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Resident Dinner and Learns


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I would not, for several reasons. One is that my specialty has unique issues and I don’t see myself wanting to attend a generic talk when I can attend the specific ones offered by my program. Two is that my program does offer education on these things. And three is that I would wonder why a company is buying me a free dinner and what that means about the accuracy and bias of the information. 

I typically discuss these things with my mentors and classmates so that I can get information that’s tailored to my needs. 

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To give another perspective, this is something that I would definitely attend. I actually love attending talks like that, because I find that if I can leave with even just one new piece of knowledge on something that will make my life easier or help me change my practice in a way to make me more efficient I would do it. 

Just the opportunity to meet other residents and form relationships would be enough for me to attend. As Ellorie mentioned, I would also discuss stuff with my close friends/classmates and mentors, but this is something that I would do in addition to the above

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Hi Ellorie, 

 

I appreciate your reply. Just so  I am understanding you correctly, the free dinner is what would make you skeptical about the information being provided? If the Dinner and Learn was not free, would that make you less skeptical?

You are correct in that the Dinner and Learns would not be specific to specialties, that's not what they are intended for. They would be geared more towards providing information on finding placements etc. after a residency is completed or any other topics that residents tell us they feel would be useful. 

We understand that programs often offer education on many things and that mentors and classmates are a wonderful resource for information, however, it is our experience that residents often feel like they need extra help in certain areas especially when their residency is completed so we have been looking for additional ways to help them. 

If you do have suggestions on some other topics that might be useful for a resident who is interested in attending a dinner and learn, we would love to hear them!

Again,  I appreciate your reply. All feedback is useful to us and helps us to figure out how to tailor our programs. 

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I think that these talks are great but as medical students/residents, we are often taught to maintain a certain level of "caution" whenever receiving information like this.

If there were some transparency surrounding the event, this would make residents less skeptical. For instance, what's in it for the organizing company? Were the guest speakers invited or did they sign up on their own to speak about the topic? Are guest speakers paid? Are they "selling" their services?

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18 minutes ago, ArchEnemy said:

I think that these talks are great but as medical students/residents, we are often taught to maintain a certain level of "caution" whenever receiving information like this.

If there were some transparency surrounding the event, this would make residents less skeptical. For instance, what's in it for the organizing company? Were the guest speakers invited or did they sign up on their own to speak about the topic? Are guest speakers paid? Are they "selling" their services?

Yeah I agree - that is the general issue with this sort of thing. On one hand don't have a dinner etc then turn out is bad. Have a free dinner and now you have a disclosure to report every time. As they say "ain't nothing for free......."

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I'm done now but honestly unless this is specialty specific it will probably be of minimal use for finding jobs, setting up practice, making connections etc. At least it would have been for me.

I don't really get the financials for your company in doing this, unless you are selling access to residents to third party companies (banks, investment firms etc.). I don't have a problem with that, as long as attendees know the situation. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/13/2018 at 12:47 PM, NLengr said:

I'm done now but honestly unless this is specialty specific it will probably be of minimal use for finding jobs, setting up practice, making connections etc. At least it would have been for me.

I don't really get the financials for your company in doing this, unless you are selling access to residents to third party companies (banks, investment firms etc.). I don't have a problem with that, as long as attendees know the situation. 

These talks are pretty frequent at my school and mostly targeted at pre-clerks. Usually, they're organized by financial service companies like MDM. They offer free lunch and make a (rather generous) contribution to the student association. In exchange, they get access to potential clients and a chance to show what they offer.

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3 hours ago, Snowmen said:

These talks are pretty frequent at my school and mostly targeted at pre-clerks. Usually, they're organized by financial service companies like MDM. They offer free lunch and make a (rather generous) contribution to the student association. In exchange, they get access to potential clients and a chance to show what they offer.

Western had a lot of those when I was there. They certainly do work for the companies involved. 

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