what happens after your year internship in the special 5 states?

[H0mersimps0n]

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I keep hearing people mention the "special 5" when it comes to requiring DO students to do a post-graduate internship year.

My girlfriend (hopefully fiance in the near future) is a year behind me in medical school (she's MD though). We really want to do the couples match but being a year apart we know we can't BUT... my friend mentioned that you don't actually enter the match until AFTER that extra internship. soo...

is it true? How does that whole extra internship year work exactly? Could I really enter the match a year later and get in the MD couples match with my girlfriend/fiance/wife?

Thanks

 

[Dr JPH]

Some specialties you apply from medical school and can be accepted a year early. I know of people who already know where they are going for internship and have matched into a separate residency for the following year. I know of other people who don't enter the match until they are in their internship year.

Not sure if it works based on specialty, location, training site, etc. Maybe you want me to move this post to the General Residency forum for more insight?

Let me know...and keep me update on what you find out.

Thanks

J

 

[jay dub]

Hey H0mersimps0n-

If you decide to do the transitional/rotating intern year you most certainly can then enter the match again (the first match would have been for the intern year) in the same year as the lucky gal. People do the trans/rot intern year for a variety of reasons; several MDs pursue this route also (but obviously they are not doing AOA approved internships). Here's how it works, you would match for simply your internship year (presumably in an AOA accredited program assuming you want to keep your ties to the AOA and/or you want to be open to practice in one of the big 5 states...). Then the following year, you would apply in the allopathic match as a couple the following year when your gf is also matching. Does that make sense? So basically you are matching twice. Depending on what specialty you go into, some (possibly much or even all) of your intern year would likely be credited to you by the residency program you eventually match in (so it wouldn't be a totally wasted year or anything). Of course, you still have the other options we mentioned in previous threads (research, year off, etc., etc.), but if you decided on the trans/rotating intern year I believe that is how it would work.

 

[(nicedream)]

Originally posted by jay dub
Here's how it works, you would match for simply your internship year (presumably in an AOA accredited program assuming you want to keep your ties to the AOA and/or you want to be open to practice in one of the big 5 states...). Then the following year, you would apply in the allopathic match as a couple the following year when your gf is also matching. Does that make sense? So basically you are matching twice. Depending on what specialty you go into, some (possibly much or even all) of your intern year would likely be credited to you by the residency program you eventually match in (so it wouldn't be a totally wasted year or anything).

Whether the AOA internship time gets applied to an MD residency depends on the specialty. For example, allopathic IM, neurology, and psychiatry residencies will not give credit for AOA internships, so you would have to do a second, allopathic, internship. Anesthesiology, radiology and most family practice residencies will accept the AOA internship. I don't know about others. The other possibility is doing a dual accredited internship, accredited by both the AOA and ACGME. This would fulfull your AOA obligation in the 5 states as well as count towards MD residencies.