Best specialties that don't require research?

[sloop]

Very different from psych residency as far as I can tell. I appreciate my psych colleagues but would figure residents would benefit from an actually challenging workload on the inpatient side.

I agree that many neurology residencies are structured in the way I discussed.

The above criticism of workload in psych residency is not warranted, though. As you mention with neuro, there is a variety in terms of how demanding psych residency is depending on where you are. That said, I worked hard as a resident and I think that’s true for many of the good programs. On call, we were responsible for 80 inpatient beds while admitting from our very busy psych ED. We were also primary for our patients’ medical issues and our policies permitted very sick people to be on our floors. I do not know of another psych hospital that permits more medical complexity. We also had to do shifts in the psych ED, and that that was also typically non-stop work because there were usually psych patient in overflow, which meant that they would devote a trauma bay to boarding our patients, which obviously meant there was immense pressure to churn evals and free up the trauma bay. Our consult service was always very busy, etc.

The idea that the workload in good psych programs is not challenging is nonsense. We work hard. Not as hard as neuro residents typically do, but plenty hard.

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[mrbreakfast]

The above criticism of workload in psych residency is not warranted, though.

Wasn't intended as a broad criticism and I'm glad to hear there are busy psych residencies too. I definitely don't know a ton about psych residency but at the places I've been residents don't have the kind of complexity of inpatient care. That's part of why I didn't go into psych in the first place - all inpatient consults at my med school were seen by CL attending alone. I'm happy to know I'm wrong about that.

I also think 24-hour call is fun, so I realize my opinions about residency are not normal...

 

[sloop]

Wasn't intended as a broad criticism and I'm glad to hear there are busy psych residencies too. I definitely don't know a ton about psych residency but at the places I've been residents don't have the kind of complexity of inpatient care. That's part of why I didn't go into psych in the first place - all inpatient consults at my med school were seen by CL attending alone. I'm happy to know I'm wrong about that.

I also think 24-hour call is fun, so I realize my opinions about residency are not normal...

I don’t love call, but I’m a big fan of the hospital at night. I did really enjoy my night shifts in the psych ED, which was a relatively unpopular opinion amongst my co-residents. Other than the way those shifts disrupted my sleep/wake schedule and could sometimes wind up messing up an entire weekend between shifting my wake cycle forward then backwards again (which I did not prefer), everything else about the hospital is so much better at night. It’s pretty much pure medicine without the bull**** daytime activities. I also really liked the nighttime nursing staff in our psych ED.

One of the other reasons I disliked our 30-hour call was that I found it hard to resign myself to the possibility that I could be working non-stop for 30 hours straight. It was always so demoralizing to me when I sat down in the call room to eat my dinner and I would get a page, or when I would get a page for an admission at 3 AM. With the 12-hour shifts, it was way easier for me to just bring a thermos of coffee and get in the mindset that I’m just gonna churn through patients for the entire shift.

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

Can middling to low tier MDs (prestige wise not scores/grades) match these programs with enough research?

Counter to what some others have said, definitely. Places like Partners/JH will be more selective, but even those programs are still 30-50% filled with mid-tier schools. A lower tier school applicant may have a tougher climb, but plenty of programs on that list are welcoming to talented lower tier applicants.

 

[Lawpy]

Probably not, TBH. Unfortunately these programs, like IM programs, place a decent amount of emphasis on your med school. I interviewed at pretty much all the T20 programs I applied to (most of them) except the ones I mentioned above, and I had high grades, high scores, strong letters, research...but a midrange med school. But maybe I was just unlucky, so you might as well apply.

Match lists seem to tell a different story though. It’s uncommon but not impossible

 

[Lawpy]

Counter to what some others have said, definitely. Places like Partners/JH will be more selective, but even those programs are still 30-50% filled with mid-tier schools. A lower tier school applicant may have a tougher climb, but plenty of programs on that list are welcoming to talented lower tier applicants.

It’s the problem with these forums: someone will share dismal views based on their anecdotal experiences without realizing the situational factors involved and how match lists from mid tier and low tier MD schools clearly illustrate that matching at top programs isn’t impossible