transitional vs prelim for PGY1 year?

[clarence]

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Whats better: an internal medicine prelim year, a transitional year, or an osteopathic tradtional rotating internship (which I believe is ~the same as a transitional year - right?) I want to feel prepared for residency, but I don't want a super intense intership year.


Any suggestions? Would I be adequately prepared by doing a transitional year?

 

[Louisville04]

I would recommend a transitional year. You can then rotate through orthopaedic surgery, pm&r, radiology, neurology, and do some inpatient medicine as well. I don't think you need as many medicine months as a prelim year provides.

 

[dc2md]

honestly, you'll be fine with any of those choices. transitional is obviously more well-rounded, while IM prelim will give u a good medicine base.

 

[Jumpu]

I think it's more important to look at individual programs as well ie. not all transitional programs are the same. Talk to residents in the PM&R part of their training, see where they were and how they liked it.

 

[philaPMR]

when i was interviewing, program directors almost universally told me to do a prelim medicine year. they all seemed to feel that those residents who did medicine were better prepared.
with that in mind, i've never met a resident who did a transitional year that regretted it/didn't feel prepared.

i ended up choosing a prelim year with the most elective months i could find!
also, as a word of caution - i know people who ranked only transitionals because they wanted an easy year, then they didn't match (because those programs tend to be very competitive) and scrambled into prelim surgery. ouch.

 

[dc2md]

oh yeah, great advice philaPMR. program director definitely like to hear you're going to do a prelim med year. and when u start going to your early PMR interviews, ask the residents where they went (esp at the PMR program you REALLY want to end up) and if they liked it...then apply to those.

 

[melancholy]

I think you could go either way as long as your osteopathic traditional rotating internship has a fair amount of IM and even some ICU in there. You may not get as many elective months compared to an ACGME transitional year (i.e. you get less easy months in your internship). Of course, this all depends on what sort of residency program you think you would be the best match for.

If you didn't want to do certain rotations such as peds, ob/gyn, etc... some of which are not absolutely required by the AOA (but most programs will throw them in there), then you'll prob want to go for other internships. However, often times there are benefits to applying to osteopathic internships such as possibly more spots, less competition, etc.

 

[clarence]

thanks for all the feedback

 

[TRAMD]

I am doing a family medicine year where they reduced my peds and OB and gave me more electives. I also wanted a well-rounded experience as I plan to moonlight in ERs after my first year.

 

[pmr4me]

I only applied to Prelim years because when I was rotating last July I saw the new PGY2s start their first week. It was really obvious who did medicine and who did transitional. Also I was told from older residents that at some programs you will have really sick patients and you need to be prepared to be the only doc around. I think Transitional years are great for some people, just not for me. I think you will find that most people will tell you to do prelim. Good luck!