Are you happy? (look for an immediate sincere answer without hesitation as opposed to "....yeah it's good")
What do you dislike the most? (no program is perfect, different residents have different complaints, take what you hear with a grain of salt and decide what "flaws" in the program are fine by you and which are deal breakers"
Ask about mentorship....are the attendings/faculty invested in your future and professional development? Intraoperative teaching? Didactic quality? Resources for research?In general you need to push yourself, but it always helps to have somebody pushing you a bit harder and in the right direction. Having faculty that enjoy their job and are there because they enjoy teaching and mentoring young people makes a world of a difference.
How many residents go to fellowship vs pp? Where did they go for fellowship? Where did they go for pp? How did you help support the residents to get to where they wanted? (you do residency so you can get where you want, keep that in mind and don't get too caught up in the details of the day to day stuff). Where there any residents that didn't match? If they have fellowships, how many are from the residency program? Do they hire their own? (if the place hasn't hired a former resident in several years, then something is up.)
Take a look at the resident roster and where they went to medical school. If you are looking at St. Bob's for residency, and 50% of the program is filled with graduates of St Bob's medical school, then the medical students know that it's a good place and want to stay. (this obviously isn't a question)
Get an idea of the case variety, patient population, and how the cases are assigned (ie do SR residents make the schedule or help run the board?) You want a broad exposure of cases and the chance to get comfortable taking care of sick ASA 3/4 patients. You don't want to spend 25% of your residency experience in the eyeball and endoscopy rooms until 7pm and leave feeling uncomfortable doing a simple CABG and having done only a handful of inter-scalene blocks.
Also, each program usually has a strength that sets them apart. If that's something that you are particularly interested in then that's a major bonus. Some places produce tons of research. Some places land residents into great pp jobs. Some programs have an incredible Pain experience.
Ask the interviewer why he or she is at the program, what they enjoy about their job, and what keeps them motivated. Often they will elaborate and you might find out some really good insight on the institution.
