What criteria determines a "good" residency program?

[ohhey_hello]

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I'm a little confused as an entering M-1 seeing all the match lists and everyone's varying opinions on them. How do you determine if a residency program is "good"?

Is there a formal ranking system? Is it based on speciality (i.e. any derm residency program > a family medicine residency)? Or resident pay/quality of life, etc?

 

[dyspareunia]

Programs are compared within specialties. For example, Jefferson has a better ortho than UMich, but UMich has better IM than Jefferson.

There's an objective ranking system (much like research rankings for med schools) and then there's all the subjective rankings based on things people care about like location, call schedule, quality of life, etc.

 

[SnowDoggy44]

Where is this objective rating system? And what are the factors most strongly influencing supposed quality?
I suppose you could look at board-certification pass rates, but that could be biased based on the "quality" of residents as exam takers or clinicians.
You could also look at the rates of graduates accepted into fellowships, but that too would be biased by resident preferences.
Is there an objectively optimal amount of call time or frequency for residents?
Is there a measurement of how "tertiary" a care center is for the referral of complicated cases and patients? Or the annual number of patient or ER visits per capita resident?
How are clinical research requirements factored in?

What objective measures make Jefferson ortho better than UMich and vice versa for IM?

 

[Dharma]

How few IMGs and DOs they have.

 

[postbacpremed87]

How few IMGs and DOs they have.

...

 

[DocEspana]

...

you think he's trolling, but I would argue that that's actually a pretty good metric.

 

[Goro]

My Clinical Dean say "any program that's a good fit for you", even if it's at Joe's Hospital and Grille.

I'm a little confused as an entering M-1 seeing all the match lists and everyone's varying opinions on them. How do you determine if a residency program is "good"?

Is there a formal ranking system? Is it based on speciality (i.e. any derm residency program > a family medicine residency)? Or resident pay/quality of life, etc?

 

[SnowDoggy44]

you think he's trolling, but I would argue that that's actually a pretty good metric.

That provides absolutely no help in comparing AOA-accredited residencies.

 

[DocEspana]

That provides absolutely no help in comparing AOA-accredited residencies.

Everyone's a critic.

Honestly. If you REALLY ask around (aka don't trust just one person) you'll see people really agree on these rankings. People know what's good. It's mostly based on where people end up post residency, but its more gestalt than actual science.

 

[ChrisGriffen]

You have a lot of other things to worry about before choosing your rank list. That being said, you will learn a lot more about residency programs during m3/4...and unless you are interested in a fellowship, residency "tiers" don't mean a damn thing.

 

[hallowmann]

Beyond base rankings, which depending on what you want from a residency may or may not be meaningful, its hard to analyze a match list. The main reason is that you don't know where on their ROL students matched. For example, a match might look amazing, but to the individual, they might be unhappy because they matched their 5th choice, whereas a FM match might look unimpressive, but to the individual it was their 1st choice and they are thrilled.

Anyways, other people have mentioned some basic metrics, but most are meaningless without you knowing what you want out of a residency. If your goal is to be a cardiologist, you might need to go to a good academic IM program with a connected fellowship, whereas if you wanted to be a rural PCP in IM, you might prefer a community program in a rural setting with a PC track.

 

[SnowDoggy44]

Which are the academic residency programs that have an osteopathic focus? OSU Medical Center, U North Texas Health Center, and Michigan State? Are there others?