The notion that chief residents are contributors to residency program improvements is an illusion............
Advice for incoming chief residents
- Thread starter ketameme
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Certainly this is not the case everywhere. Life is a negotiation. If you can articulate something, there is a chance you can make it happen. We used to have resident meetings with our chair and program director. We once had a non chief senior resident ask for extra money when we were short staffed and asked to temporarily pick up extra hours. Shockingly, we got it. Did the administration anticipate this and have a preconceived number in mind that we could’ve asked for beyond what we got? Were they flustered and misspoke? Who knows? Who cares? It was weird and epic, but was also very real.
I could give you plenty of real life examples.
We routinely got things we asked. Don’t bring up problems, bring up solutions. If you want something, make it happen.
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I also disagree with this. One of my favorite part of being a chief was speaking truth to power. Residents are a very valuable resource in a place that runs without a robust CRNA core. If you have a supportive program director, you can make a big impact on the day-to-day life of your coresidents with your advocacy. This is highly dependent on the PD though- if he/she won’t back you it’s a lost cause. I was lucky in this regard.
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This is true! In my 4 years we had 3 PDs (the average only lasts 4 years or so, but there was a lot of turnover in the Dept during my time there) and 2 were real resident advocates and did what they could to help (which unfortunately wasn’t much with a very short staffed Dept).
My first PD was apathetic, burnt out and was coasting towards an endowed chairman-ship. When issues arose, that individual took the path of least resistance (usually dumping more work on residents, like asinine inpatient GI preops that posted at 7PM). The chiefs couldn’t get much done in a positive manner, but it didn’t help that extra unpaid shifts (weekends mostly) were never covered by them. It sucked, hard. Fortunately with the new PD things started to turn and the chiefs were Allowed to make some changes.
My point is, having a strong PD and strong chiefs can be very beneficial to a program and I saw it first hand. I also saw power-hungry types who wanted a springboard into the department who readily gaslighted complaining residents and demanded compliance. The chief I am specifically thinking of is still a good friend but didn’t realize for 9 months that residency is much different than a military organization with a top-down heavy-handed approach.
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- never lie to people
- never promise anything until you know you can deliver
- listen to both sides of the story
- unless you’re on call, or working overnight, have a cutoff time for reading/replying to emails, reserve that time for family
- even the best intentioned “agenda” at the beginning of the year can get derailed by a few stupid issues...and you won’t realize it till it’s too late. Set some goals for the year with your co-chiefs and keep those goals in mind.
- never promise anything until you know you can deliver
- listen to both sides of the story
- unless you’re on call, or working overnight, have a cutoff time for reading/replying to emails, reserve that time for family
- even the best intentioned “agenda” at the beginning of the year can get derailed by a few stupid issues...and you won’t realize it till it’s too late. Set some goals for the year with your co-chiefs and keep those goals in mind.
