Psych ROL - Toronto vs. Mac

[P246810]

Haven't seen a post for Psych yet - I know in Ontario these two schools tend to be top picks for Psych and was wondering if anyone has heard about either program for Psych. McMaster is very wellness based but I've heard preceptors say residents might be less prepared than Toronto residents. Toronto has added a full academic day in PGY2 onwards and seems to be trying to be more wellness focused, and ultimately I want to rank the one that will give me the best training in Psych (regardless of chances at matching). Would love to hear from residents in either program or from people who might have heard about either. 

[CGreens]

Toronto has academic half day every Wednesday PGY1 through to 5 . Usually you have the other half of Wednesday for a longitudinal clinic/psychotherapy/supervision/administrative tasks. 

UofT is a good program. You'll have the usual cons of any large UofT residency program (large class, less bonding due to size).

Call is very reasonable (1 in 7 psych call in PGY2 and then lighter as you progress). CAMH call is in their ER. You have a team of residents and one staff on site to review. Higher volume, less sleep. Maybe less independence cause the staff is onsite, hard to say? Other hospital sites call is solo overnight, but less volume usually. Staff available via phone to review. 

UofT is big, so you'll have access to all the various niches of psychiatry. General training is still good, many different sites to train at which can flavour your experience (e.g., St. Michael's hospital might give you more exposure to the Urban/homeless crowd, CAMH as a tertiary mental health centre, UHN CL psych having interesting and niche transplant/onc/neuro stuff, etc.), site decided by ranked lottery. 

In my opinion the program is very responsive - but you'll find co-residents that still complain. 

I think the reality is that most psych programs are 100x better from a wellness perspective than other residencies. It's a very light residency hours wise. 

Go where you want to spend 5 years. Both programs are good. If family and friends are closer to one, that's where I would prioritize personally. Also, consider cost of living in Toronto is rough. 

[cazzyfre]

Both are great programs and both provide rigorous training. Some experience with UofT as a student (and things I've heard) but know more details about the Mac program. I think the biggest trade-off is whether you'd like to be in the city of Toronto (but sacrifice some degree of wellness and flexibility). In my opinion the fact that you can choose your preceptors at Mac is huge because you can avoid less-ideal preceptors and tailor your experience to be as educational as possible. Also worth noting you have 6 months of electives you can do outside of your program in any of the psych programs if there is some specific experience you want in residency.

UofT
- Huge pro is being in the city of Toronto- loots of cool stuff to do!
- Largest psych program in North America (pros and cons of this)
- Primarily service driven as opposed to education driven (glad to hear improvements with regards to having a protected half day + 1 year is full day I think?)
- Random which hospital you'll end up every year, and some are far (Sunnybrook) so long commuting potentially/frustrating to relearn EMR and redo all modules everytime
- Call can be gruelling if you are all by yourself (not at CAMH) and CAMH can be frustrating because patients are not screened by the ED and so everyone even for inappropriate reasons is seen

 

Mac
- Medium-sized program (Toronto does have more specific psychiatry niches)
- Choose your own preceptors- only best preceptors get selected so you will have a positive/useful experience. This really lets you tailor your experience and what kind of core rotations you want to do (ie. for outpatient you can decide whichever supervisor and the specific niche services they do like psycho-oncology or specific vulnerable group or anxiety disorders or early intervention psychosis)
- Protected full day every week
- ED call only at one site so it is extremely reasonable; No Tuesday nights/Friday nights/No Saturdays (day or night)/No Sunday nights; call frequency as a senior very good (less than 1:20). Also you are always on with at least 1 other resident (bonding/learning). Perk at Mac is that you can moonlight as a senior within the same hospitals (get paid and get more experience)
- More opportunity to teach medical students (more resident driven model at Mac) and get paid $75-100/h (clinical skills, OSCEs, etc)
- Lots of programming/events for close knit-residency group (yearly: program paid wellness retreat, two selection retreats, PD hosted dinner parties, department dinner, department bbq, christmas party) and typically residents will hold events through-out the year (dodgeball tournaments, cottage/blue-mountain, boardgames)