Is it “okay” to do residency at a community hospital with a large catchment area? Will my training suffer?

[folgersormh]

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[s5260205]

I think the most important question is how stable you think your relationship is with your fiance. The program is actually a very decent program on paper given the patient load, pathology (transplant), and subspecialty representation, despite being "community", and you will be able to have excellent training there. Just being in a "prestigious" program does not make you a great neurologist, and it really comes down to how much you study and learn through residency, and I've encountered good and no-so-good neurologists coming from both community and more academic programs.

At the end of the day, it seems that prestige is still something you value, and you are sacrificing this for the benefits of your fiance. Residency is temporary. Is he willing to make the sacrifice of being away from hometown for 4 years for you? 3 hours are also not that far. Can he make the sacrifice of visiting you frequently despite the 3-hour commute (to make it less "long-distance")? If you make the sacrifice for him to be in the community program and you are not happy in this program for whatever reason, would you carry resentment or think about "what if's"? Residency is pretty grueling sometimes, and if you are not happy in this program after making the sacrifice, would that affect your relationship with your fiance?

Just some things to consider, especially heart to heart with your fiance.

 

[folgersormh]

I think the most important question is how stable you think your relationship is with your fiance. The program is actually a very decent program on paper given the patient load, pathology (transplant), and subspecialty representation, despite being "community", and you will be able to have excellent training there. Just being in a "prestigious" program does not make you a great neurologist, and it really comes down to how much you study and learn through residency, and I've encountered good and no-so-good neurologists coming from both community and more academic programs.

At the end of the day, it seems that prestige is still something you value, and you are sacrificing this for the benefits of your fiance. Residency is temporary. Is he willing to make the sacrifice of being away from hometown for 4 years for you? 3 hours are also not that far. Can he make the sacrifice of visiting you frequently despite the 3-hour commute (to make it less "long-distance")? If you make the sacrifice for him to be in the community program and you are not happy in this program for whatever reason, would you carry resentment or think about "what if's"? Residency is pretty grueling sometimes, and if you are not happy in this program after making the sacrifice, would that affect your relationship with your fiance?

Just some things to consider, especially heart to heart with your fiance.

It would be less than ideal to be away for 4 years, and to only visit occasionally, and he wouldn’t be happy in a lot of cities (every time I mention maybe moving farther away he says it would be terrible and hard for him, but that if I can only match somewhere far then he’ll follow).

Prestige matters to me as a proxy for training strength. I know not every prestigious program will automatically churn out great clinicians. But I guess the structured teaching, research, and emphasis on resident learning would be a boost.

I mostly care about getting good training and coming out a competent and well-rounded neurologist who’s capable of taking care of any kind of patient (within reason, obviously even the best physician in X specialty will need to refer and consult)

 

[Lifeblood_20]

As someone who just went through the match process, I want to say don’t get too attached to the idea of attending any particular residency program. Keep an open mind and don’t go in with the mindset of targeting a single program.

 

[folgersormh]

As someone who just went through the match process, I want to say don’t get too attached to the idea of attending any particular residency program. Keep an open mind and don’t go in with the mindset of targeting a single program.

Well no, but if I rank it #1 then I might have a higher chance of matching there versus if I rank it 2 or lower. That’s why I mentioned my fiance said he’d follow if needed, he’d just be miserable/not happy depending on where we go but he’d come. Still if I rank it high then my chances are likely highest there but not 100% of course.

 

[Lifeblood_20]

Well no, but if I rank it #1 then I might have a higher chance of matching there versus if I rank it 2. That’s why I said my fiance said he’d follow he’d just be miserable/not happy depending on where we go but he’d come. Still if I rank it high then my chances are likely highest there but not 100%.

I’m assuming you’re applying next year? You certainly aren't close to needing to think about a rank list. You got plenty of time to sort out which programs to apply to and of course you still need to get/do interviews.

Don’t just assume that particular program is gonna interview you just because you are a good applicant. You might also discover another program that would work better.

All I’m saying is this is all hypothetical right now and you should keep an open mind.