How do you know if a residency program is toxic/malignant during COVID?

[averagemedstudent]

I'm applying for residency this year - and I was wondering how may one know if a residency program is toxic during COVID - when there is no far away rotations. 

 

[carmsregrets]

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[rmorelan]

2 hours ago, averagemedstudent said:

I'm applying for residency this year - and I was wondering how may one know if a residency program is toxic during COVID - when there is no far away rotations. 

 

yeah you aren't left with as many options which is not good - people from programs sometimes won't even fully describe the program they are in for a variety of reasons. Still at least some some people can know - one of the best remaining route if you cannot see it yourself is to ask the residents in the same program at your school what they know about the other schools. 

[shikimate]

first and foremost find out about their royal college pass rate and how their residents do after residency. If they aren't willing to give you a number or pretend they don't know the number, consider that suspicious. If residents are doing multiple fellowships, see if that's related to the general job market, the quality of training, or something else.

second see if there are signs of residents dropping out. For example they take 3 a year, but only has 1 PGY4, so where did the other PGY4s go? maternity leave? transferred out? failed and repeating a year?

check previous carms stats, see if they've been consistently having difficulty filling spots in the 1st round. Although this is not perfect, like Toronto could offer any crap and always get filled lol.

see if there are any fellows/staff at your school that have graduated from the program within the last 5 years.