Harshest Residency Programs?

[StayOnTop]

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My other thread about work life balance got me curious. Which residency programs are known to be the toughest in terms of hours, call, patient load, etc.?

 

[Monocles]

I'm in the Boston area and heard that MGH is fairly demanding in terms of hours, especially during their PGY-1 medicine rotations.

 

[Psychotic]

In general, some of the most famous academic joints on either coast, along with some of the lowest of the low tier places.

Aim for the meaty part of the bell curve...

 

[whopper]

While applying for programs I noticed a correlation with programs that gave a multiple choice test during their interview as being lower tier but also one of the programs where they pushed over the 80 hour maximum limit.

 

[clausewitz2]

While applying for programs I noticed a correlation with programs that gave a multiple choice test during their interview as being lower tier but also one of the programs where they pushed over the 80 hour maximum limit.

I realize that others need to be more flexible, but if you are an allopathic grad and a program gives you a formal test at interview, run.

 

[nancysinatra]

While applying for programs I noticed a correlation with programs that gave a multiple choice test during their interview as being lower tier but also one of the programs where they pushed over the 80 hour maximum limit.

Do those programs still exist? For some reason I thought that all programs were now participating in the match. In the past, the ones that had multiple choice tests were programs that went outside the match and hired 100% foreign grads. Those places were sweat shops. I think the OP is asking about mainstream programs with bad reputations.

 

[hebel]

My perspective from the east coast...bigger name academic programs seemed heavier with the hours. Also, most programs in New York city are pretty busy.

 

[randomdoc1]

My guess would be the programs on the east coast would probably be among them. I was in another specialty before pursuing psychiatry and trained in a program in New York. Overall, I think regardless of what specialty, the hospital and clinics in that system were VERY busy. New York is also very litigious and compared to my experience in the midwest, there is way more defensive medicine which just adds unnecessary work, stress, cost, and iatrogenic problems. Also, the nurses and other ancillary staff are strongly unionized and I'd get called all the time to make up for what was really poor work. Compared to the midwest, it seemed like in the hospital system I practiced in New York the culture was such that it was ok to be a mediocre RN, CNA, what have you. For example, I'd be expected to do blood draws (despite having to cover a 30 bed medical unit and already having pending procedures I'm already starting to run behind on), I'd get called on for bogus stuff ("HTN" at a BP of 126/85), and not called on for stuff that I should be notified of (e.g. severe post op fevers). So in addition to the demands of being a resident, I found myself babysitting and triple checking everything else when you really should be able to rely on dependable and competent staff. I've also heard of programs who push the 80 hour work week rule and they tended to be from the east coast as well.

 

[StayOnTop]

Which east coast programs are known to be tough? NYU? MGH? Hopkins? Yale?

 

[st2205]

Which east coast programs are known to be tough? NYU? MGH? Hopkins? Yale?

Anywhere that oft employs the euphemism "you learn a lot."

 

[cookymonster]

Anywhere that has ICU months as part of the medicine rotations. if they won't let you moonlight, that's also probably a red flag. Things may have changed since 2010, but that's why I ranked Hopkins near the bottom.

 

[takeeacy]

My impression is that of some of the East Coast "top schools" Yale is one of the less scut/overworking oriented. My friends in the medicine program always talk about how warm everyone is. I feel they leverage their strong funding to get more people to cover the same amount of work other programs would and instead direct their residents' time towards research/academic matters (if you like that stuff).

 

[SmallBird]

My impression is that of some of the East Coast "top schools" Yale is one of the less scut/overworking oriented. My friends in the medicine program always talk about how warm everyone is. I feel they leverage their strong funding to get more people to cover the same amount of work other programs would and instead direct their residents' time towards research/academic matters (if you like that stuff).

This was my experience as a resident at Yale; the availablility of multiple T32's and additional funding through the VA facilitates an extremely favorable work life balance.

 

[Gavanshir]

"Once you've worked here, you can work anywhere" -my program

 

[Not_a_psychic]

"Once you've worked here, you can work anywhere" -my program

Once you've worked here, you can work anywhere

- Every program on the interview trail

FTFY

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

With our job market, any psychiatrist can work anywhere almost. It is true that some are better prepared than others I suppose.

 

[chicagochildpsych]

Shreveport ftw


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[Shikima]

Shreveport ftw


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