Are you sure you're talking about the same UW (Seattle) as the rest of us???? What did they do that actually impressed you?
Believe it or not, I'm not that picky, but I do want a few things from a program:
1. I want to interview with people who've actually read my file and know something about me.
neither interviewer knew anything about me
2. I would prefer to interview with at least one person who had an interest or two that parallels mine.
nothing in common at all, not a specialty, not a hobby, nothing
3. I would like to have at least 30 minutes per interview not counting travel time, 45 would be ideal, 60 is about the upper limit
I think I had about 30 minutes for each, but one interview spent at least 10 of those minutes reading my file in front of me
.way to make it clear you have no clue who I am!! At least the other person admitted that she knew nothing about me and we went from there. And when I asked questions about the program, neither knew anything. This is fine, as long as I get to speak with program leadership, which didn't happen unfortunately.
4. I would like the chance to speak with the program director
The large Q&A session was OK I suppose, but I think it would have worked better at the end of the day when I knew more about the program. I think its highly questionable that the chair only talked about stepping down when asked, which didnt happen each week
5. I want to see the Chair of Medicine, and preferably hear him/her speak
No idea who the Chair is at UW, never saw him/her. Not a huge deal, except when the PD is stepping down I wonder if the Chair will be more important
6. I would like to see/hear from the associate program directors, especially if my faculty interviewers arent intimately familiar with how the program runs
I think one of the speakers at the AM session was an APD, and she did answer questions, but I never got to speak with her one on one, which is important since neither faculty member seemed to know jack about the program.
7. I need to be able to speak with the current residents without faculty around (at dinner the night before is a great time for this)
I never got significant time with residents when there wasnt faculty around except during the van tour
8. I need to be able to speak with the current interns without faculty alone (at dinner the night before is a great time for this)
I never got significant time with interns when there wasnt faculty around
9. Depending on the sites, I want to see each clinical site, including work rooms, patient rooms, nursing stations, call rooms, and cafeteria
I never saw UWMC, and I felt like our tour of Harborview missed a few key parts
10. I want to see a team actually round with an attending
Never saw a team anywhere.
11. I want to see a standard, every day morning report or common conference
saw a morning report at the VA, which was great but dominanted by residents over interns
12. I want to be fed at least once on interview day, preferably with a few options
They had run out of most of the food items by the time my group went through the food line, so I was left eating bits of a salad, croutons, and I had to steal a fork that was being used to serve food to eat with. And the dinner the night before was pretty minimal as well. You can def. tell this is a financially tight university program
13. I want the chance to see interns/residents/faculty again at the end of the day to ask any last minute questions
I got to talk with the resident on the van tour, and I think before I left the secretary was around, does that count?
14. I want to hear about opportunities for residents to do research during residency
I think this sort of happened during the first session with the PD.
So, how did UW score? Maybe 1-2 out of 14. Like I said, UW is a great program that's being strangled by its administration. Hopefully they'll get a decent PD soon. With a new PD, more commitment to ACGME guidelines, and some support from the University, I think UW could be a top 5 program again. But for its clearly not even top 20 in my book.
