU, Penn, Cornell, Columbia, JHU). As far as I understand, most AP/CP seem to do AP first and then CP, but can you do it the other way around ?

As-per their website, it seems that Yale is quite flexible in constructing a training path.

 

[sohsie]

I was wondering if there were someone who could discuss training flexibility in some AP/CP programs (such as UW, UCSF, WashU, Brigham, MGH, Stanford, OHSU, Penn, Cornell, Columbia, JHU). As far as I understand, most AP/CP seem to do AP first and then CP, but can you do it the other way around ?

As-per their website, it seems that Yale is quite flexible in constructing a training path.

Many programs sprinkle AP and CP months together throughout the four years of training.

 

[Gene_]

So, you want to do CP first then AP? Why?

 

[HbyHA]

I was wondering if there were someone who could discuss training flexibility in some AP/CP programs (such as UW, UCSF, WashU, Brigham, MGH, Stanford, OHSU, Penn, Cornell, Columbia, JHU). As far as I understand, most AP/CP seem to do AP first and then CP, but can you do it the other way around ?

As-per their website, it seems that Yale is quite flexible in constructing a training path.

different programs do it different ways. some do AP first, some do a mix. this would be a great question to ask when you interview...

 

[green mantis]

So, you want to do CP first then AP? Why?

Per his/her profile, Freak is MD/PhD. I get the opinion that many of them seem more comfortable in a CP setting. Want to start a research project or finish a previous one?

Some programs are more flexible than others. However, I'm not sure doing all of your CP at the beginning is a good idea. You're going to have a hard time remembering all of it for boards. Have you thought of doing CP only?


----- Antony

 

[caffeinegirl]

At MGH we used to have AP and CP years as one year blocks, with some of the first years starting on CP. However, that changed to blocks that were 4 months long, with all first year AP/CP residents starting on AP for 8 months first. This was implemented to allow all of the first years to go through the orientation and education of AP at the same time, which actually had everybody then start at an equal footing on AP (those in the prior system who started on CP had to catch up quite a bit when back on AP, since they were treated as second years not first year AP residents).

I would ask these questions about flexibility on the interview trail. MGH is still very flexible in terms of switiching tracks because it's a big program. I switched to AP only after finishing a significant amount of CP and was fine.

 

[Freak]

So you are quite correct that I am an MD/PhD ... I am still in the PhD phase, but have been thinking seriously about Path as a clinical career (not just as a research-residency).

It seemed from my searching that CP-only path seemed to limit me to research in academics. Many of the clinical jobs that I saw posted seemed to want AP/CP (other than maybe blood-banking) ... and given the posts about how scarce path jobs are, I thought I would be better served doing both.

The reason I asked the question is that when we go to residency, my wife is also going to be a medical intern and we have a child. As far as I understand, CP is a lighter rotation than AP, so I was trying to see if I could balance my workload with hers (as her 2nd+ years are probably much lighter on the call-schedule), basically taking turns being the primary pick-up/drop-off parent.