Some are, some aren't.
The ones written by medical students tend to be less helpful, because as close as you are to the action, you never really know the full story until you're a resident.
Secondly, some here have claimed that they have been asked or coerced by PDs to write a positive review.
Note the date on the reviews...many are years old. In academics, changes can occur rapidly...what was written 3 years ago may no longer be true.
Finally, as with all survey type of things, often its the most disgruntled and the happiest who reply...the great unwashed in the middle don't bother.
If your "word on the street" agrees with the Scutwork reviews, that's as good a reflection of their validity as any.
KC,
It goes a bit deeper than PD coercing residents to write positive reviews. I had a conversation with one of the principles of Scutwork. He told me that he has been personally threatened by institutional lawyers. Programs have punished, severely, residents who have written honest but less than stellar reviews on scutwork, as they have those who have written about their experiences here on SDN.
I think this is a big problem. FRIEDA information can be misleading and malignant programs have been known to outright lie about conditions. I think we need a place like Scutwork to help "out" the bad programs.
Otherwise, things will remain status quo, rather than improve. An alternative, of course, is to make it possible for residents to change programs easily and without the present program director's permission. Programs that have high turnover would be forced to mend their ways or suffer a high turnover. One way to accomplish this is to have the ACGME/RRCs be the "custodians of the records," rather than the institutions. That way, an unhappy resident (or disgruntled if you prefer), has a validated set of documents that cannot easily be "doctored" by a mischievious program. Every resident's file/evaluations/case logs etc could be sent to the document custodian periodically, similar to the ACGME's case logging system.
I agree with the idea that you should talk to your dean/counselor to find out what they know about area programs you are interested in.
It might be possible to look at what med schools nearby your candidate program send med students to them. Ask the dean/curriculum directors of that med school, not the program you are considering what they know about the program. Pay very close attention to the program completion rate and if it's not 100% year after year, make sure you find out why.
Lastly, be aware of "plant/selected" residents when you interview. Make sure you talk to a number of residents that are not signed up as tour guides or whatever to make sure that you are getting a balanced view of what really goes on in the program.
