Like some of the other people who have responded, I am also a radiologist who trained at MIR both for my diagnostic radiology residency and for my fellowship. I also feel that the initial poster has provided an inaccurate representation of the program and an unfair characterization of its program director. I wanted to provide my own response.
Let me preface this description of Mallinckrodt by saying up front that I consider myself and I bet others would consider me to have been an average MIR resident. I was no superstar by any means, but I worked hard and was eager to learn, and took my resident responsibilities seriously.
I do not consider MIR to be a “malignant program”. In fact, I remember multiple times hearing or reading that label during my training, and wondering why that was the case. When I hear the term “malignant program”, I think of surgery or OB programs where the trainees work incredibly long hours, are exhausted throughout their training years, are indirectly encouraged to fudge their work hours, and all the while the attendings constantly ridicule you and habitually remind you that they had it much harder in their day.
With that being said, it can be challenging to be an MIR resident. You will work hard. There are no two ways about it. But let’s be honest. This is a top tier residency program in a competitive specialty. You aren’t applying to MIR if you are undecided about your career path or you just want a cushy residency that you can coast through for four years. You are applying to this particular program because you are bright/cream-of-the-crop, you like radiology and want to get the best training possible, and you want to put yourself in a position where you have the best chance to get the job of your choice when you are done.
The MIR faculty is the cornerstone of what makes this program so outstanding, and why this program produces high-level graduates consistently. The faculty takes enormous pride in their contribution to the quality care of their patients. They also take their teaching obligations very seriously, and are fantastic at it. They provide daily morning conferences, noon conferences, and occasionally even evening conferences after work (for board preparation). Their lectures are routinely on par with or exceed the quality of any lecture you will hear at meetings around the country. They are constantly teaching in the reading room as they go over cases with you, reaffirming your current knowledge base or adding to it. They put in a lot of work preparing their conferences, and making sure each resident has the best chance to succeed. In return, they have the very reasonable expectation that their residents show the same dedication, and desire to learn and improve. It’s a two way street. If you want to encourage them to put in their best effort, you need to do the same. That means showing up on time to conferences and to the reading room. That means picking up the phone when it rings in the reading room, and facilitating consults with clinicians or fielding questions from technicians. That means paying attention during readout and making the necessary corrections to your reports that reflect what your attending discussed with you. These efforts on your part will be noticed immediately, appreciated, and reciprocated.
For the most part, the faculty are also remarkably down-to-earth, humble, and supportive. A few may seem more aloof or stern, but that would be the case anywhere. In fact, I remember interviewing at programs around the country, and distinctly appreciating how low-key the MIR faculty seemed given the caliber of the program and the hospital. I have a number of attendings who I still consider mentors and who I still stay in touch with today.
However, while I cherish my experience at MIR, I know a few residents felt differently about the place. For starters, the atmosphere can be intimidating. It’s a huge program filled with brilliant people. For people who are used to standing out in medical school, they may suddenly find themselves as an average resident here. That can be humbling and take some time to get used to, and sometimes you may FEEL like you are being overlooked even when you are not. . It can also be nerve-wracking taking cases in conferences in front of 10 people let alone 100 people, and you can be worried about looking foolish. But you know everyone is going to get stuff wrong at some point, and everyone develops a good sense of humor about it. While the vast majority of residents flourished here, a small minority of trainees struggled to keep up, even though they worked hard, and despite the best efforts of the attendings. This is unfortunate, but is not limited to MIR and would happen anywhere.
I was not aware of any intentional bullying for the purpose of making a trainee feel bad or punish someone. No one has time for that. That is definitely NOT the culture. Some trainees had an entitled attitude, expecting big things from others but not holding themselves to the same standards. If a trainee developed a reputation for slacking or dodging work, what I found most telling was that the peers of that resident often had the same opinion of that person as the attendings. It’s a workplace. We can all tell when someone isn’t doing their part, and none of us appreciate getting dumped on.
When it comes to Jennifer Gould, she was the program director when I was there, and did an admirable job for a frankly relatively thankless position. I find it hard to believe she would not take any resident complaint regarding abusive behavior by an attending seriously, especially if there are multiple complaints regarding that same attending. Furthermore, she isn’t the only person one can talk to. There are multiple assistant program directors who deal closely with the trainees. Then there are the section heads of each section, whose doors are always open, and all of them would take resident abuse incredibly seriously. If a junior attending was behaving unprofessionally, believe me they would squash this immediately.
I hope people find this helpful. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I had to train at MIR. My appreciation continues to grow for the quality of training I received, which I consider second to none. I would hate to see others miss out on the same opportunity, because of a false representation of the program, its personnel, or its culture.
