Shadowing Resident vs Attending

[Holy Frans]

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I have come to prefer shadowing residents over attendings. They seem open to a greater degree and are overall easier to talk to IMO. I understand it also depends on who you shadow. I shadowed a 65 year old Critical Care anes. and we just didn't really have much to talk about. The downside with residents is that you lose out on the LOR from the established name. What are your guy's thoughts?

 

[apumic]

LORs from shadowing are useless, so the resident's fine for that. What you're really missing out on w/ the resident is the experience. The guy who's been in practice 25 yrs is going to have a much more rich history in medicine to draw from in conversation; you just need to figure out how to tap into it. The attendings I have shadowed have all been phenomenal.

 

[SusGob711]

The best combination is both. Residents are new enough to be real with you about what sucks, what's awesome, what they wish they'd known, etc. Beware, though, that residents are at the bottom of the food chain and may be a little more bitter than the attendings. They are overworked and underpaid and probably thinking 'wtf did I get myself into?' lol. That said, the attendings teaching the residents, in my experience, have been more willing to attempt to teach me things/explain things to me.