Are Unopposed FM programs harder?

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deleted542994

Is that true?


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Harder? In what way?

There a huge range of ways this could be interpreted: more challenging to get through, higher expectations of residents, more demanding schedule, difficult personalities to navigate.

Either way, you can't generalize about residency programs that way. I've encountered unopposed programs that we're very demanding, and ones that were the opposite.

I'm at an opposed program that's extremely demanding both schedule and expectation wise. We rotate off service with some very highly regarded programs and are always expected to function at the level of a resident in that field (right or wrong). I've encountered opposed programs that were the opposite as well.

The answer: it varies based on the program of interest.
 
Generally from what I ve seen.... unopposed = lots of OB... biggest difference IMHO. Everything else is program and clinic dependent.
 
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I've seen both. It's hard to generalize. I've seen really tough unopposed with heavy in patient schedules (great training though) and I've seen unopposed programs with really chill schedules, no running codes, barely do anything in the ICU, etc. It really depends on the program.

That all said, I would argue that the "difficulty" of a program should not weigh that heavily in your consideration of programs. First off, from what I gathered all residencirs are hard. Second, you don't really want it to be that easy, because this is your only chance to be trained and is the foundation of your practice throughout your career. Even if a program is hard, in FM, who cares? Its only 3 years.

Now none of this has to do with work-life balance, etc. Some programs might work you hard, but be very good about it to make sure you have a good balance with time/rotations set up in such a way for you to recuperate.
 
You've asked a yes/no question that simply does not have a yes/no answer. You can expect answers similar to the spectrum of responses from the question: Are men or women better?
 
My experience has been that it is harder to be in unopposed. I have been in both environments and you have to be very independent in unopposed. Also you have to cover the floor for both IM and FM and attendings often argue about who gets the residents :rolleyes:
 
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