Guide to the Transition to Advanced Clinical Practice | 19
There is a wide range of competitiveness in medicine programs and a large number of good programs available.
Larger programs, especially those affiliated with medical centers, are commonly offering two separate tracks
within the Department of Medicine: one for people who plan a subspecialty career in medicine or who at least
want some subspecialty training, and the other (by cooperating with other departments) in a more general or
primary care program with more experience in ambulatory internal medicine practice. Many medicine programs
also offer a preliminary as well as a complete categorical program. In the complete program, the expectation is
that if you do a reasonable job, you will stay on and complete your three years of training in that program. If
you select a preliminary program, the program makes a commitment to you for only one year. If you do well,
many programs will try to make room for you for the second year. For some of you who have a strong interest
in a particular hospital, you may want to consider applying to both their three-year program, and, to increase
your chances, to their one-year program as well. In outstanding hospitals, one year programs may not fill, while
the 3 year programs almost always fill. Due to recent changes in medicine and the support for postgraduate
training some programs are cutting back on preliminary positions, making these programs more competitive.
Medicine programs use the NRMP to match applicants.
Pediatrics Programs
Pediatrics is a 3 year residency and has historically had a favorable match rate for students. GW graduates have
done very well. Virtually all of our pediatric applicants match, if they complete their rank list reasonably.
Pediatrics programs use the NRMP to match applicants. There are some programs that have special tracks in
addition to categorical tracks, like those that are focused on community health or advocacy/social justice,
primary care, or research. When discussing with your advisor, consider your interests in free standing children’s
hospitals, academic pediatrics or community programs, geography, and intern class size, in addition to special
features (i.e. global health, advocacy, medical education, research, etc).
Medicine/Pediatrics and Other Combined Programs
A growing phenomenon is the emergence of combined programs. The oldest is Medicine/Pediatrics (a 4 year,
double board eligible program). These are of interest to those who want a broad age spectrum of patients, and
who don’t want to do OB and surgery (i.e. family practice). Because all the combination programs are relatively
new and small in number, there are only a few advisors who know much about these options. There are several
faculty members in pediatrics who trained at med-peds programs. Otherwise, you will need to talk to one of the
deans and other advisors in individual specialty areas to discuss whether a combined program is right for your
needs. To get more information, you might call a couple of programs and talk with a few residents.
Other combined programs include: Medicine-Emergency Medicine, Medicine- Family Practice, Medicine-
Neurology, Medicine-PM&R, Medicine-Preventive Medicine, Medicine-Psychiatry, Pediatrics-Emergency
Medicine, Pediatrics-PM&R, Pediatrics- Psychiatry-Child Psychiatry, Psychiatry-Child Psychiatry, Psychiatry-
Family Practice, and Psychiatry-Neurology. Most of these combined programs use the NRMP to match
applicants.
Family Medicine Programs
Family medicine has been a specialty for many decades. It is a reasonably popular choice for American medical
school graduates (about 10% of whom choose FP for their PGY-1 program). A general theme in family
medicine selection seems to be “How do we know that you really want to be a family practitioner?” In the past,
many of our students have felt at a disadvantage answering such questions because we don’t have a Department
of Family Medicine (although now we do have a division of family medicine under the Department of
Emergency Medicine.) It is reasonable to point out to interviewers, that GW was one of the first medical
schools to require an ambulatory (primary care) clerkship for all students during the third year when students
still have some career flexibility. Many of you worked with family practitioners while on that rotation. For those
who didn’t, many programs would like to see that an applicant has done a clerkship with a family practitioner or
in an established family medicine program. Your advisor or one of the deans should be of assistance in helping
you decide if you want to do a clerkship off-campus. Dr. Andrea Anderson serves as the main family medicine
advisor for our students. Many of the established family medicine programs are becoming traditional: They are
increasingly looking more heavily at grades, board scores, and the like. Generally, however, family medicine