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If any residents could share their input as to their experiences, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks. That helps. Any of the little minutia that you could think of that might bother someone or isn't obvious would be great too.
Also, why do some of these programs have programs if they don't receive a minimum number of cases. Shouldn't they have to in order to be considered a teaching institution in that particular residency?
Are there places(websites) that might give me an idea of that info too?
Something a PD told me was that it is public information how often residency programs are being inspected by the ACGME for continued accreditation. Places with a 5 year cycle have no problems, but those being inspected more frequently have some problems. She suggested that for places with a 3 year cycle to ask the PD during the interview why that is and what they're doing about it and not to interview at places with a 2 year cycle.
http://www.acgme.org/adspublic/ --> on the left, search accredited programs --> choose the specialty, state, and program
My program had multiple problems which were generally not discussed with applicants. The applicants would meet with the residents as a group and the chief resident would go see the program director after the meeting and report if any resident made any negative statements about the program. As you can imagine, this tended to stifle free exchange by the residents.
Another thing I would say is to be VERY careful about hearsay. On interviews you will meet residents who ask you where else you were interviewing, and if you say "University X" they might say either that they have heard that program is malignant (they may have even interviewed there themselves), everyone is happy and overworked, etc. While hearsay is important to consider for the purposes of your own evaluation, it should never be taken as gospel (even if it is a positive comment). Rumors are often at least 50% full of crap.
Programs that restrict your access to residents should be viewed suspiciously..
Ideally you should have time with the residents at some point without attendings present..
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I've noticed that many places just send you around with the chief resident and I maybe get to waive hi to the lower levels. This seems fishy to me. Anyone else get this feeling?
If any residents could share their input as to their experiences, it would be greatly appreciated.
I've noticed that many places just send you around with the chief resident and I maybe get to waive hi to the lower levels. This seems fishy to me. Anyone else get this feeling?
If any residents could share their input as to their experiences, it would be greatly appreciated.
Wow. You are giving advice to someone who is almost certainly done training. This thread is 6 years old.look for resident friendliness and volume. I had programs I did not even rank due to fact the residents were so strange.
Wow. You are giving advice to someone who is almost certainly done training. This thread is 6 years old.
How to evaluate (or grade) a pathology residency program in one simple flowchart / algorithm:
View attachment 190316
Sweet chart Rodak. My only disagreement is that I don't think residents should be limited to ONLY previewing cases that they grossed themselves. Where I trained we certainly did preview everything we grossed. However, we also had regular days in our schedule (1-3 per week) in which we would preview and generate reports on cases that we did not have to gross ourselves (PA(s) would have grossed the day before), which I thought was awesome.How to evaluate (or grade) a pathology residency program in one simple flowchart / algorithm:
View attachment 190316
Sweet chart Rodak. My only disagreement is that I don't think residents should be limited to ONLY previewing cases that they grossed themselves. Where I trained we certainly did preview everything we grossed. However, we also had regular days in our schedule (1-3 per week) in which we would preview and generate reports on cases that we did not have to gross ourselves (PA(s) would have grossed the day before), which I thought was awesome.
I agree. Consider my revised scoring system. I dropped the grossing biopsy question because that's ultimately a minor quibble if you are not even responsible for diagnosing cases. Note that your program can't be in the "good" category without suitable surgical pathology responsibility. I understand that residents independently reporting frozens is not legal if the attending bills for it. Some places don't bill for after hours or certain resident-reported frozens. It seems optimal to do that *to some degree* before your first day in the real world. Share freely and please post feedback to make this more useful for resident candidates.