You have talked to your medical school’s faculty and checked out med student websites and forums, but how can you find out the real scoop on other surgical programs? You medical school’s faculty may have no insight into the inner workings of other residency programs, and information on the Internet can be tainted or outdated. It is very difficult for an applicant to gain insight into a program’s real nature in a half-day interview. Obviously programs try to spin things in the best light possible. Unless they have a death wish of their own, even the residents who show you around may not tell you the unvarnished truth. The downside would be that they will hurt themselves by denigrating their program because fewer good candidates might rank it highly. Ask more than one resident some of these questions when the program’s faculty is not present: 1. Are most of the residents happy? 2. Are residents or attendings doing the most of the cases? 3. Do PGY-1 and 2 residents get to do any cases as the operating surgeon or are the first two years spent covering floors and/or admitting patients? 4. Are any residents finishing the program not having performed enough complex procedures? 5. Are the busiest attending surgeons letting the residents do meaningful portions of their cases? 6. How much autonomy do the residents have regarding postop care? 7. Every year, the RRC for Surgery sends an on line confidential questionnaire to all the residents in every program. What were the issues raised on the last RRC questionnaire? Have they been addressed? 8. How good are the important support services like anesthesia, radiology, laboratory, pathology, ED and nursing? 9. Is the main hospital in good financial shape? Are they laying off personnel or cutting back services? 10. If you were sick, would you want to be treated at this hospital? 11. Are there any scut-heavy rotations and how many are there? 12. Are the outside rotations good? Are there problems with their locations? How’s the teaching at those sites? 13. Are the program director and the chairman of surgery supportive of the residents? 14. If you had to do it over, would you still choose this program? If you are still interested in a program after your interview day, I suggest you call a couple of random residents who are on call at night or on a weekend. You are more likely to find candid responses to the above questions in that setting. You need to have some questions ready for the faculty who interview you and the PD and chairman too. You need to review the program’s website and be careful not to ask a question that you could have learned the answer to online. I used to hate that. Clarifications are OK, but don’t ask about factual information that is available on line. Below are some questions for the faculty. You can use some of the ones you asked the residents but exercise good judgment. Some of these questions can be a little edgy. You don’t want to provoke the interviewers. 1. When was the last RRC site visit? Were there any concerns or citations? If yes, what were they and have they been corrected? 2. Is the main hospital in good financial shape? Are they laying off personnel or cutting back services? 3. Are any residents finishing the program not having performed enough complex procedures? Take notes. Compare resident and faculty answers. Good luck. Source
