Hello all,
<O
</OI just wanted to write a note on behalf of a dear friend. She is currently a resident and has been applying for fellowships. For fear of anything coming back on her, I will try to be as vague as possible but still try to get my point across, especially to medical students applying to residency.
<O</OSome programs handle internal candidates very poorly. The program that I am talking of is a very prestigious program and only takes the best of the best for residency. She had some health issues where she got pregnant and got very very sick; hyperemesis gravada as you medical people call it. Being an intensive program, she would get to the hospital at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
</st1:time>5:30am, get 2L IV fluids and start her day between 7 and 8. Even through her 2nd trimester, her weight was still below her prepregnancy weight. She's not the type of individual that is to complain, and yet regardless, she would put in 10 to 13 hour days. Finally her doctor had to step in an tell her that either she needed to limit her hours or he would strongly recommend hospitalization. I am pleased to say that the delivery went well and she has recovered well.
<O</OJust a little background to the real problem...
<O</OSo, this year she is ready to apply for fellowship, not just any fellowship - surgical pathology. It is my understanding that for these fellowships, there are more spots than there are applicants. Every other year this particular fellowship is scrambling at the last minute to fill all 9 of their spots. ...Except this particular year... In September she was told that all she needed to hand in was a CV, however, on December 3rd she was later pulled aside and was told that the plans had changed. There was an incredibly large amount of applicants and that they would not even be able to interview them all. As a result, "the committee" (maybe it was the program director that decided it - no way to know at this point) had decided that on this particular year she would be treated as an external candidate and would need to go through the entire rigmarole. She was mortified, naturally because she was not anticipating applying elsewhere and led to believe that she was a good resident and it would be absurd that they would reject her (boy was that advice wrong). After all the letters of recommendation were in, which of course took some time because she was not anticipating having to get any, it was late December. There were 2 of the 9 spots left available. The PD gave her the last possible day to interview (February) and said that she would have to take the spot - which all the other interview days in January were full - or not interview.
<O</OWell interview day came, and from what I understand something just didn't seem right. All the attendings were a bit stand offish and focused more on where she had applied outside.
<O</OTwo weeks later she got her rejection letter.
<O</OWell this week, after trying to recover emotionally, she went back and visited the people who interviewed her. The previous year, when she was so sick, she naturally didn't get the best evaluations. And instead of sharing the real issue at hand the PD had told everyone that her knowledge was a bit lacking and she was behind her peers for that year. No objective data was discussed, such as test scores (99s for USMLE, and above average for in house rotational tests). The only data that was presented was the subjective evaluations as required by the ACGME.
<O</OSo now she's labeled as a below average resident for the rest of her training before she leaves for fellowship.
<O</OSo med students, lessons learned from this scenario:
<O</O1. Always ask if residents have left the program - for this particular program there have been two in the past 5 years (this is not including said resident - although I hope she hangs in there)
<O</O2. Always ask where the current residents are going for fellowship. If over half are leaving for elsewhere - another big red flag.
<O</O3. Even if your healthy now... things happen. Always always always ask to see how the PD handles those that are ill.
<O</OIf you need to stay in a particular city for family reasons, I certainly hope there are more than 1 hospital in your city. My friend now has to split up her family because her husband will not be done with graduate school undil after she is done with fellowship and he is not able to transfer because his program is so unique. Now she is heading off to another state, by herself, with a 2 year old in tow.
<O</OOn an end note: This doctor has been a blessing to have in my life. She has touched me dearly and I can't imagine why or what she could have done to diserve such animosity. In my oppinion, any program will be lucky to have her and she is an inspiration to quite a few people in our community. This truly is an unfortunate situation and I will take the liberty to say that I am not alone in many other people are very unhappy that she will be leaving. This has been really tough on her and I hope that she doesn't become bitter. We all love her.
<O</OYou go girl. Show the world what you are made of! Make us proud!!<O</O
<O
</OI just wanted to write a note on behalf of a dear friend. She is currently a resident and has been applying for fellowships. For fear of anything coming back on her, I will try to be as vague as possible but still try to get my point across, especially to medical students applying to residency. <O
</OSome programs handle internal candidates very poorly. The program that I am talking of is a very prestigious program and only takes the best of the best for residency. She had some health issues where she got pregnant and got very very sick; hyperemesis gravada as you medical people call it. Being an intensive program, she would get to the hospital at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
<O
</OJust a little background to the real problem...<O
</OSo, this year she is ready to apply for fellowship, not just any fellowship - surgical pathology. It is my understanding that for these fellowships, there are more spots than there are applicants. Every other year this particular fellowship is scrambling at the last minute to fill all 9 of their spots. ...Except this particular year... In September she was told that all she needed to hand in was a CV, however, on December 3rd she was later pulled aside and was told that the plans had changed. There was an incredibly large amount of applicants and that they would not even be able to interview them all. As a result, "the committee" (maybe it was the program director that decided it - no way to know at this point) had decided that on this particular year she would be treated as an external candidate and would need to go through the entire rigmarole. She was mortified, naturally because she was not anticipating applying elsewhere and led to believe that she was a good resident and it would be absurd that they would reject her (boy was that advice wrong). After all the letters of recommendation were in, which of course took some time because she was not anticipating having to get any, it was late December. There were 2 of the 9 spots left available. The PD gave her the last possible day to interview (February) and said that she would have to take the spot - which all the other interview days in January were full - or not interview. <O
</OWell interview day came, and from what I understand something just didn't seem right. All the attendings were a bit stand offish and focused more on where she had applied outside. <O
</OTwo weeks later she got her rejection letter. <O
</OWell this week, after trying to recover emotionally, she went back and visited the people who interviewed her. The previous year, when she was so sick, she naturally didn't get the best evaluations. And instead of sharing the real issue at hand the PD had told everyone that her knowledge was a bit lacking and she was behind her peers for that year. No objective data was discussed, such as test scores (99s for USMLE, and above average for in house rotational tests). The only data that was presented was the subjective evaluations as required by the ACGME. <O
</OSo now she's labeled as a below average resident for the rest of her training before she leaves for fellowship. <O
</OSo med students, lessons learned from this scenario: <O
</O1. Always ask if residents have left the program - for this particular program there have been two in the past 5 years (this is not including said resident - although I hope she hangs in there) <O
</O2. Always ask where the current residents are going for fellowship. If over half are leaving for elsewhere - another big red flag. <O
</O3. Even if your healthy now... things happen. Always always always ask to see how the PD handles those that are ill. <O
</OIf you need to stay in a particular city for family reasons, I certainly hope there are more than 1 hospital in your city. My friend now has to split up her family because her husband will not be done with graduate school undil after she is done with fellowship and he is not able to transfer because his program is so unique. Now she is heading off to another state, by herself, with a 2 year old in tow. <O
</OOn an end note: This doctor has been a blessing to have in my life. She has touched me dearly and I can't imagine why or what she could have done to diserve such animosity. In my oppinion, any program will be lucky to have her and she is an inspiration to quite a few people in our community. This truly is an unfortunate situation and I will take the liberty to say that I am not alone in many other people are very unhappy that she will be leaving. This has been really tough on her and I hope that she doesn't become bitter. We all love her. <O
</OYou go girl. Show the world what you are made of! Make us proud!!<O</O
