Chief resident salaries

[rang0016]

I'm currently 'negotiating' my internal medicine chief resident contract with our department and we are trying to find out what the average salaries for chief residents are around the US. Anyone willing to tell me what your approximate salary is and how much clinical time you are required to do as part of your contract(this is more for those residencies in which the chief year is an extra year as opposed to part of your third year). Our current contract requires us to do 10 weeks of inpatient staffing and 8 weekends each. Thanks for any help.

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[cchoukal]

I'm currently 'negotiating' my internal medicine chief resident contract with our department and we are trying to find out what the average salaries for chief residents are around the US. Anyone willing to tell me what your approximate salary is and how much clinical time you are required to do as part of your contract(this is more for those residencies in which the chief year is an extra year as opposed to part of your third year). Our current contract requires us to do 10 weeks of inpatient staffing and 8 weekends each. Thanks for any help.

I like how you put "negotiating" in quotes. I would be shocked if there was any real flexibility in the terms of this contract.

 

[edfig99]

op: are you going to be a pgy4 chief?

friends of mine at a teaching hospital in nyc did a pgy4 chief with some ward attending and weekends, one clinic session a week and one precepting and got about 75-80K (a new attending right out of residency without chief duties in full time care was going to make about 110-120K)

a reasonable starting point is to find out what the pgy4 pay is for a resident at that institution...that's the absolute floor. the ceiling will be about 25-30K above that since you will be providing supervision and direct patient care.

 

[Coastie]

I'm currently 'negotiating' my internal medicine chief resident contract with our department and we are trying to find out what the average salaries for chief residents are around the US. Anyone willing to tell me what your approximate salary is and how much clinical time you are required to do as part of your contract(this is more for those residencies in which the chief year is an extra year as opposed to part of your third year). Our current contract requires us to do 10 weeks of inpatient staffing and 8 weekends each. Thanks for any help.

500 per weekend day with 2500 per week. Should add about 35k to your base, and should be reasonable given what other chiefs are making.

 

[NRAI2001]

How is a chief resident chosen? Do you apply for the position? Are you appointed? Are there numerous chiefs? Is it generally a difficult position to get?

 

[Blade28]

How is a chief resident chosen? Do you apply for the position? Are you appointed? Are there numerous chiefs? Is it generally a difficult position to get?

Depends on the field.

In IM, doing a "chief" year is optional and comes after you're done with your 3-year IM residency.

In fields like General Surgery, every final-year resident (usually PGY-5) automatically becomes a chief. Sometimes an "administrative" chief will be elected by his/her coresidents, and he/she is the one who handles scheduling and acts as a liason between the residents and faculty, etc.

 

[Winged Scapula]

How is a chief resident chosen? Do you apply for the position? Are you appointed? Are there numerous chiefs? Is it generally a difficult position to get?

Depends on the field. In some, like surgery, all final year residents serve as Chief Resident with one (who is usually chosen or assigned, few would volunteer for it) as the Administrative Chief (does the schedules, moderates arguments, etc.)

In Internal Medicine and other fields, some will apply for an additional year as Chief Resident. The difficulty in getting the position would depend on how well you are liked and the competition, I suppose.

 

[Blade28]

Ahem...

(see my post above)

😉

 

[Winged Scapula]

Ahem...

(see my post above)

😉

Should have known you'd be on this. I can't help it if we were typing at the same time.😛

I like your description of the Administrative Chief being "elected." In my class, the rest of us slackers essentially said from the beginning of PGY4 that we weren't doing it and RK would be the most logical choice (former military, nice guy, well liked, organized). He wasn't so much elected as it was a foregone conclusion as far as we were concerned.

 

[Blade28]

Should have known you'd be on this. I can't help it if we were typing at the same time.😛

I like your description of the Administrative Chief being "elected." In my class, the rest of us slackers essentially said from the beginning of PGY4 that we weren't doing it and RK would be the most logical choice (former military, nice guy, well liked, organized). He wasn't so much elected as it was a foregone conclusion as far as we were concerned.

(1) As the adage goes, "Great minds..." 😉 (we even started our posts with the same sentence, and used the same examples - IM vs. G Surg!)

(2) That happens every now and then here, too! 🙂

 

[DrDawg]

Should have known you'd be on this. I can't help it if we were typing at the same time.😛

I like your description of the Administrative Chief being "elected." In my class, the rest of us slackers essentially said from the beginning of PGY4 that we weren't doing it and RK would be the most logical choice (former military, nice guy, well liked, organized). He wasn't so much elected as it was a foregone conclusion as far as we were concerned.

I think our Administrative Chief gets an extra $500 a month.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I think our Administrative Chief gets an extra $500 a month.

Yeah, I can't remember what ours got...I think it was an extra week of vacation and maybe bump up to next level of salary (which would be around $1500-$2000 more). A friend at Wash U told me they got $10K for being Admin Chief (this was a few years ago).

 

[JayneCobb]

Now how many of you are talking about doing Chief years and how many of you are talking about being Chief resident?

 

[Winged Scapula]

Now how many of you are talking about doing Chief years and how many of you are talking about being Chief resident?

The Surgery types here (Dr. Dawg, Blade and I) are talking about a Chief Resident who serves as Administrative Chief; he is the only one who gets any additional salary, perks over and above the PGY-5+ salary. I know we understand the difference btwn being Chief Resident and doing an additional Chief year.

Not sure what the OP is talking about (because he never answered the question as to whether he was doing an additional PGY-4 Chief year in IM or not).

 

[NRAI2001]

Depends on the field.

In IM, doing a "chief" year is optional and comes after you're done with your 3-year IM residency.

In fields like General Surgery, every final-year resident (usually PGY-5) automatically becomes a chief. Sometimes an "administrative" chief will be elected by his/her coresidents, and he/she is the one who handles scheduling and acts as a liason between the residents and faculty, etc.

Why do people do chief years? Is it to boost their resumes for fellowships? Boost their resume for entering into the job market? For ego?

 

[gutonc]

Not sure what the OP is talking about (because he never answered the question as to whether he was doing an additional PGY-4 Chief year in IM or not).

The OP was asking about a medicine Chief year...as evidenced in line 1 of the original post....
(emphasis mine)

I'm currently 'negotiating' my internal medicine chief resident contract with our department and we are trying to find out what the average salaries for chief residents are around the US.

Now...as to why anyone would volunteer for such insanity I can't even begin to offer an answer.

 

[gutonc]

Why do people do chief years? Is it to boost their resumes for fellowships? Boost their resume for entering into the job market? For ego?

Yes.

As an IMG, you should get used to the idea that if you want to do GI or Cards (and by the time you finish med school, probably Hem/Onc and Pulm/CC) you will need to do a chief year if you intend to match in a half-decent program. It's essentially the way that mediocre academic and community programs get people to do chief years, promise the I/FMGs a fellowship spot if they sell their souls for a year as chief resident.

 

[JayneCobb]

The OP was asking about a medicine Chief year...as evidenced in line 1 of the original post....
(emphasis mine)

Not all Medicine programs have a Chief year. I'm currently Chief Resident of my IM program and am not doing an extra year.

 

[Winged Scapula]

The OP was asking about a medicine Chief year...as evidenced in line 1 of the original post....
(emphasis mine)

I didn't see that as clearly. He is talking about medicine but it wasn't clear if he was talking about a separate year.

Now...as to why anyone would volunteer for such insanity I can't even begin to offer an answer.

No arguments there.

 

[Danbo1957]

Chiefs in medicine are picked by the administration after application by resident. Internal medicine chief resident equals a one year fellowship. Average pay is at PGY-4 plus ~$3000-5000. The learning curve is high, and it is amazing the advantage given to former chief residents when looking at resumes for administrative spots...

 

[RTrain]

I didn't see that as clearly. He is talking about medicine but it wasn't clear if he was talking about a separate year.

I think he means it's a separate 4th year. He also says:

this is more for those residencies in which the chief year is an extra year as opposed to part of your third year

So it sounds like he's asking about 4th-year chiefdoms. But perhaps I assume too much.