As a former Chief Resident of this program, I sadly feel compelled to discourage current medical students from applying here.
While I do feel as though my education, particularly with inpatient medicine, was strong and has prepared me to become a hospitalist at an Ivy League institution, the overall culture fostered by the faculty and administration is far from ideal.
This is not to say that there are not any caring, dedicated, and intelligent attendings – because they certainly exist, but a lack of administrative oversight and conflict management skills among faculty unfortunately became pervasive. Much to my dismay, I watched this hamper the development of many of my fellow resident colleagues.
I find it hypocritical that the institution professes commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, yet nearly all of the residency faculty and major members of administration are caucasian males.
One attending I was close to during my training was the lone female core residency faculty member –– she often expressed much dissatisfaction of always being “on the outside looking in,” when it came to being included on decisions that were supposedly to be made by the entire residency faculty. I saw for myself how the program director intentionally kept her out of such discussion – likely because he knew she would challenge his stance. It should come as no surprise that she left Penn State for another institution.
I was offered a job to stay on as an attending upon completed of my residency. While I would have liked to have served as an agent of change in this program – I simply felt the current culture would be prohibitive of such progress.
While I do feel as though my education, particularly with inpatient medicine, was strong and has prepared me to become a hospitalist at an Ivy League institution, the overall culture fostered by the faculty and administration is far from ideal.
This is not to say that there are not any caring, dedicated, and intelligent attendings – because they certainly exist, but a lack of administrative oversight and conflict management skills among faculty unfortunately became pervasive. Much to my dismay, I watched this hamper the development of many of my fellow resident colleagues.
I find it hypocritical that the institution professes commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, yet nearly all of the residency faculty and major members of administration are caucasian males.
One attending I was close to during my training was the lone female core residency faculty member –– she often expressed much dissatisfaction of always being “on the outside looking in,” when it came to being included on decisions that were supposedly to be made by the entire residency faculty. I saw for myself how the program director intentionally kept her out of such discussion – likely because he knew she would challenge his stance. It should come as no surprise that she left Penn State for another institution.
I was offered a job to stay on as an attending upon completed of my residency. While I would have liked to have served as an agent of change in this program – I simply felt the current culture would be prohibitive of such progress.
