How do you choose a residency program?
Tif: I really think that it is going to be different for everyone!! Different people look for different things. For some it is the area, for other it is the benefits. Maybe moonlighting is not an issue and some places will not allow you to moonlight (and I would caution against this anyways, particularly as a family because the hours are already long!). The number of attendings may not matter compared to the attendings' personalities and how it molds with your student's (or soon to be intern's/resident's)! Someone with a family may have different requirements compared to someone who is single.
Craig: In looking at programs I was looking for a place that felt comfortable first and foremost. At 90% of the programs for any specialty in this country you will get a quality education. Yes, there will be differences between them all, pluses and minuses for each and every one, but in the end you will come out being a competent resident. For me, I knew I had to be someplace that I (and my family) could live and be happy with. The number of hours is a big deal but not everything. With most programs your going to have easy and hard months and they vary. It's a residency and you will be working hard no matter where you go. Moonlighting wasn't a big deal to me as I didn't plan on doing it. I knew I was going to be working a lot and didn't want to be away from my family any more than I had to.
Craig: In looking at programs I was looking for a place that felt comfortable first and foremost. At 90% of the programs for any specialty in this country you will get a quality education. Yes, there will be differences between them all, pluses and minuses for each and every one, but in the end you will come out being a competent resident. For me, I knew I had to be someplace that I (and my family) could live and be happy with. The number of hours is a big deal but not everything. With most programs your going to have easy and hard months and they vary. It's a residency and you will be working hard no matter where you go. Moonlighting wasn't a big deal to me as I didn't plan on doing it. I knew I was going to be working a lot and didn't want to be away from my family any more than I had to.
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Overall, a great place to start in narrowing down locations for residencies is to know all of your options: do a search of all the residencies for your desired specialty! This alone should be the first place to start!
From here, we recommend the following steps:
- Sit down with your student and write down all possible things that could contribute to your decision in where you will go for residency (i.e., location, number of residency positions, benefits, salary, support, things to do in the town/city, school systems, moonlighting options, etc.).
- Create your own ranking of what is important to you from this list of possible contributions.
- Have your student create his/her own ranking separately.
- Compare your lists! How do they compare? Do you find that there are similarities? Are there large discrepancies? If there are discrepancies, talk through them! Can there be compromise? If so, what will this compromise look like? Remember, you are in this together!
- Based upon your rankings, then begin going through the list of available residencies! How do these locations fit into your rankings?
- Apply to all possible positions that fit into your rankings (if feasible)! Out rotations at these top locations are also a good idea!
- Once you interview and explore the cities, then you can continue to have conversations regarding how the locations fit into the rankings. You will discover hidden gems and those that may have been high on your list will no longer be!
- Your student should trust his/her gut! S/he will experience some locations that will produce very strong feelings, either positive or negative. These reactions can be a great indicator about what your time at the location will be like!
This is a very general idea of how we chose our residency programs and ranked our list! Use what you would like! Throw the rest out the window!
Do you have any additional tips or thoughts to add to ours?
2 comments:
I highly agree with "Go with your gut." That pretty much describes our life. We only applied to 3 medical schools. Canceled the third interveiw when we'd gotten acceptances from the top two.
Applied for three residencies. But when it cam down to it, we only had one on our match list.
We're finding the same thing is working well now looking for post-residency employment.
Sometimes you can be overwhelmed by too many choices. You have to decide what you want, what's important and just go with that.
Christine . . . Thanks for your thoughts! I'm really hoping that your post-residency employment is going well! You need to share with me sometime. We still have a couple of years and can really use any advice I can get!
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