Residency interviews ahead!

[Uncle Yuan]

Tomorrow I have my first residency interview, and a total of 6 between now and Thanksgiving.  All here in the Twin Cities and I stand an excellent chance of getting a high ranking from several of them.

Wish me luck!

[captainspud]

Luck is for the ill-prepared.

Do well.

[BlueBard]

God bless!

[El Condor]

Good luck, Yuan!  I remember what an exciting and nervous time this was for my bro'.  I'm sure that you'll do fine.

EC

[Spam]

Good luck, Uncle Yuan!

[The Phantom Eyebrow]

All the best with the interviews Yuan.  You've certainly convinced/fooled us that you're a bright and personable fellow so I'm sure you'll do well.

[Uncle Yuan]

Luck is for the ill-prepared.

I thought luck favored the well-prepared.

First one seemed to go quite well.  Despite the resident who gave us the tour calling me by the wrong name and describing every conceivable aspect of the program as "kind of unique."  (At least 40 times - I'll let you parse all the various ways that phrase is just wrong.) 

Off to a meet the residents dinner for tomorrow's interview . . .

[thalaw2]

For those of us who are less enlightened you may want to explain what exactly a "residency interview" is and what it involves? 

Of course I'm not one of those less informed people....I just want to speak on their behalf....you know...be a hero and all.

[UnfluffyBunny]

isnt it an interview to become a resident dr in a hospital?
(or is there -nothing- to be learned from scrubs?? :O :P)

hope all goes well Yuan ^_^

[Uncle Yuan]

For those of us who are less enlightened you may want to explain what exactly a "residency interview" is and what it involves? 

Of course I'm not one of those less informed people....I just want to speak on their behalf....you know...be a hero and all.

UFB's essentially correct.  Graduating from medical school makes you an MD specializing in nothing.  And nobody would hire you and you would have a tough time getting patients independently and absolutely NO chance of getting malpractice insurance.  In the old days you would find a hospital to give you a one-year internship then you could hang out your shingle as a general practitioner.  Residencies were for folks who wanted to something more than be a GP.

Today you have to specialize (even to be a GP) and this needs a residency in your chosen field.  I'm going to be doing Family Practice, which has a three year residency.  Other specialties can have different lengths (surgery is five, for example).  Once you complete your residency and pass your board exams you are considered completely qualified to practice medicine specialty "X."

The really odd thing about the whole process is the Match.  You do your interviews then you and the various residency programs submit a ranked list of your choices to a third-party organization which "matches" you.  The odd thing is that you are essentially obligated to accept the match.  Short of staying home for a year and trying again the next year you are stuck.  I'm lucky that there are seven really good FP residency programs in the Twin Cities, and FP is a fairly "easy" specialty to get into (having mostly to do with fewer folks doing FP in favor of higher paying specialties and as a result there is a lot of unused capacity in the FP training system),  meaning that I can expect to get my first or maybe second choice on the Match.

Then there's Fellowship . . .

[captainspud]

Then there's Fellowship . . .

First person to make a LotR pun gets this oversized barbecue fork through the eye.

[Panther_Gunn]

Then there's Fellowship . . .

First person to make a LotR pun gets this oversized barbecue fork through the eye.

*Prepares to be the second person to mention "that has a certain ring to it"*

*Looks around for a patsy*

Here, Dragon, Dragon, Dragon.......I have some large wings for you. :twisted:

[The Phantom Eyebrow]

Then there's Fellowship . . .

First person to make a LotR pun gets this oversized barbecue fork through the eye.

That'd make the eye a sore 'un...

[captainspud]

*wipes TPE's brains on a conveniently handy towel*

Ewww... he was a squishy one.

Anybody else?

[Dweomer Knight]

Post number 9 was very enlightening.  Especially about the 7 residency programs and 3 years and 1 match.

DK

[captainspud]

*strangles Dweomer to death with Panther's spine*

What? It's a medicine thread. I'm being medically inventive.

[Glitch Girl]

SO... did you get it?  Do you know yet?  Did I completely miss that part of the thread?