Has anyone yet experienced schools misrepresenting themselves on websites and even official brochures/packets?
I just had 2 interviews at PGY1 progs that boasted X amount of medicine and surgery, etc. Sounded great, just what I was looking for. Then at the interview, the story was COMPLETELY different. I couldn't do as much medicine as wished, and would have to do 3-4 mo surgery (I was planning on minimal surg).
Anyone else running into such misrepresentation?
Any suggestions on how to find out the truth BEFORE flying out and dropping serious $$$?
Good luck w interviews everyone.
There are programs like this. I consider this very dishonest, and I'm not sure how it benefits them since they will ultimately have very dissatisfied residents and eventually the work will suffer. If they are honest then they will recruit residents who see the benefit. Dishonesty in this area might profit them short term, but the word will get out eventually.
How to find out you've been lied to is a very tricky question. You can ask direct and specific questions, but a dishonest program will not be candid or truthful. Once you've matched, signed a contract and show up on July 1, you are stuck and the dishonest programs know that there is very little you can do about it.
Prior to the interview, you can check the ACGME site for probations, you can ask specifically when you interview at the program if there are any RRC violations, sanctions, or citations at their last program review or since then and what they have done to meet the requirements. Programs that are on probation must tell you this during the interview, but they are apparently not obligated to tell you before hand.
This might get some clue as to the history of the program. I am skeptical of interview days, since the dishonest programs will cherry pick residents who may be under pressure to "color" the opinions of the program, while those who would be candid are "busy."
Watch carefully who a program makes available during the interview time and who is not available. If there's a pattern, ask yourself about it. Also ask them for names of references of TY/prelims who have been away from the program for a couple of years. This would be someone in their 3rd/4th year of residency elsewhere that you can use to check the references of the program. If they refuse, or only give names of people within their system, raise the red flag high. They demand your references, why not check their references as well?
Some medical schools nearby might have some insight into the neighboring ty/prelim programs. For example, one medical school I know has a list of TY/prelim programs that they suggest not be considered. While the med schools nearby may have to be very discrete in sharing this information because of community relationships, this would be handy information to have. If you know med students at a medschool in the state, you might ask them discretely to see if their dean has any feelings about a particular program one way or another.
Also check scutwork. The information may be biased, good or bad, but the patterns of the comments may give a clue about how a program operates. Remember, though, anyone can post in SDN forums, and so they can in scutwork, including program directors intent on deception.
In short, no easy or quick answer except to keep your ears and eyes open and dig as much as you can.
...and let's all be careful out there...
