Transferring from PGY1 to PGY2 in a different specialty?!?!

[Neophyte]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hope things are rocking for everyone else. As it appears now, I will be starting my PGY1 in psychiatry June this year. So far, everything has been going great for me but lately I have been having some doubts as to whether psych is "THE" field of choice that I want to be in. I have a few months of psych rotation within the States and till fairly recently I was more than convinced that Psych was it. Suffices to say that my aptitude for psychiatry is fairly evident on my resume.

I had 12 interviews for this season and I am sure I will match at my first or second choice. My interest for psychiatry has been waivering lately due to some personal reasons, the most important one being a rotation that I have been doing with this psych doctor for the last few months. There are other reasons too and acting together, they have been mighty effective in shaking my faith. As stupid as this sounds, I was fairly convinced of my 'branch to be' all through my final years of med school and till December last year. At this point, I really do not want to back out of the match because I am not sure where exactly I would like to be. Some of my concerns are as follows:

a.) Should I back out of this years' match, wait for another year and either decide by that time or apply to the transitional year for the 2008 match. Sounds scary to me.

b.) Should I go into the PGY1 position in psych (whereever I match) and try to seek a transfer to a PGY2 in a different speciality next year? Is that acceptable and possible? Has anyone done this before?

I would really appreciate any inputs/suggestions/advice/feedback on this.

 

[Solideliquid]

I'm a PGY I Psychiatry intern doing my residency in the south. So then option I is pretty crazy to me. If that is what you think you want drop out of the match if that is possible and scramble into a transitional year. That sounds even more crazy as I type this but it would be better than wasting an entire year in psych if that's not what you want to do.

Option 2: Nah I think a small minority of programs will let you in to PGY 2 after completing a year of psychiatry residency. Lets say you want to get into medicine, well in Psych PGY I you are doing from 1 to 6 months of medicine inpatient rotations (mostly < 6 months). In other words they would want you to start at PGY I again since you would be a very poor PGY II (this is a theoretical medicine residency).

If I were you I'd think pretty hard about what you want to do and get into THAT in July of this year. I think many people get these kinds of "jitters" before starting residency. I know I did, but when residency started I knew I was in the right place. At least I think I do, or so the voices tell me. Ha ha /joke.

Good luck in your decision!

 

[Winged Scapula]

Option 3: actually start your residency in Psych, in a different setting, with different people, and see how you like it before making your mind up to transfer into a different specialty?

BTW, I agree with the above poster - it is unlikely that you will get much credit for your PGY-1 year in Psych, so expect that if you decide its not the field for you, that you will be starting over as an intern in another field.

 

[Neophyte]

Thanks for the replies friends. I will take all those things into consideration. It sure helped though.

 

[Wednesday]

Hey, the good part is that if you decide to do a year of something else (basically anything else except pathology) you can switch into psych as a PGY2 and not lose any time. I doubt you will be able to scramble into a transitional year, but you may be able to scramble into a prelim year of some sort. I agree with the above poster though, one person shouldn't change your career path, especially if it was so firm before. Do keep in mind that many people switch specialties after starting a residency in another. It's no where near the end of the world. Sometimes its hard to make a decision until you're really in the thick of it.