What do you want from a residency?

[Induc(junc)tion]

Trying to get some fininshing touches on my personal statement. I want to do a paragraph on what I am looking for in a residency, but am sort of lost. Some things I would like to mention, complexity of cases, special areas in which the department shines, no huge weaknesses. I know this is more of a personal question, but does anyone have any other things that I can mention that maybe I should be paying attention to?

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[2ndyear]

A wide variety of cases from the routine to complex, an engaging and structured didactic program that will allow you to grow academically and professionally, a training environment that allows the resident to become a consultant in anesthesiology and perioperative medicine.

Edit: I wouldn't make it too narrow or specific. If you really want to do pedi hearts, or even pain you can mention that. But realize that this is what fellowships are for, you still need a broad base. All accreditated programs provide you the necessary RRC/ACGME numbers of cases. They differ on how they do it, but they're all in there somehow. Some places have stronger cardiac or peds but this is for you to figure out on the interview or before if you can.

 

[Trisomy13]

an affiliated school of nursing, pharmacy school, and preferably a physician's assistant program.

but then i'm single so i have additional priorities.

 

[jennyboo]

I'd be specific rather than generic, and if you need, just send a different paragraph to different types of residency programs. A generic paragraph about what you're looking for in a residency gets skipped over quickly. If your specifics match what they offer, however, the reader's mental lightbulb may suddenly turn on and they may think, "Wow, this might be a good match!" Some things to think about:

TYPE OF DIDACTICS. Good teaching means different things.
- Daily lectures? Some programs offer lots of these, others barely any.
- OR teaching? Some programs with many lectures have spotty OR teaching; some programs with few lectures have great OR teaching. Sometimes you're lucky and get both. In most places, one is stronger than the other. And a few are lacking in both.
- Board review?

SUBSPECIALTIES that might be of particular interest to you.
- Pain?
- Regional?
- Critical care? For example, a small handful of programs have anesthesia-run SICUs.
- Pediatrics?
- Random specific interesting things like thoracic, liver transplant, neuro.

RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT. Consider what you might be able to get involved in for your required academic project. Some places have richer resources than others; some programs are more lacking in specialty-related research and produce a lot of "quality assurance/improvement" studies for their scholarly projects. At a few programs, everyone collaborates to produce some well known anesthesiology textbook or handbook; residents frequently participate in these as well.

FAMILY FRIENDLINESS. Enough said. If you need to ask but find yourself thinking you'd be afraid to ask this residency director for, say, maternity leave if you need it at some point, perhaps that answers that question. You don't need to mention this in your essay obviously, but if this is important you really need to look for it early.

ACADEMIC AFFILIATIONS. Do you want to see medical students? Nursing students? CRNA students?

Hmm, that's all I can think of for now. I'm going to bed.