Transfering between Residency Programs (NEED HELP)

Hi,

How likely it is to transfer from one preliminary surgery to another preliminary surgery in the middle of the year? How can you find out if there are any available spots? Can you transfer your passed residency credits to the new place?

My husband and I are in a bad situation and we are dealing with a family emergency which caused him to go on a leave of absence. He does not want to go back to his residency program.

Any advice is appreciative.

Thanks,

[bokelley]

I am not sure of your situation but I do not know of any prelim surgery places that understand leave of absence.
You were lucky to get days off maybe one or two for a family emergency but not anymore than that. At least at our program that is how it is.

My husband is dealing with a family emergency and needed to come home. Is it possible for him to transfer to a residency program closer to home? Does he have to reapply again?

[diggitydot]

We have several members who have changed residency programs, so maybe they can come chime in on possibilities and procedures. My understanding is that leaving in the middle of the year makes it more difficult to find a slot, but I could be wrong.

I'm so sorry. Residency blows on a good day. Adding family emergencies to a tough culture at the program and it can be an excruciatingly difficult situation.

[GrayMatterWife]

Mid-year? That would likely be very difficult, especially in PGY-1 surg. I imagine that the more likely that he is going to have to start over and re-apply for a new PGY-1 year.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

My husband is dealing with a family emergency and needed to come home. Is it possible for him to transfer to a residency program closer to home? Does he have to reapply again?

It's not as easy as transferring colleges - there would have to be a mid-year open spot at the program close to home. If he stops residency for the year, he'll need to reapply/go through the match again to get a PGY-1 spot. Also, depending on the exact circumstances which cause him to leave, programs may be wary of him (will a similar situation come up and cause him to quit again?)

Family emergencies suck and are worse when you have the stress of a GS intern year. Good luck - it won't be a smooth/easy road.

[Mrs. MD, Esq.]

We changed residencies...but we changed specialties too (which made it a bit easier) and it was at the end of the year. I know places will often have unfilled prelim spots but I don't know if that would work mid year (especially from a fulfilling requirements standpoint)...

Unfortunately, it is a bit late to re-apply for next year. He already has a spot as PGY-2 in radiology but he cannot start that until he has one year of preliminary surgery or transitional. We are stuck in a really bad situation and feel like there is no way out.

I appreciate to hear more about people who either transferred or re-applied.

Thanks,

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Unfortunately, it is a bit late to re-apply for next year. He already has a spot as PGY-2 in radiology but he cannot start that until he has one year of preliminary surgery or transitional. We are stuck in a really bad situation and feel like there is no way out.

I appreciate to hear more about people who either transferred or re-applied.

Thanks,

Could he complete the year in IM? My understanding of rads is that PGY-1 can be surgery or medicine (is that right Rads spouses?). He might be more likely to find an open medicine spot just because there are more of them numbers-wise. Would the program where he's got the PGY-2 Rads spot be able to make a medicine/surgery spot open to him? I'd imagine if they want to take him for PGY-2 in a fairly tough to match specialty, they'd want to help him finish that first year.

[bokelley]

Is the place you are at now, the same place as the pgy2 location. Is yes, then it is going to be hard. If no, then your next bet is to find out if the place where tr family emergency is has a spot.

My husband is a pgy2 rad. They will most likely not hold a spot for him. There are people from prelim surgery and medicine that only matched to a pgy1 that will snatch up his pgy2/r1 spot in a second.

[niener]

Oh man, that's a rough situation. Prelim spots don't always fill up, so there may be some possibility of finding one mid-year. Sometimes, if a program has updated its website to reflect the most recent intern class, you can tell whether or not they have all their non-designateds. If his search is geographically limited it'll be much more difficult. I'd probably just start emailing or calling the residency coordinators at the programs he would be able to go to and see if they filled all their spots.

Best of luck to you.

[Vanquisher]

Hey there! I don't want to blow smoke up your ass, but transferring mid-year is going to be next to impossible. I can't think of ANY family emergency that our residency program would have cared about enough to give an extended leave of absence.

Can you still go to the prelim program he is in or has he been dismissed? If so, he ought to finish out his prelim year, head down, get it done. If not, he's probably screwed. I don't know what your situation is, but residents aren't really allowed to have family emergencies. I wish I was kidding. And, I can't imagine a place close to the emergency being that hot on taking him either. Residency requires all that you can give, and not a divided allegiance.

Again, I am so sorry for whatever the situation is, but I can't imagine it working out in a favorable way. He's got to just finish the year. Is the rads spot close to the family emergency?

Let's just say that my dh were an only child and his mother was really, really sick with something horrible. Dad was not in the picture. She only has DH. Well, it's possible, that I would suck it up and move to his mother (kids with me) and take care of her while dh finished his pre-lim year. Residency is just not forgiving like that. I hope your dh can finish out. I really do. Otherwise, I'd say he's looking at a significant delay and probaby a specialty switch into something less competitive.

[corn poffi]

Exactly what Heidi said. Family emergencies aren't a legit excuse in residency. If a categorical resident has a family emergency in our program, they can take 6 weeks of disability off. But they will be behind on cases and will not graduate on time, Also, on-boarding a new resident partway through the year is a huge PITA for programs. It's not as easy as just signing somebody on. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes work with the hospital, department, ACGME, etc. No offense to anybody, but most programs aren't going to spend that much time (and possibly money, depending on how their funding works) on a prelim who won't even be there a full year.

Sorry you're going through this, but my advice is for him to just keep plugging away, if he can.

[Pollyanna]

Has your dh called his residency director and explained the situation? Regardless of how supportive his prelim program may be he is still only allowed a specific number of days off (for whatever reason) before he has to make them up. So even if everything works out geographically and he finds a spot close to home he may still have missed too many days to officially complete the year. I don't know your situation or the type if emergency but if at all possible he needs to get back to his program unless he has been dismissed. People went through some serious tradegies while dh was in residency and they would take a week or two and come back. Like I said, I don't know your situation but I just don't see changing programs midway through a prelim year as a likely option. Plus geography really won't change things because your dh can't be of much help when he is working and taking call. If at all possible I think it's best that he just finish out the year. I'm sorry for whatever you two are going through

[GrayMatterWife]

Can you still go to the prelim program he is in or has he been dismissed? If so, he ought to finish out his prelim year, head down, get it done. If not, he's probably screwed. . . . residents aren't really allowed to have family emergencies. . . . And, I can't imagine a place close to the emergency being that hot on taking him either.

This. Exactly. I am not sure what a "leave of absence" even is, in a PGY1 year. Surgical residents of any year cannot have family emergencies that they need to attend to. Not if your mom is dying. Not if your spouse is dying. Not if your kid is dying. Either you are hard-core and (as Vanquisher so correctly put it) keep your head down and get it done, or you are dead-weight with personal issues. Those are your only two real states of existence. I cannot imagine a surgical program that would take a PGY1 that had to take a leave of absence from somewhere else. My husband is an attending. If he asked me whether they should take a guy who had family issues (sick family or whatever), my answer would be no. There are plenty of talented residents who don't have family issues. It is harsh, but true. I second Vanquisher's advice: go back to your PGY1 program and try to finish your PGY1 year there. That is your best shot to salvaging your chance of finishing a PGY1 surg year.