VA vs. community hospital

[livinsunny]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on whether it is important to have a VA as part of your residency training or if it is okay having a community hospital on top of a university hospital for enough bread and butter training.

It is my observation that a VA will provide you more autonomy and the bread and butter cases and that is its main utility in residency training. Does anyone think that it is a must in residency training for IM? Or is it okay to have a smaller community hospital providing the same experience?

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[gutonc]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on whether it is important to have a VA as part of your residency training or if it is okay having a community hospital on top of a university hospital for enough bread and butter training.

It is my observation that a VA will provide you more autonomy and the bread and butter cases and that is its main utility in residency training. Does anyone think that it is a must in residency training for IM? Or is it okay to have a smaller community hospital providing the same experience?

It is not a must but I think it's very nice. Also, you won't find a community hospital that provides anywhere near the level of autonomy that you get at a VA.

 

[AZhopeful]

Yeah, I think VA probably affords greater autonomy. It's also interesting to work within the confines of a 'comprehensive' system like the VA.

One thing about community hospitals is the relationship that the program's residents have with private attendings. Are there private attendings? Would you deal with many private attendings on one service, or just a few? Are you just a clerk for them, etc. I saw a few different models for this when I was interviewing last year.

 

[C5toC9]

Depends on the VA attending, but I have seen teams where the residents literally ran the show