Does Chief Resident Matter for Less Competitive Fellowships?

[gobber]

I’m a PGY2 who’s been offered to become chief resident at a community program. At our program, chief resident is done as a PGY3. The position, from talking with the former and current chiefs, involves a lot of scut and secretarial work with scheduling and trying to suck up to a bunch of different people. The PD isn’t very supportive and will just ask you to make changes to your schedule at the drop of a hat or add new work for you last minute. This community program has no associated fellowships and has about 12 residents.

I’m interested in rheumatology so not a super competitive fellowship like cardiology or gastroenterology. I honestly would rather just spend my PGY3 year studying for boards and rheumatology textbooks while doing interviews. My PD though says this would be a “great opportunity” for fellowship applications and as a stepping stone for my career.

If you guys think it’s worth it, I could bite the bullet and do it but honestly seeing how stressed the chiefs have been now and in the past and knowing all the politics and high school tier antics and gossip between attendings honestly makes me just want to put my head down for the last year, graduate, and focus on my real love in rheumatology.

What do you guys think?

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[end stage fibro]

Outside academic navel gazing, chief resident is not worth anything to anyone, ever.

Do you get any advantages? Better schedule? At least it’s not an extra year.

 

[gobber]

Outside academic navel gazing, chief resident is not worth anything to anyone, ever.

Do you get any advantages? Better schedule? At least it’s not an extra year.

Nope. No pay bonus, better schedule, or guarantee position in house. The only benefit would be the theoretical boost I’ve been told it has for fellowship applications.

I’m not really interested in academia either.

Thanks

 

[NITRAS]

As someone who was a 3rd year chief, it sucks. You get to boss around your friends who they will see you as their peer, likely without any real authority. Yes, it was a talking point in my job interviews, but I am not sure it made much of a difference.

 

[NewYorkDoctors]

some IM programs I know of that have the PGY-4 Chief residency year - might have a thing where it is GUARANTEED for the chief resident to get into the in house fellowship of his/her choice because the Chairman of Medicine wants to reward.... being a good chief resident...... but that is institution/program dependent.

at the IM program I went to, some real stinker physicians got into Cardiology, GI, or A/I that had NO BUSINESS getting in there. The fellowship PDs all expressed as such. but in life its not what you know, it's who you know.

but hey now those doctors are private practice (not academic) interventional / structural cardiologists, outpatient scope only GI doctors now living the good life.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Nope. No pay bonus, better schedule, or guarantee position in house. The only benefit would be the theoretical boost I’ve been told it has for fellowship applications.

I’m not really interested in academia either.

Thanks

Sounds pretty pointless, then. Most of the 3rd year chiefs I’ve talked to at least got a bonus/stipend of some sort.

I think I’d decline it - unless your PD is the sort of douche who would take offense to your declining his offer, and then somehow make your life miserable 3rd year (and your program sounds like the kind of place where this might happen…)

 

[dozitgetchahi]

some IM programs I know of that have the PGY-4 Chief residency year - might have a thing where it is GUARANTEED for the chief resident to get into the in house fellowship of his/her choice because the Chairman of Medicine wants to reward.... being a good chief resident...... but that is institution/program dependent.

at the IM program I went to, some real stinker physicians got into Cardiology, GI, or A/I that had NO BUSINESS getting in there. The fellowship PDs all expressed as such. but in life its not what you know, it's who you know.

but hey now those doctors are private practice (not academic) interventional / structural cardiologists, outpatient scope only GI doctors now living the good life.

One of the chiefs chosen out of my class at my program fell dead asleep during an ICU call shift and slept clean through a code…apparently the nurses revived the patient and then had to search the hospital to figure out where he was…there were apparently some other “incidents” during his tenure as resident as well.

Nevertheless, he became a chief! And some of the other chiefs chosen my year seemed like they were really overrated residents - the kind of smooth talking “show ponies” who were better at looking like they were working hard than actually working hard. The legit “workhorse” residents were sort of overlooked, in comparison.

Goes to show you that the cream doesn’t always rise to the top…and academia selects for a lot of things other than quality (ass kissing, “connections”, you know the drill).

 

[NewYorkDoctors]

One of the chiefs chosen out of my class at my program fell dead asleep during an ICU call shift and slept clean through a code…apparently the nurses revived the patient and then had to search the hospital to figure out where he was…there were apparently some other “incidents” during his tenure as resident as well.

Nevertheless, he became a chief! And some of the other chiefs chosen my year seemed like they were really overrated residents - the kind of smooth talking “show ponies” who were better at looking like they were working hard than actually working hard. The legit “workhorse” residents were sort of overlooked, in comparison.

Goes to show you that the cream doesn’t always rise to the top…and academia selects for a lot of things other than quality (ass kissing, “connections”, you know the drill).

to be fair, a PGy4 chief resident is not necessarily the best resident. the best residents don't need that PGY4 rub to get into a top fellowship or subspecialty. The PGY4 chief is a lackey for the program director to keep the residents in check.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

to be fair, a PGy4 chief resident is not necessarily the best resident. the best residents don't need that PGY4 rub to get into a top fellowship or subspecialty. The PGY4 chief is a lackey for the program director to keep the residents in check.

Agreed…I mean I had no desire to be a chief and I’d imagine that a lot of other people in the class didn’t either.

 

[Splenda88]

Rheumatology is not uncompetitive (If that makes sense). I actually think it's more competitive than CCM (not PCCM).

 

[collegestud2013]

I’m a PGY2 who’s been offered to become chief resident at a community program. At our program, chief resident is done as a PGY3. The position, from talking with the former and current chiefs, involves a lot of scut and secretarial work with scheduling and trying to suck up to a bunch of different people. The PD isn’t very supportive and will just ask you to make changes to your schedule at the drop of a hat or add new work for you last minute. This community program has no associated fellowships and has about 12 residents.

I’m interested in rheumatology so not a super competitive fellowship like cardiology or gastroenterology. I honestly would rather just spend my PGY3 year studying for boards and rheumatology textbooks while doing interviews. My PD though says this would be a “great opportunity” for fellowship applications and as a stepping stone for my career.

If you guys think it’s worth it, I could bite the bullet and do it but honestly seeing how stressed the chiefs have been now and in the past and knowing all the politics and high school tier antics and gossip between attendings honestly makes me just want to put my head down for the last year, graduate, and focus on my real love in rheumatology.

What do you guys think?

Doubt it helps much for getting into rheumatology unless your program has an in-house fellowship and you want to stay in-house. Since your program doesn't have an in-house rheum fellowship it won't help much (if at all) for outside programs. Unless you think your PD will get upset for declining and then write a less-than-supportive rec letter for your fellowship app, would decline based on what you're saying.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

If you have no board failures and have shown interest in your fellowship through other means like research or clubs, i wouldn't take chief

 

[Residentdoc86]

Thank him and decline the opportunity.

I'd say Rheum is getting more competitive, esp if you want to get into a big-name program.

So you'll be better off spending your 3rd year doing rheum-related things to bolster your CV since you come from a community program with no in-house fellowship. Case reports or abstracts that you can submit to CCR or ACR would be a good start.

That being said my program interviewed a 4th-year chief who might or might not go into Fakedemia.