Does my residency suck?

[psychdrop]

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[OldPsychDoc]

I believe it might be said that your current phase of residency is rife with suckage, but that this particular flavor of suckage is common to most programs at some point in PGY1 and 2.

Hang in there--it will get better. Well, kind of...

Well, the flavor changes anyway...

 

[whopper]

Hard to say given the amount of information you've given.

OPD IMHO is right. Your program may indeed "suck" but I think a lot of PGY 1 & 2s would feel that way even if it did not. Hard hours and the stress and frustration of being in a situation where you don't know how to size it up at first will make many think the grass is greener on the other side.

Very few people have the opportunity to see what's going on in other programs. If they could, they may find themselves actually in a very good position in comparison to the other programs.

We work 24 hour shifts there by ourselves covering the ED, floor consults and the DBT phone calls during which we are supposed to talk down suicidal borderlines. The attendings are great people but are too busy to take any time to teach because they have to also run their own practices on the side.

I will comment that an attending should be available to answer questions. This is built into ACGME guidelines. They can't stick you in a situation without an attending to consult if you don't know what you're doing.

However the attending prescence can vary and still be within the guidelines. The attending for example might not be next to you, but a phone call away in a different part of the building. An attending should at least on a daily basis go over what you're doing, and comment on it even if there is no emergency.

 

[CaMD]

I have no idea if your residency sucks or not, but I just want to thank you for the thread. I had a crappy day of residency myself today and seeing your title made me laugh. 🙂

 

[Faebinder]

Yours sucks but it's not that uncommon. So hang in there.

 

[psychotrope]

So I'm a second year psych resident. I'm starting to wonder, do all programs suck as much as mine?
We work at 2 hospitals- VA and the university. The uni has good pathology but the VA is full of axis II homeless guys looking for a place to stay who come in drunk. We work 24 hour shifts there by ourselves covering the ED, floor consults and the DBT phone calls during which we are supposed to talk down suicidal borderlines. The attendings are great people but are too busy to take any time to teach because they have to also run their own practices on the side. Our didactics are 1/2 day and are a total joke.
Is this just the way residency is?

where are you(not the program but the part of the country) are you at?

I think in general the southeast programs, even the less prestigous programs with more of a community feel, all have very happy residents that arent overworked, arent on call too much, have lots of didactics and free time, supportive attendings, etc.......Im talking about programs like east carolina, south alabama, east tennessee state, mcg, wake forest, etc......wake and mcg are maybe more academically inclined, but the vibe is the same....

My sense is that the northeast is the one part of the country where some psych residencies are driven more by volume and just "seeing patients" to "get stuff done" than actual education and a good atmosphere....

I understand that residencies often have to try to find some balance between service and education, but well.....I definately want to be at a place that doesn't see residents as people to just see volume....

 

[psychdrop]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I won't go into what program I'm at but I'm not actually in the NE. I strongly suspect if I was I would be feeling even more like a work horse! Guess you really don't know what your residency program is going to be like until you are in the thick of it. Nothing to do at this point but put my head down and barrel through.