Academic vs community residencies

[MadScientist95]

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Serious question. I am an OMS I and am relatively new to SDN. I have researched different specialties as I have no idea what I would like to do (interested in internal medicine or general surgery currently). After reading multiple SDN posts, I get the idea that academic residencies are better than community ones and consequently, are more competitive. My question is what makes academic positions better than community ones? I am not interested in research (I am willing to do it to get the residency I want but do not plan to ever do it again after I start practicing) and so I am leaning towards pursuing a community residency, however, I would like to know if the quality of my training will be different.

 

[gutonc]

This is far too general of a question to be answered at this point. Figure out what you want to do when you get to application time and we can give you more useful information.

Some community programs are "better" than some academic programs. It all depends on what you want to do.

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

Highly program dependent. Community programs rely on volunteer faculty when off service and academic have fellows. The former can be great or terrible. The latter can be good or bad as well.

 

[gutonc]

Highly program dependent. Community programs rely on volunteer faculty when off service and academic have fellows. The former can be great or terrible. The latter can be good or bad as well.

This is me and my group and I can tell you that this is true even within our group. We have some really fantastic teachers...and then we have me.

 

[IlDestriero]

There are positives and negatives to each, and it’s somewhat field dependent as well.
I think it is important in anesthesia to train at the best place you can. I’ve trained and/or worked at both (quaternary academic centers, a very average academic place (though fairly full service), and a community hospital. With a couple exceptions, my worst days at the average place wouldn’t even register on the Richter scale at the quaternary hospitals, and a crazy day at them would be unimaginable at the average place let alone the small community hospital.
In anesthesia at least, I think you want to hone your skills routinely doing many complex patients having complex surgeries, often with competing needs. If you can handle those wrecks, routine traumas and surgical misadventures are a cake walk. They’re the patients that the community and smaller hospitals refer away or tell to go home and spend the rest of your days with your family.
The community hospital is a nice place to work as staff early in your career as you’re usually alone and unafraid, often without the $50M worth of the most modern equipment you trained with, etc. but the days can be very boring and monotonous.
The opposite is probably true for primary care.
YMMV.

 

[PTPoeny]

In contrast, in the Peds form right now there is a thread about doing residency in academic versus community places and the general theme has been that each are right for different learning styles and career goals.

 

[gutonc]

In contrast, in the Peds form right now there is a thread about doing residency in academic versus community places and the general theme has been that each are right for different learning styles and career goals.

Which is pretty much what I said in post #2 of the thread.