Speciality

[Bill59]

(I would think you'd have to have three heads in order for a school to decline your candidacy and save $25-30k a year for three years, but don't know

It can actually cost $80-100K to fund a residency position. In addition to salary, you have benefits, professional liability insurance, travel, office space and supplies and so on.

That said, any program that takes accepts a questionable candidate just because they're paid for is making a huge mistake. Don't even consider the money -- spending 3 years training someone is a huge investment in time and effort on the part of attendings. And residents have a lot of responisbility -- a lousy resident can **** up an awful lot of stuff in 3 years.

A bad resident is worse than no resident.

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[StillDreaming]

I think that with corps 'buying out residencies' is in the long run beneficial. I mean if you think about it, right now most if not all vet schools are looking to cut budgets, and residencies are honestly coming on the chopping block. So when schools are 'selling' their residencies, it is often because htye were going to be cut anyways, and as previously stated,

a resident that is bad is better than no resident at all... But for the most part you run the same risk of a bad resident with a regular matching program as you are with corps... the corporations are investing A LOT in funding the resident, so they aren't going to choose a bad resident.

 

[Bill59]

In general I think that's true, but overall it's a matter of numbers. For example when VCA is funding a residency they have often identified one of their interns for the position and they want them to return to VCA after the residency. So the applicant pool is much smaller compared to taking someone through the match.

 

[twelvetigers]

The clin path residency program that I was familiar with was pretty much 8-5 with an occasional Saturday. They taught a 4th year rotation, did jornal club once a week, and did rounds once a week. However, I think there was quite a bit of individual studying involved since it was up to them to prepare for the board exams, which are notoriously hard. So, 8-5 isn't exactly representative of the total input, but they were never "on call" or anything.

 

[alliecat44]

In general I think that's true, but overall it's a matter of numbers. For example when VCA is funding a residency they have often identified one of their interns for the position and they want them to return to VCA after the residency. So the applicant pool is much smaller compared to taking someone through the match.

Fewer potential applicants, and leaving fewer slots for applicants who don't want to commit to corporate medicine. Good for the schools financially, but at what cost to the profession? The more slots the corporations take to staff their own hospitals, the fewer specialists there are to go around elsewhere.

By doing this, the corporations are increasingly in control of more of the profession (if this trend continues). They'll be tying up a disproportionate number of specialists, leaving even fewer to go into academia, other private practices, etc. Corporations having increased control over who is allowed to become a specialist...it seems kind of like a slippery slope to me.

 

[eventualeventer]

Oops, I missed the post about ISELP. I know someone who is doing that program, and it's crazy how much lameness stuff he's learning, although I'm sure it helps that he's a quick study.

Aretoo, that sounds similar to the program where I work.

StillDreaming, I guess I didn't word that very well. I meant to say that I'm not sure whether I want to go into medicine or surgery, because I can certainly see the appeal of both! Penn's LA critical care residency sounds amazing, too.