What to look for in a residency program?

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Mattinthehat250

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Posted a similar thread in the IM forum, haven't gotten many responses. Would like to discuss all specialties. What kind of things should we be looking for in a residency program? How can you tell if a program is good or bad?

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Suggest inquiring in the Residents forum. There has to be a sticky about this somewhere. Perhaps do a search for "malignant program"?

One of my Clinical Deans once told me that you can spot a bad program if it's for a highly competitive field but still has positions open.
 
Posted a similar thread in the IM forum, haven't gotten many responses. Would like to discuss all specialties. What kind of things should we be looking for in a residency program? How can you tell if a program is good or bad?

Its a hard question because everybody has different priorities when it comes to training.

Some things I've noticed in bad programs is that faculty may seem really uninterested at teaching. They treat the residents more like "physician extenders" than physicians in training. Another way to spot a bad or malignant program is if they're losing people left and right. I watched one program lose 3 residents over the course of a year. The residents are to blame to some degree, but support and oversight was clearly lacking for struggling residents.
 
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Posted a similar thread in the IM forum, haven't gotten many responses. Would like to discuss all specialties. What kind of things should we be looking for in a residency program? How can you tell if a program is good or bad?

most of us find the answer to this the hard way.
You're already in...then you find out it's a bad program.
Talk with current residents, ideally residents from your school so they can paint a better picture for you.

It really depends "what" specialty you intend to go to.
if it's a very competitive specialty, because there are only a few training programs, then there is NO bad program since you don't have a choice.
You will still choose and rank that program, regardless.
 
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as hallow man said, it is very hard, because residencies put their best food forward on interview day, so if it is a place you are very interested in, you have to rotate there or you have to watch them for a bit.

in addition to what the people previously said, just think about what you want in life. if you are thinking about ICU, but the IM program you are looking at has minimal ICU rotations, probably a bad program. if the residents seem unhappy or they focus on something minor (our residency rocks because we have a good cafeteria), probably a bad program. for me, it was real turnoff when residencies talked so much about how good of friends they were because it didn't highlight the actual program.
 
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