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Hey all, I posted this in the Anesthesiology forum, but thought it might be helpful for all interviewees. Cheers.
Hey all-
I haven't posted on here since my med school days, and actually had to open a new account. I am finishing my anesthesia residency at a nationally recognized program with multiple attending physician who are in editorial positions in several high impact factor journals. Although it is considered a "top program" I wish that I had asked a few more questions about it, and every other program I interviewed at, to make sure that national recognition correlated strongly with good teaching. Although these questions are geared toward anesthesia residency interviews, they probably can be applied to any specialty to some degree.
1. Did you have any spots in the scramble last year? Why?
-Don't be afraid to ask this question. An honest and unoffensive response by an interviewer means they recognized the problem, and are taking steps to fix it. Offense could mean the program probably didn't have enough applicants rank them for what ever reason, or that they think very highly of themselves, or are just very selective in who they rank. It's not always a negative thing, a program may just be well staffed and doesn't need to fill there class year in year out if they are not happy with their applicant pool.
2. How many hours a week do your resident work? Is the work-hours rule ever violated?
-This is pretty obvious. Ask every program. Write it down. Find out per clinical year. It may really vary with certain years being much busier than others. This may be one you want to ask a semi intoxicated resident at a dinner. Start to get an idea of what the national average is and then decide if a program is working too little/much for you. Remember you still will need alot of reading time in residency (see #6 below). Attendings in a program (especially if they trained at the same program) are notoriously bad at knowing just how the hours of their own program stack up against the national average.
3a. How many days a week do residents take call?
3b. How many weekends per month?
3c. How many calls have the potential to be overnight? What happens if I work overnight the next day?
3d. Which calls have pre and post call days?
3e/4e. See below
-These also are questions for which you want to write the answers down and compare directly to other programs. Many programs have a pre-call day before a long call days. Some do not. Pre-call and Post-call days are a huge perk if a program has them. Remember the revision of the hours rules this year have essentially left it up to the program director to work you as much as they want after your first 2 years of training.
4a. What is the night schedule like? 1 week at a time? q4? Etc...
4b. How many residents are on overnight? How many OR rooms are staffed at night?
4c. How is work divided at night?
4d. Are there CRNA's that are on at night as well?
3e/4e. Is there a late shift that comes in the afternoon and leaves late in the evening?
-Nights can be great or horrible. It can be wonderful learning or boring babysitting, or work to the bone busy. Your personal preference as the scheduling obviously takes precedence, but don't underestimate how important it can be as both a day call resident trying to get out or a late/night resident coming in to have a resident/CRNA late shift to help wrap up busy days.
5a. How often are rooms 1 on 1 resident to attending?
5b. How often do resident relieve CRNA's and why?
-These are VERY telling of a programs goals. If a program is well staffed then the answer to a will be at least sometimes, and not just in complicated case rooms. These 1 on 1 situations is where great teaching and learning happens.
-You should rarely relieve CRNA's in my mind. My logic is that CRNA's are employed to make money for the program, and when you take a room over from them did the room somehow magically becoming a learning case? Hardly. Be VERY wary of programs that consistently have residents relieving CRNA's at the end of the day.
6. Is there a structured lecture schedule that has integrated board/ITE review from a major anesthesia text (i.e. Miller)? What is expected on the ITE for each clinical year?
-Ask this question the residents the night before, and then again the next day with an interviewer. Ask the residents how much reading/cramming they feel they need to do to perform well on the annual in-training exam with the lectures/teaching they receive. This is an important one to write down and compare when making your rank list.
7. Of those residents that match into fellowship, how many get there first choice?
-This can tell you a lot about the program you are interviewing at. Also if getting into a highly competitive fellowship program/job market is your goal, it can be the most important question you ask. Consistent 1st or 2nd choice fellowship results mean the program probably has a strong network and nationally recognized faculty.
8. What are the off service months (ICU) like? How many are there?
-Ask the residents, not the attendings. Some programs have LOTS of ICU time these days. Some up to 6 months! This makes up a large part of your training and can make or brake your decision on a program. Write this stuff down. Properly run ICU are enormous learning opportunities. Open units run by the surgery services can be horrible.
9. Are you happy you matched here? Ask first what don't you like about the program, and then what do you like?
-At the dinner and then the next day at lunch ask as many residents are you can if they are happy they matched there. Don't just ask those resident with the bubbly personality who are in your face at dinner, and then again at the lunch on interview day. They probably have some sort of emotional investment in the program which is possibly not shared by all the residents, and will gloss over alot of things that are important to a properly adjusted resident such as yourself.
Alright that is it. Good luck everyone. Feel free to respond with comments or questions.
Hey all-
I haven't posted on here since my med school days, and actually had to open a new account. I am finishing my anesthesia residency at a nationally recognized program with multiple attending physician who are in editorial positions in several high impact factor journals. Although it is considered a "top program" I wish that I had asked a few more questions about it, and every other program I interviewed at, to make sure that national recognition correlated strongly with good teaching. Although these questions are geared toward anesthesia residency interviews, they probably can be applied to any specialty to some degree.
1. Did you have any spots in the scramble last year? Why?
-Don't be afraid to ask this question. An honest and unoffensive response by an interviewer means they recognized the problem, and are taking steps to fix it. Offense could mean the program probably didn't have enough applicants rank them for what ever reason, or that they think very highly of themselves, or are just very selective in who they rank. It's not always a negative thing, a program may just be well staffed and doesn't need to fill there class year in year out if they are not happy with their applicant pool.
2. How many hours a week do your resident work? Is the work-hours rule ever violated?
-This is pretty obvious. Ask every program. Write it down. Find out per clinical year. It may really vary with certain years being much busier than others. This may be one you want to ask a semi intoxicated resident at a dinner. Start to get an idea of what the national average is and then decide if a program is working too little/much for you. Remember you still will need alot of reading time in residency (see #6 below). Attendings in a program (especially if they trained at the same program) are notoriously bad at knowing just how the hours of their own program stack up against the national average.
3a. How many days a week do residents take call?
3b. How many weekends per month?
3c. How many calls have the potential to be overnight? What happens if I work overnight the next day?
3d. Which calls have pre and post call days?
3e/4e. See below
-These also are questions for which you want to write the answers down and compare directly to other programs. Many programs have a pre-call day before a long call days. Some do not. Pre-call and Post-call days are a huge perk if a program has them. Remember the revision of the hours rules this year have essentially left it up to the program director to work you as much as they want after your first 2 years of training.
4a. What is the night schedule like? 1 week at a time? q4? Etc...
4b. How many residents are on overnight? How many OR rooms are staffed at night?
4c. How is work divided at night?
4d. Are there CRNA's that are on at night as well?
3e/4e. Is there a late shift that comes in the afternoon and leaves late in the evening?
-Nights can be great or horrible. It can be wonderful learning or boring babysitting, or work to the bone busy. Your personal preference as the scheduling obviously takes precedence, but don't underestimate how important it can be as both a day call resident trying to get out or a late/night resident coming in to have a resident/CRNA late shift to help wrap up busy days.
5a. How often are rooms 1 on 1 resident to attending?
5b. How often do resident relieve CRNA's and why?
-These are VERY telling of a programs goals. If a program is well staffed then the answer to a will be at least sometimes, and not just in complicated case rooms. These 1 on 1 situations is where great teaching and learning happens.
-You should rarely relieve CRNA's in my mind. My logic is that CRNA's are employed to make money for the program, and when you take a room over from them did the room somehow magically becoming a learning case? Hardly. Be VERY wary of programs that consistently have residents relieving CRNA's at the end of the day.
6. Is there a structured lecture schedule that has integrated board/ITE review from a major anesthesia text (i.e. Miller)? What is expected on the ITE for each clinical year?
-Ask this question the residents the night before, and then again the next day with an interviewer. Ask the residents how much reading/cramming they feel they need to do to perform well on the annual in-training exam with the lectures/teaching they receive. This is an important one to write down and compare when making your rank list.
7. Of those residents that match into fellowship, how many get there first choice?
-This can tell you a lot about the program you are interviewing at. Also if getting into a highly competitive fellowship program/job market is your goal, it can be the most important question you ask. Consistent 1st or 2nd choice fellowship results mean the program probably has a strong network and nationally recognized faculty.
8. What are the off service months (ICU) like? How many are there?
-Ask the residents, not the attendings. Some programs have LOTS of ICU time these days. Some up to 6 months! This makes up a large part of your training and can make or brake your decision on a program. Write this stuff down. Properly run ICU are enormous learning opportunities. Open units run by the surgery services can be horrible.
9. Are you happy you matched here? Ask first what don't you like about the program, and then what do you like?
-At the dinner and then the next day at lunch ask as many residents are you can if they are happy they matched there. Don't just ask those resident with the bubbly personality who are in your face at dinner, and then again at the lunch on interview day. They probably have some sort of emotional investment in the program which is possibly not shared by all the residents, and will gloss over alot of things that are important to a properly adjusted resident such as yourself.
Alright that is it. Good luck everyone. Feel free to respond with comments or questions.
