Intern Year vs PGY-1

[sethy]

This question stems completely from curiousity.

 

I have repeatedly heard/read/been told that in the US, intern year is the most difficult year of a physician's career. Can the same be said for Canadian PGY-1 residents? What exactly is the difference, if any exists?

 

Thanks

[Kirsteen]

This question stems completely from curiousity.

 

I have repeatedly heard/read/been told that in the US, intern year is the most difficult year of a physician's career. Can the same be said for Canadian PGY-1 residents? What exactly is the difference, if any exists?

 

Thanks

Hi there,

 

Internship and PGY-1 are largely synonymous terms. During this past year, when I was a PGY-1, I was referred to consistently as an intern or I was on my internship year. Essentially, it can be a challenging year because: 1) you're the lowest one who can make decisions and lowest on the totem pole, so if you're on call then you're often first call or you're required to do a lot of the dirty work; 2) you're often required to rotate through a number of specialties that are not your own, i.e., for the radiology internship year we're required to rotate through internal medicine, gen surg, emerg, etc., and often folks find these first two rotations, at least, quite tough as a junior.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[drduiib]

I was under the impression that the working culture regarding interns and residents were different between Canada and the States. I thought the Canadian hospitals in general tend to be more nurturing towards the professional development of residents, so the challenging year helps develop you into a competent doctor. Meanwhile,the States tend to be more abusive newbie interns and make them do more meaningless dirty work.

[Kirsteen]

I thought the Canadian hospitals in general tend to be more nurturing towards the professional development of residents, so the challenging year helps develop you into a competent doctor. Meanwhile,the States tend to be more abusive newbie interns and make them do more meaningless dirty work.

Hi there,

 

I've found that the way you're treated on a given rotation/service depends largely on your staff and your team. Believe it or not you can encounter services here in Canada where the staff can be less than ideal and, yes, abusive (think Scrubs' Bob Kelso, but not half as funny) and you can often be stuck doing a lot of the grunt, a.k.a., scut work. On the flipside though, there are some brilliant clinician-teachers out there who, year after year, win teaching awards, are lauded by their residents and are an absolute pleasure to work with. I'm sure the same occurs in the US as well.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[chii]

Oh god...Kelso? That sounds harsh!

 

Also, could someone clear up the rotations bit you talked about? I'm not really sure what one does as an intern.

[Kirsteen]

Oh god...Kelso? That sounds harsh!

 

Also, could someone clear up the rotations bit you talked about? I'm not really sure what one does as an intern.

Hi,

 

In terms of rotations during internship or the PGY-1 year, in many residency programs you spend your first year working your way through rotations that may not be the field in which you're ultimately board-certified, but that may be relevant to your specialty, as deemed by your program and the Royal College. (The Program Director can recommend the design of the whole residency program but they must also adhere to training guidelines that are laid out by the Royal College for that specialty.) For example, during my PGY-1 year in the McMaster Radiology program I completed the following rotations: 1 month of radiation oncology; 1 month of ortho; 1 month of pathology; 2 months of general surgery; 2 months of internal medicine; 1 month of obs/gyn; 1 month of peds; 2 months of emerg; 1 month of elective. These rotations will differ depending on your specialty and program, again, for example, in some other radiology programs, there is no radiation oncology or emerg rotation but residents may spend more time within an ortho or peds rotation.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen