I'm a former UW resident and feel I should chime in on a couple issues. It's been a little while so forgive me if the details aren't perfect, but they should be in the ballpark.
(1) UW is one of two (I think) centers that has a resident union, the other being UMich. The formation of the union, in my understanding, was less about resident abuse and more about Seattle as a city getting expensive as hell and changes needing to be made to resident benefits to keep up. This was more about financial assistance with parking/biking/bus cost, child care, salary, and academic fund stipend. Some of these things the anesthesiology department already did (more than $1k/yr academic fund for boards/books) but the union made it a standard requirement across all departments. Prior to the unionization, I want to say I was making 56-58K as a PGY2 or PGY3 (can't remember) and then after the union was formed I got a couple thousand dollar bonus and higher increase year to year thereafter. If I remember back to applications, pay should be on FREIDA so you can do your own research... Considering the ENTIRE house staff (all programs at UW) formed the union, it would be hard to say the union was formed because of a single department abusing their residents.
(2) New PD is awesome and very well liked. Prior PD was great as well, but had been doing it for years and decided it was time to step down. The job is a TON of work and the prior PD had been doing it for much longer than the average length nationally. She is still on staff, working at UW so it wasn't a forced transition.
(3) Burnout- I can't speak to what the hours are like this year or moving forward. I think all CA3s at any program are going to have some feelings of burnout just by nature of residency...It's on you as the applicant to ask multiple people and form your own opinion on this.
(4) Seattle is an amazing city and the program's 2 major hospitals (UW and Harborview) sandwich where the best restaurants, bars, etc are at. I would agree that if you're married with kids, and plan on supporting your family on a resident salary it is going to be a rough 4 years financially.
Feel free to PM me if you have more detailed questions.
My advice to the original poster: Go to a program close to where you want a job after you're done.
This right here.
Current resident, multiple years into residency and went to Med school here.
Uw has this really odd reputation online due to a couple negative posts from way back, and that reputation is promulgated and then reinforced by people picking out random bits of negative things.
As in, a resident saying they ”couldn’t get letters.”
I’m applying for fellowship and I got seven letters, lickety split(I'm applying for a combined fellowship). All of them but one were in within a week of sending the official eras upload letter.
I got offers for interview the last week of December/first week of January, when traditionally interview invites don’t even start going out until late February for my chosen sub specialty.
The training here is killer(pun intended), the attendings are great, and everybody ends up with the type of fellowship or PP job they want. (Maybe not their first choice for fellowship but certainly in the top three of their rank list.)
As for above:
1) The Union is about improving and standardizing benefits for resident. We now get childcare stipends, bike commuting stipends, parking stipends, standardized pay scale and yearly raises. I’m making about 7-9k more at my level of training than others made at this level a few years ago.
2) Hallman is a baller. He comes to bat for you. If you want some training that is a bit out side of the box, you can make it happen. If you get injured and are out for an extended period, he’ll do what it takes to keep you moving towards graduation and the direction you want to head into after that.
3) Burnout. This is a thing, in all residencies everywhere (except maybe dermatology?). Residents here are happy, and sometimes tired from CT call. I can say without a doubt, I was ecstatic that I was fortunate enough to end up here and I am only more thankful as my training goes on. Bottom line, we work hard to become good doctors. Some weeks are sweeeeeeeeeet, some are harder. Last year I think we average 53ish hours a week.
4) Seattle is awesome. It is expensive because of this. Some people in our program are single income supporters of a partner and 2-4 kids. It can be done, just don’t expect to live like royalty. My partner and I live very comfortably with two moderate incomes and one child.
As for original post.
Bro, go where you want to live. Even just having an attending who has a previous medical school classmate, who’s partner has a brother, that has a half sister, who is an ortho surgeon at the hospital you want to work at will take you light years ahead of other candidates.
Work hard, be good, do your best, learn lots.
The rest will take care of itself.
Go Hawks.
