Cook county EM malignancy?

[nuclearrabbit77]

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well, my friendly next door neighbor told me today that he's leaving cook county because it was too malignant. now he's headed to LSU. this whole thing makes me wonder about the whole matching process....not just including emergency medicine...but how we all would like to go to a quality institution, but may be really unhappy after we get there.

 

[jazz]

making the match list is difficult. however, some things that usually make for a better outcome include:

go with your gut feeling. people who rank based on prestige instead of the gut feeling "did i like this place? is this place for me?" are more likely to be unhappy

make an informed decision. you have a lot of resources. if you know people who graduated the year before and matched in your field, ask them for reputations of different programs. your attendings at your medical school have good ideas about the different feel of programs. talk with other applicants and see what they have heard on the grapevine.

residency in general can be quite painful at times. there are many frustrations -- try to figure out what bothers you most and avoid those programs (programs with reputations as "do it all" -- no ancillary, no transport, programs with a lot of didatic teaching, programs with little directed teaching... etc) working so many hours and getting paid next to nothing (see that other great post about how we make one of the ten least paid professionals) and you'll realize that it's not that hard to be "tipped over the edge" and want to leave a program

 

[Chillio]

I did a month there as a student a little while back. It seemed like a pretty nice environment and the residents seemed happy. I didnt come across any that seemed unhappy. The attendings were all great too. Then again, experience as a student and resident are completely different animals..... my .02 for what its worth

 

[pjr]

I rotated through the trauma unit as part of my surgery residency -- total of 7 months (4 as a PGY2, 3 as a PGY4). At least 6 (usually more) county ER residents on service at a time, and I found them to be extremely competent and very well adjusted, an overall great group. They all seemed pretty happy with the program. The hospital is a pain, don't get me wrong, but the program seems pretty good. Best group of ER residents I have run across by far, and I've worked with a lot of them.

good luck

 

[DrQuinn]

One thing I would check out when you interview is to get the "feel" of how the residents like their program. You can always ask outright, but sometimes trying to read between the lines can help out more than getting an answer of "we all love it here."

Q, DO