What makes a residency program good?

[sunflower79]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi SDNers,

I'm looking at these match lists and I realize I'm judging how "good" they are purely based on the reputation of the affiliated schools. And even that is probably based on USNews rankings, research, etc. rather than clinical training.

What makes a residency program good? How are they ranked? Is there a rankings guide on this?

I'm personally thinking about IM, especially programs with a social mission such as the UCSF/SFGH one. If you have other suggestions I'd appreciate it.

(I actually posted this thread before which only Rads Resident answered--thanks! 🙂 )

cheers,
sunflower79

 

[Brewster]

Well, wouldn't want you to have just one person's opinion. You already have Rads, so here is mine...

The key to choosing a residency program is not which one is "best," but which one is "best for you." I know this is horribly cliche'd, but it is the truth. There are many many many factors that go into choosing a residency program and I think for most people prestige of the program falls somewhere in the middle of the list. I had no concept of how different things there would be to think about until I actually did it. So, here are a few of the things I thought about (in no particular order):
prestige of the program
reputation for clinical education
research oportunities
future career focus of training program and current residents (ie, private practice vs academia)
facilities
location
personalities of residents and attendings and how well I felt I would fit there (this is very important, the most important for me)

By looking at match lists, you can get an overall gestalt of the quality. Generally speaking, highly ranked med schools are affiliated with hospitals that have prestigious residency programs. However, you have to be careful because this is not always the case. There are prestigious medical schools with average residencies and average medical schools with prestigious residencies. You also have to be careful trying to correlate the quality of a residency programs with the prestige of the hospital (as in the US News hospital rankings). These rankings are based on patient care and a hospital with high powered patient care may not have a great residency program.

So, as you can see, there is no easy way to rank residency programs. And, there is no "official" list. There is no US News ranking for residency programs.

Hope this helps (although it may not have...).

 

[Winged Scapula]

Moving to the General Residency Forum...

 

[hotbovie1]

What makes a program good is going to vary by specialty as well. So talk to the interns and residents in your target speciatly and find out what things you should be looking for. I'll borrow an example from my field, surgery. One thing you will want to look at is the number of operations in the various categories required by the RRC that are done, and if there are any areas were the residents have some trouble coming up with those numbers. So once you've found what the important issues are for your field, use that as a yardstick. Then try to figure out what your ideal program would look like (you may be asked that on interviews...I was a couple times). The perfect progam doesn't exist, but you'll look for those that have as many of those attributes as possible.

You may want to look at fellowship placement of the graduates.

I'l reiterate what has already been said here...there is not really any "best" programs, but only ones that will be best for you. Realize that some of the big name places have pretty malignant programs, in large part becuase there are people who will put up with tons of crap in order to have some prestigous name on the diploma.

The interview process is really more about letting the applicants find out if the program is a good fit for them. If you've been invited for an interview, the program has already decided that they would be willing to have you as a resident (unless you are a total jerk when you show up). So it's much different than the med school interview process...you really feel like they are trying to get you to come there. You'll only apply to programs that have many of the attributes you want in your ideal program. Then, when you interview, you'll find a couple places that you really like a lot, and the reason for that will likely be very intangible.