What does it take to become chief?

[rs2006]

Any thoughts? thanks.

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[gutonc]

Any thoughts? thanks.

A death wish and low self esteem?

Seriously, I think being a medicine chief is one of the worst jobs ever. You have the responsibilities of a junior attending, an asst PD, a punching bag (for everyone in the hospital who has a beef w/ the IM program/residents) and a grief/trauma counselor all wrapped up in a tidy $50K/yr package.

If you're looking for a gig that will give you a better shot at an academic general IM job, do a Gen Med Fellowship. Same money, half the responsibility.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad there are people who want to be Chief Residents (in the same way I'm glad there are people who want to be Pediatricians, OBs and surgeons of all stripes) but I'm even more glad that it's not me.

 

[Tapout]

A death wish and low self esteem?

Seriously, I think being a medicine chief is one of the worst jobs ever. You have the responsibilities of a junior attending, an asst PD, a punching bag (for everyone in the hospital who has a beef w/ the IM program/residents) and a grief/trauma counselor all wrapped up in a tidy $50K/yr package.

If you're looking for a gig that will give you a better shot at an academic general IM job, do a Gen Med Fellowship. Same money, half the responsibility.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad there are people who want to be Chief Residents (in the same way I'm glad there are people who want to be Pediatricians, OBs and surgeons of all stripes) but I'm even more glad that it's not me.

Bingo!

Being a chief is far from an honor if you ask me. Teaching would be fun, but the other 80% of chiefdom is administrative scut and administrative scut. It sounds better than it is IMO. Do a gen med fellowship as the above poster mentions if you want academia; this way you won't have whiny residents paging you in the middle of the night complaining that Pt X should never have been admitted to to the housestaff service etc...

If you are still not convinced: to become a chief you need to suck up, always act interested, suck up some more and be a good resident class politician all without being annoying in the process. And let them know you are interested from the beginning because it is not hard to get if you play the cards right, most residents would not want to do it in the first place (like me!).

 

[Roadrunner]

The above posters present the more dismal view of chiefdom... there are some upshots as well. The schedule is better than that of a resident/fellow, less time attending the wards that true junior faculty (usually the higher a Chief's salary the more time he/she spends attending), more flexible schedule than a fellow, lots of opportunities for teaching, a dazzling star behind your name for future job opportunities and/or fellowship. In terms of the OP's question, I can't exactly say what it takes to be a chief because I'm not one myself, but a few thoughts--most have been hard workers in residency, knowledgeable, like to teach, have leadership skills, want to work in academics. It's a tough dilemma because as other posters mention, there's a lot of work and pay isn't great. But for some the virtues outweigh the costs.

 

[kaplan]

Ok, I guess I'll play the romantic here. It's definitely a tough job. And it definitely delays your career by a year. But if you can step back from listing a bunch of positives and negatives on paper, it's definitely an honor, and its an important part of the tradition of medicine. The chiefs at my program are usually fabulous teachers, outgoing, smart, and able to deal with bull$^$% without getting hot under the collar.

A vast number of big names, department chairs etc. have been chief residents. You could also ask, why would you want to be a department chair, or a prominent oncologist, or a leading academic or teacher. These are tough pursuits too- they involve politics, hardwork, ass-kissing etc. etc. These career paths are not for everyone (and not for me)- but I'm glad some people choose these paths, just as I was glad, when I was an intern, that some good people chose to be my chief residents.