transfering residency

[Guest ubcpath]

Hi, I am jsut starting med school but everyone stresses the importance of starting to pursue the residency you want early. I don't know what I want to do, but I know I am going to have a problem in that I will be finished medical school before my partner finishes grad school by one year. Once he i finished school he will need to leave the university we are at now for a permanent professor position. Is it ever possible to transfer from one school to another during residency or is my only option to take a year off before starting residency (I really don't want to).

 

Any advice is appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

It is possible to switch from one residency program to another once in residency. I know a number of people who have done this, e.g., from general surgery to family medicine and from orthopedic surgery to plastics (both from one Ontario program to another). There were also a whole host of Toronto general surgery residents in the past couple of years who switched out of general surgery into other streams. Something I've also heard, which might impact your decision, is that it can be easier to move programs within one province as opposed to moving between provinces.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest aneliz]

Kirsteen is correct. It is possible to move between residency programs if you have a compelling need to do so (having spouse/significant other in another city is usually considered compelling).

 

It is much easier to move about within a single province however. Residents are funded by the province in which they work... so it will be more difficult to move between provinces that between centres within a province. That said, it will still require a lot of work on your part and may not be easy to move between centres. To move will require you to make contact with both your existing program director and the program director of the program to which you wish to go. The receiving program must have space to accomodate you and funding to support you... unless your current program director will let you take your existing funding with you (a hard sell...)

 

That said, there have been several people that I know of that have successfully moved between provinces during a residency for personal reasons. So nothing is impossible. It just may not be possible instantly! (ie they had to wait at least a year before they could get everything arranged.)