question about length of IM CCM fellowship

[pike1]

Hi everyone-

I'm just a lowly M1 so I apologize in advance if these are dumb questions.
I am interested in knowing more about the types of things a CCM trained only IM doc gets to do in the ICU?

I read on the Mayo website that their CCM fellowship is 1-2 years in length, does this mean that some programs offer CCM fellowships that are only 1 year long?

How hectic of a lifestyle does a CCM fellow have (hours put in as a fellow vs. hours put in during the IM residency)?

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer my questions,

-pike1

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Eidolon6]

IM/CCM fellowships are generally 2 years in length, unless combined with another IM subspecialty (Cards, Renal, ID for example) and then the additional CCM training is only one year. The most common way for IM trained folks to do critical care is through Pulmonary/CCM fellowship which is 3 years after 3 years of IM residency. This is where the lionshare of jobs in critical care are currently...though there is a push for CCM only jobs.

Other board certifiable avenues to CCM include anesthesiology and surgery. ER physicians are making a push for fellowship training and certification in CCM and a few of fellowships currently take ER residents. This is a work in progress but will probably (hopefully) be a reality in the future for the handful of ER trained people interested in the additional training and practice in an ICU.

The scope of the training is similar to other specialties including surgery and anesthesiology. Procedures in the ICU range from central line placement to endotracheal intubation to bronchoscopy to percutaneous tracheostomy...pretty standard fare if you are going to practice in this arena. Most fellowships provide multidisciplinary training to afford exposure to different types of patients (neuro, surgical, medical, etc).

As for hours, CCM is generally more rigorous than general internal medicine. ICU call carries with it sicker patients, longer hours and more stress. That being said, the growing market for CCM trained physicians will hopefully facilitate the ability to cater one's schedule to meet lifestyle demands.

Your best bet to decide if you want this is to do rotations in your 3rd and 4th years and tie in those experiences with the pathology and practice approach/philosophy you most identify with (i.e surgical vs medical mentality).

 

[pike1]

Thanks for the response Eidolon6, now I understand why the website listed CCM as being 1 or 2 years.