Ranking Pulm Crit Programs

[inthezone2]

Hello,

It's that time of the year when we med student grubs come out the woodwork for residency. Pulm/crit is something I've been interested in since my early days and I want to use the strength of the fellowships at the programs I've interested at to help in creating a rank list, the general adage being that your home program is your greatest resource and likely the one you'll match at.

How do you get a general sense of which programs are good or not?

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[the argus]

Hello,

It's that time of the year when we med student grubs come out the woodwork for residency. Pulm/crit is something I've been interested in since my early days and I want to use the strength of the fellowships at the programs I've interested at to help in creating a rank list, the general adage being that your home program is your greatest resource and likely the one you'll match at.

How do you get a general sense of which programs are good or not?

Define "good."

By the time many (most) people are starting fellowship the definition of "good" has a lot to do with things like where do I want my kids to grow up, where is my family located, where does my spouse have a job, etc.

Do you want to pursue an academic career becoming a super-specialist in a very specific topic in pulmonary medicine? Then you should probably go to the places that specialize in that topic (i.e. Colorado for ILD, etc).

Are you just looking for solid clinical training that will prepare you for a career in general pulm crit? Then there are tons of possible programs.


My point is, a "good" program depends entirely on the individual. I'm in fellowship in a region with a bunch of programs, a few of which most people would probably say are "better" programs than mine. But my program is exactly what I was looking for and I would not switch to one of the "better" programs if given the choice.

Instead of asking which programs are generally "good", think about what will be important for you in 3 or 4 years. When you know the answer to that question then maybe people can suggest programs.

 

[Bobblehead]

There's nothing necessarily wrong with planning ahead. I knew I wanted to do pulm/ccm when I was in med school (turns out I was correct despite all of the "of course you are, esp during my pulm/ICU electives"). My priorities were pretty undifferentiated when I ranked for fellowship so I applied pretty much all over the country. However many of my residency classmates already had very specific regional restrictions due to spouses/kids or things that cropped up with other family (parents).

If you "know" you're interested in some specific sub-specialization in pulmonary (IP, transplant, etc.) then you may want to consider looking at more of those programs. A lot can change in 3-4 years however and the financial recovery from covid will vary from hospital to hospital so I would not necessarily rely on history to predict the future. If you're not that differentiated then I would just make sure your residency has an established academic pulmonary fellowship and you should be fine regardless.