How to pick an ob/gyn residency

[TheJiggler]

What are qualities you're looking for in an ob/gyn residency? I read a thread earlier on how you're not supposed to go into ob/gyn wanting to do a specific fellowship. But I kinda don't agree with this (Don't yell at me please )

I think you should keep an open mind about the field and be open to learning about it...but I feel if you're genuinely interested in a fellowship (I'm talking about gyn onc) you should just go ahead with a full head of steam. If you want to do something genuinely, you'll be able to do it.....sorry for the side note

As you can see, I'm interested in gyn onc. I was just wondering what are some good programs that are good tracks to gyn onc. I'm specifically interested in research and academic medicine....so are the traditional academic powerhouses (Harvard, Wash u, penn, etc) good for ob/gyn residencies in order to get a good gyn onc fellowship?

What are qualities in an ob/gyn residency that you're looking for if you're interested in gyn onc?

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[BBCatcherVA]

When evaluating a program for gyn onc fellowship placement (or any fellowship for that matter) you want to look for a program with a track record for such placements. APGO reports the % of graduates going on to fellowship and most programs will advertise this information on their websites. Look for a link to "Recent Graduates".

A lot of fuss has been made over whether or not you should look for a program that already has gyn onc fellows. Some say that the fellows "steal cases", others think that the fellows "add to learning". My personal opinion is that a program that offers a fellowship in your field of interest will be better at advising you how to procure one throughout residency.

Obviously, a program with well-known faculty would be a benefit. Fortunately or unfortunately, a lot of fellowship placement can boil down to plain old networking. How do you know if the faculty are well known? Well ask an advisor at your home institution. Another thing to check would be look at faculty publications on their websites. This is usually interested under links to the individual faculty members or under something like "Faculty Research Interests". Look for publications in the popular discipline journals.

If you are specifically interested in gyn onc, look for a program with great surgical numbers. This will give you lots of practice on the manual skills necessary for the field and the management of post-operative patients. This information may be hard to come by. Most programs will post their operative experience numbers but it is hard to find the information on program averages for comparisons. A surrogate marker may be the number of hospitals in which you must rotate. Most programs do not have to go to >1 institution for adequate OB #s; they are usually looking to increase their gyn surgery #s.

Hope you find this info helpful. Good luck!

 

[civic4982]

Thanks for the info. I'm subscribing to this thread to get more info as well. Anyone with any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[nykka3]

Here is a link from a prior thread similiar to this one that lists the current avg. surgical numbers per resident that you can use for comparison. You can also look at the apgo dB for a prgm of interest and compare their numbers to the national avg's. Some of the apgo info could be outdated so check the dates.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=505080

 

[estllhvshm]

Hi, I'm a third year medical student planning to apply for OB/GYN residencies. At this point I'm not interested in pursuing a fellowship when I finish so I want to make sure the training I get in residency is great. I'm been emailing a lot of programs (if this isn't already posted online) to find out how many surgeries (ab hysterectomy, vaginal hysterectomy, laparoscopy...) the fourth year residents have done. I came across a program that said I can do a fourth year visiting student rotation with them in a city that I would be excited to live in. Everything was great until I asked for the number of surgeries the residents do and the secretary REFUSES to share the info with me. She says they usually only give this information to interviewing students. I'm worried they're hiding something. She assures me they do plenty of surgeries and have a great training program. Well of course she would say that. Should I be worried? Has anyone heard anything about New Hanover Regional Medical Center Program in Wilmington NC for OB/GYN?

 

[Diane L. Evans]

Dear estllhvshm
Relax most residencies have plenty of opportunities to do laproscopy and abd hyst. The number and only number to be concerned with is VAGINAL HYSTERECTOMIES or FORCEP DELIVERIES. If you like this program take them up on their offer and then while there ask the chiefs.

Good luck.

BTW most secretaries will not give these # out on the phone they only give info out in person

 

[estllhvshm]

Diane,
Thank you for the encouragement. I thought it seemed unusual that the program wouldn't give me the information. I didn't know that was typical because most all the places I've called and emailed have responded with the number of surgeries residents are doing.

nykka3,
The thread you posted has number of surgeries residents perform. Is this a total over the four years or numbers just for the one year?

Thanks everyone!

 

[ckliethe]

estllhvshm- make sure you check out the apgo website: http://www.apgo.org/residencies/

It has plenty of info on programs and their numbers.

 

[Miss Alyssa]

Dear estllhvshm
Relax most residencies have plenty of opportunities to do laproscopy and abd hyst. The number and only number to be concerned with is VAGINAL HYSTERECTOMIES or FORCEP DELIVERIES. If you like this program take them up on their offer and then while there ask the chiefs.

Good luck.

BTW most secretaries will not give these # out on the phone they only give info out in person

BUMP!

What is a good number to look for in vag hysterectomies and forcep deliveries?

 

[diehardobgyn]

I am I interested in Gyn/Onc as well. I like surgery a lot and after doing Family Med OB really thought I hated OB. I was concerned about that fact, so much so that I considered General Surgery briefly. I discussed my dilemma with my Gen Surg Site Director on whether or not he thought it was possible to to and OB/Gyn residency wanting to go into Gyn/Onc with minimal OB interest. He in turn sought out the Clerkship Director for Gyn/Onc for me who also happens to be one of the higher ups at my school and he explicitly said not to do an OB/Gyn residency if I didn't like the OB and was solely focused on Gyn/Onc. I took thic advice to heart and later learned I actually liked OB so no big deal but definitely food for thought.