How to spot political and religious culture of residency programs?

[deleted1139416]

As someone who has had 9 jobs in his life, I understand that the majority of work environments have a political leaning culture. Whether that’s woke/liberal/PC or conservative/religious, there is usually some sort of culture and it can cause a lot of friction. Now I pride myself on being a team player and getting along with everyone and I don’t lean that heavily on either side of the political spectrum. However, I do find it distracting and difficult to be in a work environment where a certain political culture is very strong.

With that being said, I was hoping to start this thread to see if anyone has advice on how to pick up on this sort of thing on interview trails or how to figure these things out?

My biggest concern is how tight knit many residency groups are with most having anywhere from 3-7 people per class, so it’s important to have solid teamwork and I don’t want politics to get in the way of that, especially since we unfortunately live in a time when people love to go beef over political differences.

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[DrStephenStrange]

Don’t bring politics into discussions, and it will never be a problem. I’m sure my co-residents and attendings have different opinions and point-of-views about politics, but I can’t remember a single time that has come into any of our conversations. I’m sure they have probably seen all my political posts and stories on social media and actually so have I, but we just respect each other’s opinions and move on. Simple as that. At the end of the day, you’re just coworkers who are there to do a job. There is no point in bringing unnecessary stressors into an already stressful situation.

 

[GoSpursGo]

There is zero chance that anything like this will come up in an interview setting. I would not prioritize trying to discern this during the interview process or give it any weight when deciding your ROL.

 

[cj_cregg]

If it's really important to you to tease this out during the interview process, lots of candidates ask questions like what's the culture of your program like? What is your program doing in terms of outreach to underserved and marginalized communities? What is your program doing to work on equity for POC/LGBT/whatever patients? How is your clinic/hospital dealing with changes in laws related to access to birth control and abortions? Do most of the doctors in your clinic prescribe birth control/are you allowed to do so in your hospital system? Etc. Granted I'm in family medicine so these things are more pertinent than they might be if you're doing like ortho or something. But these types of questions can help you get a general vibe of the program. The way you ask those questions may tip your hand about your own political leanings as well though so just be aware of that.

There might also be some clues on the website or social media if you dig through it - recent residency events (did they do a white coats for black lives event or something recently?), the interests of current residents/alumni (are a bunch of people interested in care for LGBT patients or in natural family planning?), the mission/vision for the program, etc.

That said, I think if you get along with the residents on interview day and the residents/faculty seem to interact with each other well....probably you'll be fine regardless of political leanings.

 

[xDNA]

I was taught to never talk about religion, politics, sex, or money in a professional setting. These topics are too divisive and we all have our opinions on things, and for many, strong beliefs about them. Its just too risky

 

[cj_cregg]

I was taught to never talk about religion, politics, sex, or money in a professional setting. These topics are too divisive and we all have our opinions on things, and for many, strong beliefs about them. Its just too risky

I was too, but I do think politics (and sometimes religion) are increasingly relevant to medical practice. Politics affects whether my patients have insurance, how and where they receive care, the types of care I can offer to them, refer them for, or even talk with them about. My patients bring up politics and religion all the time, including asking my personal opinions, and I need to be able to navigate those conversations respectfully. Not saying we need to be having debates over lunch all the time by any means but I don't think the idea of avoiding those conversations altogether is entirely realistic.

 

[deleted1139416]

I agree with all the posts above. However - I'm not concerned about voicing my own political beliefs as much as I am concerned about a culture where I would be automatically expected to have certain political beliefs, if that makes sense?

 

[GoSpursGo]

I agree with all the posts above. However - I'm not concerned about voicing my own political beliefs as much as I am concerned about a culture where I would be automatically expected to have certain political beliefs, if that makes sense?

This shouldn't be a thing that happens anywhere, because people shouldn't be stupid--if the country is roughly 50/50 split (and please don't get into semantics here, say 40/60 split in whichever direction you think the split should be if that matters to you), then even in a small residency where there are 10 overall residents among all classes then the math would say even accounting for variability that 2-3 would probably be whatever the "minority" opinion is.

But if there *is* some residency out there that has a culture like that, then you're probably not going to be able to figure that out in an interview setting. And this should be among the least important factors when you're considering residency program on your ROL.

 

[Captain_Falcon]

I agree with all the posts above. However - I'm not concerned about voicing my own political beliefs as much as I am concerned about a culture where I would be automatically expected to have certain political beliefs, if that makes sense?

Dude/dudette, you worry too much. Keep your beliefs to yourself and no matter what you’ll be fine. Show up to learn each day.

You cannot waste your precious time and energy on this during your interviews

 

[deleted1139416]

This shouldn't be a thing that happens anywhere, because people shouldn't be stupid--if the country is roughly 50/50 split (and please don't get into semantics here, say 40/60 split in whichever direction you think the split should be if that matters to you), then even in a small residency where there are 10 overall residents among all classes then the math would say even accounting for variability that 2-3 would probably be whatever the "minority" opinion is.

But if there *is* some residency out there that has a culture like that, then you're probably not going to be able to figure that out in an interview setting. And this should be among the least important factors when you're considering residency program on your ROL.

Dude/dudette, you worry too much. Keep your beliefs to yourself and no matter what you’ll be fine. Show up to learn each day.

You cannot waste your precious time and energy on this during your interviews

Thank you. Unfortunately I’ve been in environments where I’ve been ostracized for not having a certain political opinion so I was just worried about that happening again. Especially since a classmate of mine was given a poor eval by a resident on his OBGYN rotation for voicing his opinion about the Roe v. Wade turnover.

 

[Captain_Falcon]

Thank you. Unfortunately I’ve been in environments where I’ve been ostracized for not having a certain political opinion so I was just worried about that happening again. Especially since a classmate of mine was given a poor eval by a resident on his OBGYN rotation for voicing his opinion about the Roe v. Wade turnover.

Ostracized?

Simple to avoid that, whenever politics comes up just say you don’t discuss your personal beliefs with anyone

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I'm just sharing a general article showing that the political milieu in which a residency program may be immersed in (not just the immediate working team of residents, attendings, etc.) is something many consider. I would be interested in how the program leadership will deal with still supporting inclusion and belonging in spite of policies that might make it extremely challenging to do so.

Read

Training Location Preferences of U.S. Medical School Graduates Post Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health

An examination of how new restrictions on women’s health care may impact where US medical school graduates apply for residency training.

ow.ly

 

[GoSpursGo]

Thank you. Unfortunately I’ve been in environments where I’ve been ostracized for not having a certain political opinion so I was just worried about that happening again. Especially since a classmate of mine was given a poor eval by a resident on his OBGYN rotation for voicing his opinion about the Roe v. Wade turnover.

Im not sure what else to tell you. The lesson I would take away from that story is, again, don’t talk about politics in a professional setting. Even if others are doing it.

And again, you will probably never be able to get this information in an interview, and if you tried they would probably find you weird for asking that line of questioning

 

[mvenus929]

I mean, depending on the field you're going into, it can be relevant. States are trying to ban abortion care. If you agree with them doing so, you may want to be at a more catholic leaning institution that has policies against performing abortions. If you don't agree with providing gender affirming care to transgender individuals, you may not want to be at an institution that has a giant, well known multidisciplinary clinic focusing on that care. If you're very against affirmative action (or DEI, BLM movements, etc), providing a significant amount of care in minority-majority areas may be uncomfortable. If you're against immigration, providing care in southern Arizona, California, or Texas may or may not work well for you.

Most people are fairly moderate in their beliefs and this doesn't become an issue because it's outside of their scope of practice (intentionally or not). But if you're in primary care, OB-GYN, etc--certain strongly held beliefs can significantly influence how you're seen at these programs.

 

[deleted1139416]

I mean, depending on the field you're going into, it can be relevant. States are trying to ban abortion care. If you agree with them doing so, you may want to be at a more catholic leaning institution that has policies against performing abortions. If you don't agree with providing gender affirming care to transgender individuals, you may not want to be at an institution that has a giant, well known multidisciplinary clinic focusing on that care. If you're very against affirmative action (or DEI, BLM movements, etc), providing a significant amount of care in minority-majority areas may be uncomfortable. If you're against immigration, providing care in southern Arizona, California, or Texas may or may not work well for you.

Most people are fairly moderate in their beliefs and this doesn't become an issue because it's outside of their scope of practice (intentionally or not). But if you're in primary care, OB-GYN, etc--certain strongly held beliefs can significantly influence how you're seen at these programs.

This is the kind of discussion I was looking for. Things are not always as simple as just not discussing politics at work. Thank you!

 

[GoSpursGo]

@mvenus929 makes excellent points. I would just submit that in most cases, it will not be so simple to tease these details out. But if these are important to you then you can try to look this information up.

 

[mrbreakfast]

There will be residents, and certainly attendings, that represent the full political spectrum regardless of where you train. However, keep in mind that young people in healthcare are disproportionally going to fall on one end of the political spectrum - it has been repeatedly demonstrated in studies that more medical students are liberal than moderate and more are moderate than conservative, and recently fewer than 1 in 5 medical students identified as conservative - and that is going to be true at essentially any institution you train. Frankly, if you are happy about the Wade decision, for example, you should not expect to find a sympathetic crowd in healthcare, anywhere. This applies to catholic/religiously affiliated hospitals as well, by the way - people are generally working there despite the institution policies, not because of them. I know plenty of people who work for catholic hospitals; they're almost all liberal.

You will have liberal and conservative colleagues, but there is nothing that says people have to like you despite your political beliefs and in some situations, your beliefs are best kept to yourself. Reading between the lines a bit here, it sounds like that is probably not a new concept to you. You will not be ostracized for your views if no one knows them. It may well be that you can do research and find a conservative residency program, but I think places would be few and far between.

 

[EmperorK]

To do what you're describing is not tricky. Try to look at a few factors; location, age of staff members, and the history of the leadership. Usually, the leadership will dictate the culture in whatever program you're getting into. (see Elon Musk and his companies for example). So if they're all into conservative/left policies, their programs probably will.

Also, don't put your political opinion on stuff that can be traced back at you/bring it up at work.

 

[Fluidity of Movement]

Do what I did and try to get as close to people who are as different from you as possible.

It's too easy to live in a bubble and no growth or progress is made. The good qualities of everyone rubs off on each other the closer they get, and the bad stuff falls off into the chaffe.

I don't worry about culture anymore because I fit in everywhere because I want to be friends with everyone.