Both of these fields interest me. Can anyone tell me what the residency length is for these fields. The rush and excitement of emergency medicine is what interests me with that specialty. On the other hand, bringing life into the world would be the ultimate reward. The development and birth of a child is the most amazing event in medicine. Thanks for any info.
Hey there! I too have an interest in Emergency Medicine. Here is the breakdown for both:
Emergency Medicine:
PGY 1-4: The residency format is 4 years in length.
PGY 2-4: This residency format is 4 years in length, with the initial (Intern Year) completed at the same residency program that you will complete your residency or at a different program.
PGY 1-3: This residency format is 3 years in length.
Obstetrics/Gynecology:
PGY 1-4: The residency format is 4 years in length.
Currently, most (>2/3) EM residencies are 3 years. There has been talk of pushing towards 4 years, but I’m not sure I see that happening. Most of the 4 year programs are strong academic programs.
Thanks for the info TJJMD and Emergency. I have plenty of time to make up my mind, but it’s a relief to see that my two main interests are not long residency programs in relation to other specialties. The only worry I have when it comes to E.M. is that I may not be aggressive enough. But, I guess if I’m cut out for that field it will manifest itself naturally.
Consider volunteering at a local hospital, preferably a level I or II trauma center, to give yourself exposure to the “real” ER vs. the one on TV. Big difference. It is very much a team environment, with the physician at the helm. Sound medical judgement and the ability to act quickly on your decisions are qualities that make a good ER doc; not necessarily aggression. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Thanks jmdmd. Actually, I’ve been fortunate in my first clinical rotation for rad tech. The hospital I’ve been in for the past 6 months is a level 2 trauma. The er is my favorite rotation. We rotate through fluoro, outpatient, or, portables, and er. I just finished this week and will be going to an outpatient clinic next month. I’m not looking forward to that in comparison to where I’ve been for the past 6 months.
I have a question about shadowing. Will my experience in x-ray count for anything? We work with the docs in er and fluoro. Does that count?
I would think so. The purpose of shadowing is to expose yourself to the pace and environment of medicine (hospital, clinic, ER, etc), so it seems like any type of allied health, EMT or nursing career would fill in that blank. ADCOMs will also be looking for volunteer experience, so a good way to get both is volunteer in an ER or free clinic. Are you by any chance at Gwinnett Medical Center? They used to allow pre-meds to shadow/volunteer in the ER.
No, today was my last day at Atlanta Medical Center. Next will be an outpatient clinic. AMC is the busiest trauma center I’ll go through for clinicals. It’s too bad I don’t get to rotate through Grady Memorial. That’s a trauma super center!
I’ll check on volunteering some this summer. I’ll check at both Gwinnett and Grady.
I looked at some information on the ama website and saw that a combined/specialty of internal medicine/emergency medicine is a 3 yr. program. Obviously I’m not very informed on how all this works. If you do a combined specialty is the 3 yr. length accurate by their information? Or, is it a 3 yr. residency in internal med. in addition to 3 yrs. of E.M.? The number of positions available at some of the hospitals were much higher with the combination specialty as opposed to E.M. alone. Just curious as to how that applies towards which specialty I would qualify to practice in.
Hm. I’m not sure where the three year IM/EM combo came from. IM is three years, EM is three years, IM/EM combined is 5 years. If you did IM/EM combined, you would be eligible for board certification for IM and EM both. There are also IM/Peds combos (4 years), EM/Ped (4 or 5, can’t remember), to name a few.