Chief Resident?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
W

Whiskeyjack

Full Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
Messages
83
Reaction score
1
Members do not see this ad.
Hello peops,
Does being chief resident have any kudos attached to it apart from the extra 20 bucks a week. It seemed to me they (the chief residents) just got thier asses kicked more with the admin work as well as the path duties.
I'm thinking of tossing my hat in the ring but want to find out the advantages first. i.e will it help for fellowships, jobs, e.t.c?
 
It willl look good on your CV, but in the end, it's just two additional words, "Chief Resident." Chief responsibilities differ between programs. For some smaller programs, Chief is a hat that gets passed around to everyone. At my program, everyone who graduates puts Chief Resident on their CV.
 
Depends on what you want to do with life -- and how you're doing in residency already. At mid-sized to larger programs it's definitely extra work, extra scrutiny, extra hassle being in the middle of any resident/attending disputes, but also some extra freedoms. Usually any extra money is chump change, though I won't call it negligible.

If you're jonesing for a highly competitive fellowship, it's probably already filled by the time you'd become a chief -- so unless you're named chief early or the fellowship doesn't fill until late it probably won't help there. Looking for jobs, yeah, I think it helps, just like research and all those other things.

If you're hoping to become a lab director or somesuch down the line, then I think the administrative experience without so much risk is helpful. It also pushes you to be that much more efficient.

Anyway -- I did it, and I'm glad I did it. There were times I had to grit my teeth while I was doing it, but I think the experience was worth it personally.
 
Sometimes, having things is better than not. It MIGHT look good at the CV as it indicates that you do have administrative or leadership skills but in overall the effect is not that significant.

I think its downside exceeds the positive things....a lot of headache and responsibilities which migh distract you from preparing for your Boards, which is much more important.

My advice is; if you were asked to take it, that's fine but don't fight for it.
 
Patho2009 said:
My advice is; if you were asked to take it, that's fine but don't fight for it.
Click to expand...

I think that is excellent advice. I thought about telling my program that I didn't want to be chief, but I knew the ramifications of that would be worse than just doing my stint and putting up with the BS.
 
Patho2009 said:
Sometimes, having things is better than not. It MIGHT look good at the CV as it indicates that you do have administrative or leadership skills but in overall the effect is not that significant.

I think its downside exceeds the positive things....a lot of headache and responsibilities which migh distract you from preparing for your Boards, which is much more important.

My advice is; if you were asked to take it, that's fine but don't fight for it.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Being a chief and sucking at it can hurt you more than not being chief. I think being a chief resident overall has limited benefits. If you are asked to be chief, then you are in a tough position because it can be hard to say "no". Personally, I don't think I would be able to say "no" either. Ultimately, I think we can over-think the repercussions of being or not being chief resident. I recommend that you do it if only you want to. Fortunately, the way my training and fellowships were lined up ensure that I would never ever be in the position to even be asked to be chief resident. Dodged a bullet there.
 
My residency had a rotating chief residency. We also had 1 chief at each hospital that we covered. The chief was selected by the "residency director" at each hospital, so it wasn't evenly split amongst the residents. You could turn it down if you wanted.

As chief, I made the call, conference & grossing schedules. The PD made the rotation schedule, so we didn't have to deal w/ that. We got extra book money for every month we were chief. I didn't have any major issues to deal w/ during my time, so it wasn't that big of a deal in terms of additional work. Most of the residents in my program went directly to the PD if there were problems.


----- Antony
 
Stay away. A promotion isn't a real promotion unless you get a substantially bigger paycheck. Besides, why do you want administrative responsibility over the residents when you can't actually fire them if they don't do the work?
 
Well, I had always joked that I wanted nothing to do w/ being a chief, but lo and behold, when my program director said he was nominating me there was nothing I could say. And you know what? I like it. I'm certainly learning far more about being an administrator, I kind of like the responsibility, and I think it is helping to make me really think about what I want my program to be for the incoming residents and future residents. So, make your own decision. It's hard to know what it's like until you're doing it.

(FYI, for my program we have to AP chiefs and two CP chiefs. AP chiefs are either 4th year residents or occasionally a surgpath fellow, CP chiefs are 3rd year residents)
 
icpshootyz said:
(FYI, for my program we have to AP chiefs and two CP chiefs. AP chiefs are either 4th year residents or occasionally a surgpath fellow, CP chiefs are 3rd year residents)
Click to expand...

Sounds very similar to the program I attended not too long ago. My program director asked me to do it as a surg path fellow, and I politely declined. I would rather spend time doing what I wanted to do, rather than what I had to do at that point. Did it affect my career? No. Did it affect my chances at fellowship? Well, by the time you come around to being chief, you already have fellowship(s) locked in. So, No. Do I regret not being chief? No. 🙂
 
Being a chief is a great honor. Yes it can me more work and drama, but it also means the faculty trust you and are more confident with you being on the inside of resident drama.

By all means do it no matter what.
 
oldfatman said:
This further confirms my theory that fellowship is really just more residency with a fancy name.
Click to expand...

At my program, surg path fellows sign out cases independently after two weeks of being co-signed with an attending. So, our surg path fellowship definitely is not residency with a fancy name...although perhaps some may say it is cheap labor. However, it does allow for a great opportunity to go through the transition from resident to signing out independently in a protected environment, where you are free to show cases around.
 
caffeinegirl said:
At my program, surg path fellows sign out cases independently after two weeks of being co-signed with an attending. So, our surg path fellowship definitely is not residency with a fancy name...although perhaps some may say it is cheap labor. However, it does allow for a great opportunity to go through the transition from resident to signing out independently in a protected environment, where you are free to show cases around.
Click to expand...

What is the difference between this and "junior faculty"? What is "junior faculty"?
 
Title? Pay? Expectation that you will/won't leave at the end of 1 year?

I've heard the term "junior faculty" and the like bandied about a bit, and it seems to mean different things to different institutions. Some like to tell fellows "we treat you like junior faculty," which I loosely translate to being an educationally funded workhorse (not necessarily all bad, but still). Some like to hire people "as junior faculty," which sometimes seems to mean they didn't want to get accredited for a fellowship but need someone to cheaply help with the workload. Some like to use it as a stopgap between an academically titled position (associate, assistant, prof, etc.) which their department won't support, and a fellow which for some reason they can't bring in or don't think will fill their needs.

So, eh, maybe the answer to that question is blowing in the wind.
 
BierstiefelAndy said:
Fortunately, the way my training and fellowships were lined up ensure that I would never ever be in the position to even be asked to be chief resident. Dodged a bullet there.
Click to expand...

I feel the same. Being chief is important but it seems pretty exhausting and thankless. I was way too busy to do it and couldn't handle anything else on my plate. I have participated in many other leadership type things that I have put on my CV (which were much more fun than being chief). And yes, I had my fellowships lined up already so no worries there. I tell people that I would have said "No" if I was offered the job, but I agree with others here that it would have been tough to truly say "no"!
 
zao275 said:
I feel the same. Being chief is important but it seems pretty exhausting and thankless. I was way too busy to do it and couldn't handle anything else on my plate. I have participated in many other leadership type things that I have put on my CV (which were much more fun than being chief). And yes, I had my fellowships lined up already so no worries there. I tell people that I would have said "No" if I was offered the job, but I agree with others here that it would have been tough to truly say "no"!
Click to expand...

In some programs, being asked to be Chief may mean they are considering you as possible "keep on and Hire..."
That is what happened to me...I learned more about the administrative side of Pathology...had more duties on the tumor boards, etc. and when I was starting to seriously search for outside opportunities was approached by Dept Chair and asked to consider staying on as a member of Dept had decided to retire...
Obviously not all programs will have that..but you can get good refs from it if you approach them right
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

WEBB PINKERTON
pathology resident turned cowardly vigilante
Replies
2
Views
3K
octopusprime
octopusprime
initialize
Hours worked as a first year path resident
Replies
22
Views
6K
Guest8
G
Q
Quantity of residency programs to apply to
Replies
12
Views
3K
Iceman24
I
pathres9999
Pathology resident suicide
Replies
8
Views
4K
PATHDOCNYCNJ
P
PathNeuroIMorFM
  • Question Question
Odds of moving west if you do residency on the east?
Replies
3
Views
1K
caffeinegirl
caffeinegirl
Top