What is a credentialing year?

[mmedw]

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I've heard this term used before but wasn't sure what it was, can someone out there explain what a credentialing year is?

 

[LADoc00]

I've heard this term used before but wasn't sure what it was, can someone out there explain what a credentialing year is?

No longer exists, so forget it. The history of it dates back when every residency included a general internship year, when pathology abandoned this, they substituted the general medicine intern year for a type of flex year that could be spent either in a another speciality or in a path area. Then at some point, path residents stop doing general medicine internships altogether and this year become a 5th year of residency that was either surgical path "fellowship" (not really a fellowship at all tho technically) or a general path year/chief resident gig. Then underfire for the lack of AMGs entering path and the complexity of board eligibility due to this, ABP dropped the cred year. This has had some serious unintended consequences, mainly that residents are no longer doing what were once surg path "fellowships" and instead opting for niche fields like GI GU or boarded areas like heme or derm. The effect of this is a large number of people entering the job market that refuse/arent comfortable with broad general pathology in the community. Small rural practices arent getting the replacements they need and further consolidation of path practices is now inevitable...but I ramble.

 

[pathdawg]

No longer exists, so forget it. The history of it dates back when every residency included a general internship year, when pathology abandoned this, they substituted the general medicine intern year for a type of flex year that could be spent either in a another speciality or in a path area. Then at some point, path residents stop doing general medicine internships altogether and this year become a 5th year of residency that was either surgical path "fellowship" (not really a fellowship at all tho technically) or a general path year/chief resident gig. Then underfire for the lack of AMGs entering path and the complexity of board eligibility due to this, ABP dropped the cred year. This has had some serious unintended consequences, mainly that residents are no longer doing what were once surg path "fellowships" and instead opting for niche fields like GI GU or boarded areas like heme or derm. The effect of this is a large number of people entering the job market that refuse/arent comfortable with broad general pathology in the community. Small rural practices arent getting the replacements they need and further consolidation of path practices is now inevitable...but I ramble.

Good post, LA. It may be that the surgical pathology fellowship will soon be as archaic as the credentialing year.

btw, the APB used to give out approvals for the cred. year like it was candy. I witnessed people getting the credit by doing a year of laboratory research, which was utter bullcrap considering that I got my 5th year cred by doing venerable slave labor as a medicine intern. I would have loved to instead hang out for a year and swab petry dishes rather than do call every 4th night and be treated like a sub-human. Not exactly an equitable trade.