Assigning "Chief" position/title for a program with 5 residents?

[blessed.pod]

Im at a program with 5 residents a year. How has your residency program gone about assigning "Chief". Im a believer that only one person gets the "Chief" title.

There was talks about having 5 titles such as, Chief, Assistant Chief, and Chief of Academics, Chief of Social, Chief of Scheduling, etc. I dont think this will work. What do yall think?

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[iridocyclitiss]

Chief resident in podiatry means very little. I’m sure it “could work” but no one cares.

At my program all 3rd years become chief and get a nice pay raise and that’s it

 

[heybrother]

 

[Hybrocure]

Im pretty sure most residencies these days call everyone a chief of some title so they can throw it on their resumes.

What’s it really matter anyways? A chief at a crappy program won’t be as good as a non chief at a good one, etc. I think that’s why many programs just made the shift to call everyone a chief.

The reality is a new grad is a new grad unless you’ve done a fellowship that’s the only thing that may sway someone’s mind on hiring or negotiating

 

[GreenHousePub]

I was never a chief but I put it on my CV anyways.

 

[Feli]

Nearly all good podiatry programs rotate chief status among pgy3s.... and I've barely seen a CV that didn't claim "chief resident" (and I've seen a ton of podiatrist CVs). For podiatry, it means nothing.

Most do something like:
4/yr = Jul-Sep chief, Oct-Dec, Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun
3/yr = Jul-Oct chief, Nov-Feb chief, Mar-Jun
2/yr = trade off "chief resident" every month or two or three

Face it : in podiatry, chief is basically just academic schedule and settling any bickering among students or junior residents. No pgy3 really wants to do that anyways, but all want the title... so rotate it.

A lot of MD programs are much bigger (and longer) than podiatry programs (since they are in legit teaching hospitals 300-100+ beds). So yeah, they have many more total residents within the program and in the hospital overall. Those gen surg or ortho or ER or FP or IM or OB or etc programs that take 4 or even 10+ per year and are 3-5+ years do actually name one chief resident and actually need that structure to dictate call rotation and board prep and other legit purposes. For them, chief is actually an important decision and tends to mean much more than it does in smallish DPM residencies at VAs and little hospitals.

...and hey, it no longer matters anyways. For those living under a rock, podiatry has fellowships (to learn more podiatry), so those are now the new normal. Residency shall be known only as "podiatry pre fellowship"... pgy1,2,3, will be changed to podiatry pre fellowship years ppfy1, ppfy2, ppfy3.

 

[Weirdy]

Im at a program with 3 residents a year. How has your residency program gone about assigning "Chief". Im a believer that only one person gets the "Chief" title.

There was talks about having 3 titles such as, Chief, Assistant Chief, and Chief of Academics. I dont think this will work. What do yall think?

Its asinine to give everyone a title and means nothing.

Chief resident at an MD/DO program comes with extra responsibilities. Making call, back up call, double jeopardy schedules, taking care of education, organizing board prep, making sure your pregnant residents aren't overlapping with vacation times of someone else, snapping the whip to make sure juniors are doing what they're doing, working with admin so people aren't failing out, QI projects, whatever else. It adds a ton of work for very little increase in pay.

There are such titles as Chief of academics at MD/DO programs who do some of the above.

I agree with you that it will not work.
It is only used to stroke their egos.

Edit: Put more bluntly, I will openly laugh at your program if you guys do this. It is ridiculous. Wtf is an Assistant Chief doing when there's only 3 of you in that year? Are you not all responsible for your juniors academics? Do you not all take turns presenting, teaching, pushing and covering for your juniors? So programs who take 2 or 1 a year automatically have on all their CVs "Chief Resident" for every graduate? Its even funnier because I've seen that on resumes already.

 

[Hybrocure]

It’s asinine to give everyone a title and means nothing.

Chief resident at an MD/DO program comes with extra responsibilities. Making call, back up call, double jeopardy schedules, taking care of education, organizing board prep, making sure your pregnant residents aren't overlapping with vacation times of someone else, snapping the whip to make sure juniors are doing what they're doing and working with admin so people aren't failing out, QI projects, whatever else. It adds a ton of work for very little increase in pay.

There are such titles as Chief of academics at MD/DO programs who do some of the above.

I agree with you that it will not work.
It is only used to stroke their egos.

For many podiatry residencies, those decisions are done by the attendings not the residents. One of the reasons why we aren’t MDs/DOs. Frankly, many of those responsibilities you mention are even outside the hands of attendings or residents and are managed by hospital admin.

 

[Weirdy]

For podiatry residencies, those decisions are done by the attendings not the residents. One of the reasons why we aren’t MDs/DOs. Frankly, many of those responsibilities you mention are even outside the hands of attendings or residents and are managed by hospital admin.

I agree. Some of our programs are so small, there is no need to have that complex of a hierarchy because the coverage is always there.

I've noticed that the better or sometimes even average podiatry programs, with a good work culture, are not afraid to go hard or be team players when something happens to their juniors or seniors. Part of this can be out of necessity because there is physically no one else who can cover.

Compare that with any toxic DPM/MD/DO residencies where you have multiple clashing personalities and agendas- in a place where everyone is out for themselves to cover the least amount of clinic, call, and screw the next person over for their own vacation time.

 

[blessed.pod]

Its asinine to give everyone a title and means nothing.

Chief resident at an MD/DO program comes with extra responsibilities. Making call, back up call, double jeopardy schedules, taking care of education, organizing board prep, making sure your pregnant residents aren't overlapping with vacation times of someone else, snapping the whip to make sure juniors are doing what they're doing, working with admin so people aren't failing out, QI projects, whatever else. It adds a ton of work for very little increase in pay.

There are such titles as Chief of academics at MD/DO programs who do some of the above.

I agree with you that it will not work.
It is only used to stroke their egos.

Edit: Put more bluntly, I will openly laugh at your program if you guys do this. It is ridiculous. Wtf is an Assistant Chief doing when there's only 3 of you in that year? Are you not all responsible for your juniors academics? Do you not all take turns presenting, teaching, pushing and covering for your juniors? So programs who take 2 or 1 a year automatically have on all their CVs "Chief Resident" for every graduate? Its even funnier because I've seen that on resumes already.

Love your responce Weirdy! Definitly will bring this up with my program director. Thank you.

 

[Adam Smasher]

My residency was 2/year at the time, got to be chief for 6 months of my PGY3 year. Had to do a lot of the same things I would have had to do anyway (teach juniors, divvy up call, etc). Got paid $0 extra. I did receive an extra certificate on graduation, and I don't remember where it is.

 

[Retrograde_Nail]

Nobody cares

 

[MicroPod]

I specifically told my program director that I did not want to be chief. We had someone who already wanted it anyways and they are very good and well liked by everyone so it worked out anyways. It is quite a thankless job from what I heard from past chiefs. Not sure if they get paid anymore at my program, my guess is no.

 

[diabeticfootdr]

We choose the most competent leader and they are chief for the year. It does come within added responsibilities as noted above by Weirdy. It currently comes with a $2000 stipend. I think it’s worth more than that, I’d estimate a $5-8,000 increase. But this is the same for all the other programs so I couldn’t change it.

 

[podourology]

We choose the most competent leader and they are chief for the year. It does come within added responsibilities as noted above by Weirdy. It currently comes with a $2000 stipend. I think it’s worth more than that, I’d estimate a $5-8,000 increase. But this is the same for all the other programs so I couldn’t change it.

2000$, they are able to get a bag of chips with their lunch. Mines 3,000$.

 

[Hybrocure]

2000$, they are able to get a bag of chips with their lunch. Mines 3,000$.

Imagine being in a residency in 2024 where you have to pay for your food

 

[GreenHousePub]

I heard that only chiefs are offered coveted fellowship positions to learn more podiatry.

 

[podourology]

I heard that only chiefs are offered coveted fellowship positions to learn more podiatry.

I turned down a UCLA spine fellowship. Chief holds a lot of weight,

 

[blessed.pod]

Thank you all for the advise!

 

[GreenHousePub]

Thank you all for the advise!

Welcome, Chief!