Letters from a resident

[GiJoe]

A friend of mine who is doing surgery was doing an away rotation at a school down south. He told me that he got along very well with everyone and some of the residents liked him so much that they said that they would be willing to write him a LOR to put in his file for that specific program. ( The LOR wouldn't/couldn't be used in the ERAS). How common is this practice in the EM world? Have any residents done this for some of the M4 students who are rotating at their program?

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[WilcoWorld]

I talked to a cheif resident about this at one of the places where I interviewed. He said that it wouldn't help there, because they meet with the PD to discuss students, and his opinions would be expressed there. However, I think that this is program-dependant, and the residents at each program are the ones likely to know if it'll help. So, if a resident at a particular program offers to do it he/she likely thinks it's a good idea, and I say go for it.

 

[Scrubbs]

Ditto what Wilco said... our program is very big on resident input - both from interview day and working with/knowing people. Towards rank time, they put everyone's files out for the residents to comment on and it can make a big difference. We don't write actual LOR's for people, but our opinions are certainly taken into consideration.