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That's one way. You can also go through ortho. But there are couple caveats, things that in general a pre-med (and even more so for a HS student) shouldn't really worry themselves about.
This discussion gets into the differences between prelim and categorical programs and spots within those programs. And this gets somewhat complicated.
There are three possible set-ups (to minimize the confusion, we'll focus just on a surgical sub-specialty. I'll use Ortho as my example).
1) Categorical positions - in these spots, you complete your general surg prelim year at the same institution as you will finish your Ortho residency. You apply for this spot directly.
2) You apply to the advanced position (the ortho residency) and separately apply to the general surgery prelim year spot at the same institution
3) You apply to the advanced positon, and a prelim spot at another institution.
Now whether a residency program even offers categorical positions varies. Some residency programs only offer advanced spots, and the student has to figure out prelim years on their own. Because they are obviously easier, as I understand it, categorical positions are highly sought after. Essentially if a program offers categorical spots, that's taking spots away that they could offer as prelim spots since there are only so many residents they can handle. Some schools on the other hand will ONLY offer categorical positions.
Now, for the most part, in GENERAL SURGERY, the positions are categorical. When you get into the subspecialties is where you begin to run into the advanced/prelim vs categorical issue. And of course, when you get into the subspecialties that don't require a surgical prelim year, then you get into issues on whether a categorical position means a surgical year, an internal medicine year, a family med year or a true transitional year, thus further complicating the process. There are a couple other unique scenarios I could discuss but I believe they are well beyond the scope of this discussion and have ZERO relevance for pre-meds and even most current medical students.
Fellowships are not done until you are actually in residency and they are usually applied for a full year in advance for most specialties. So for example, if I want to do peds pulm, and I end up doing a med/peds combined residency which is 4 years in length, I would apply for the fellowship during the 3rd year. However, the match days for fellowships vary GREATLY.
So to be a trauma surgeon you can go either:
General Surg prelim year --> ortho for 4 years --> Ortho trauma fellowship for one year
OR
Categorical General Surg for 5 years --> Surgical Critical Care fellowship for a year (It should be noted that this fellowship is accessible from Gen Surg, Urology, OB/GYN or Neurosurg to complicate matters) |