What to look for?

[tjmDO]

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Tell me what the top five things to look for in an EM residency! Whether it be DO or MD. I am a soon to be third year DO student and I am looking to get into an EM residency. Please, for those of you who are knowing, please let me know what to do.

TJMDO

 

[DrQuinn]

IMHO, its less about five certain criteria than it is to your "gestalt" about a certain program.

Q, DO

 

[Seaglass]

I tell you for me it was 50% location, 49% gestalt, and 1% other. I'm guessing you want to know about the "other."

For me it came down to three things:
1. Quality/quantity of peds
2. Quality of off service rotations
3. Ultrasound

Casey

 

[uclacrewdude]

holy crap -- id never heard the word "gestalt" till this semester, and now it seems like at least once a day at least one of the profs will use it!

 

[Seaglass]

3 years of German has carved it into my brain.

 

[greatdane]

IMHO, its less about five certain criteria than it is to your "gestalt" about a certain program.

I agree with Q completely.....your gestalt is what is most important...but this comes only after interviewing or spending some time with a program. I used "criteria" to help figure out where I was going to interview...for instance, critical care and aero med are something I am interested in. So when I began to look at programs, I looked at their flight program and how much ICU time they do....so if you have an interest in aero med too, that will help you begin to form a list because there are probably less than 10 programs where you fly as a flight physician.....this is just an example...some look at location, some look at peds, etc.......hope it helps

 

[GCS:3]

Originally posted by cg1155
3 years of German has carved it into my brain.

All the psych classes for me...

Anyway, I started out making lists of pros and cons, but towards the middle I realized that no matter how detailed the list was, no amount of pros could make me forget the bad vibe I got at some places. So I stuck with gestalt. Here's the things I looked for.

1) Gut feeling (hey, isn't this gestalt?)
2) Did the residents seem HONESTLY happy?
3) Location & cost of living
4) Schedules for off-cervix rotations, and shifts/month
5) Research Opportunities. I'm no academic, but I'd rather have fun research than "the epidemiology of river otter attacks in a small community." Wait, that would be fun.
6) Strength with US, Tox, Sim, and the use of tech in the ED...
7) Did they pay for my hotel AND buy me beer the night before the interview?