I often here people describe certain ob/gyn residencies as being malignant. I wanted to find out what others' thoughts are on this issue and if this is really true. If so, what does it mean for a program to be malignant? thanks a lot for your responses.
Malignant for me basically means a crappy place to train. Not because you work hard but because you're getting beaten down as a resident by faculty, upper level residents, ancillary staff etc for anything and everything.
In general, malignant places are missing residents from various years as people have slowly dropped out. This is tricky in OB though as the attrition rate is naturally high due to the nature of the profession and even great programs may have some residents drop out based on personal reasons.
I tend to think of some inner city programs in NY fitting the bill of malignant fairly well. Won't name any programs at this point.
The easiest way to tell if a program is malignant is just by talking to the residents. They won't outright say they are miserable but you can get a vibe just by how they act.
Uh really? Do you think there is a reason Hopkins struggles to fill their program every year?
Uh, do you even know what you're talking about?
Training at Hopkins, like any academic program, will put you through the ringer but they are some of the best trained residents/fellows you will meet out there. And as far as I know, they've been doing pretty well in the match.
I don't have any formal connection to Hopkins but know some very well trained OB-Gyns from there who finished relatively recently.
