Guest macdaddyeh Posted July 2, 2004 Report Share Posted July 2, 2004 I think for about 10 years now, there has been no such thing as a general 1st year internship before choosing a specialty/favourite area. My question is: Why did this happen? Will it ever be reintroduced? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lorae Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 Actually, one of the surgeons I work with told me they are phasing it back in. Unfortunately he isn't involved in the process at all and didn't know any details -- so I guess I'm not much help in answering your question :\ I did a bit more research, but it didn’t turn up any concrete information. There are a few articles/letters in CMAJ, but nothing discussing if/when this would actually happen: www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/f...lcode=cmaj www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/f...lcode=cmaj www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/f...lcode=cmaj According to the CARMS website, it seems like the University of Alberta is putting all PGY-1 residents through a common program: www.carms.ca/overview/alberta.htm Actually, just browsing through many of the residency programs in Canada, it seems like there is a very generic/broad approach taken to 1st year. Maybe someone around here knows something more about this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 Many PGY1 years are similar to what a 'rotating internship' used to be. Most PGY1's spend their year in a variety of different areas (medicine, general surgery, emerg, etc) in addition to spending time in their 'own' discipline. There are many docs that would like to see the rotating internship year return...however, there are a lot of politics to get around and nobody really sees it actually happening anytime soon. The major difference between the 'old' system and the new one is that now you have to decide on your specialty that much earlier. Even though the PGY1 year is similar in structure to the old rotating internsip (in many programs) you are already matched to a specialty when you start it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 I too have heard rumours that there's talk of returning to a rotating PGY-1 again. But as no logistics are in place, don't count on it any time soon. The reasoning for canning it, I believe, was wrapped up in the overall trend towards increased specialization in medicine. I believe many of the subspecialties were wondering why their residents were "wasting" an entire year doing rotations they had absolutely no interest in. If you know you want to do psychiatry, why are you doing a rotation in general surgery? But personally, I think it has been a disaster. Pigeonholeing us into subspecialties such as cardiac surgery immediately upon graduating means we're deciding way too soon what we want to do. It means our 4th year is taken up by the application process that will decide what we do for the rest of our lives. It also means we have to choose electives (that have now become a key part in marketing yourself to residency programs, rather than learning experiences of their own right) in 3rd. . . sometimes even 2nd year (depending on the program.) This is well before you're clerkship, your first real chance to get a good sense of what the different specialties are. Even more ridiculous, many students are now gearing themselves towards specific specialties with research and electives in second year. . . even first year. As a first year medical student, do you REALLY think you know what Ophthalmology is all about? Enough to start gearing your whole life towards that specialty, to the exclusion of others? Do you think one or two half days a week spent in the OR gives you a good sense of what that specialty is all about (especially when that day and a half to full day in the OR is all the time that specialist spends in the OR!!) Unless one of your parents is in that particular specialty, (and even then, you wouldn't know if there was a better specialty out there for you) I don't think you can get anywhere close to a real sense of what a specialty is all about until clerkship. . . at the earliest. We've had somewhere close to 2/3 to 3/4 of my class change their specialty interest this year. To me, the best solution would be to offer two (maybe three) general rotating internships to graduating medical students: Surgery or Medicine (with a third option, maybe, to cover other specialties). Subspecialize after then. By the end of 3rd year, a med student should be able to choose between medical type specialties and surgical specialties. The two internship programs would be sufficiently large as well that doing electives in 1st year wouldn't be necessary. And as it stands, most medical and surgery subspecialties already do a PGY-1 year that is in a general sense medicine or surgery! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Elaine I Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 When the rotating PGY1 year existed, was it done at the same school where students attended med school? Or, were there two CaRMS-type matches, one for PGY1 and one for your specialty? Thanks for the info. Elaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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