Transitional vs Preliminary for Neurology

[kcumbDO]

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I am having trouble deciding between going for preliminary or transitional for neurology. Which pathway is better? I think with preliminary you get a stronger background in medicine which is very useful for neurology as many neurological conditions have a basis in general medicine. The transitional path is also advantageous in that you get more elective time during which you can rotate through specialties like radiology, anesthesia, and other specialties which can be beneficial for neurology residency. In addition i think the transitional year prepares you better for step 3 and makes the studying process much easier as you get exposed ob-gyn, peds, and psych. I would like some input from other students going into neurology and what they is the better path to take.

 

[hapahaole123]

I always thought neuro, unlike anesthesia or radiology for example, requires a PGY1 in internal medicine and can not use transitional years.

 

[Nerdoscience]

It can be any pgy-1 year that satisfies ABPN requirements (6 months internal medicine with primary responsibility for pts, 8 months total medicine+(0 or 1 mo)er+(0 or 1 mo)peds, and no more than 2 neuro.

 

[GopherBrain]

It is a somewhat false choice. Almost any transitional year that met the ABPN requirements would have to be a medicine prelim year in all but name.

 

[Nerdoscience]

Yeah, pretty much. I talked to a few trans year program directors and coordinators, and most said they could accomodate my needs by filling my electives with medicine months. Having said that, I would also have to do OB/GYN and surgery again, which I really didn't want to do. And some programs said it would not be possible.

 

[kcumbDO]

thanks for all ur replies, i have decided to go through the preliminary medicine year as I think it will give me the training that will be more pertinent to the field of neurology as well as open more doors to neurology training programs.

 

[ariwax]

Theoretically there should be no preference given to prelim medicine over a transitional year which fits the ABPN criteria. The fact is that neuro is a specialty which encompasses every kind of patient from neonates to geriatrics, and internal medicine trains you in one specific patient category: non-pregnant adults. Neuro also requires interfacing with physicians from many different specialties. If presented in this way, a candidate from a transitional year would have a solid advantage over someone from a prelim year who hasn't elicited a Moro in two years.

ariwax

 

[Nerdoscience]

Well, mostly.

Neurologist usually only treat adults anyway, since there are fellowship-trained pediatric neurologists to treat children. Many of these peds neurologists did Peds first, not Neuro, which makes sense.