Questions to Consider Asking Residency Programs

General

  • How would you define the culture of the program?
  • What are you most proud of about your residency program?
  • How much of your faculty is composed of former trainees who stayed or came back after training at your institution?
    • Why do you think so many trainees want to stay as attendings?
  • What is your ideal match resident like?
    • Similarly, what kind of resident would struggle at this program?
  • Is there a formal advising/mentoring program for new residents? If so, how does this program work?
  • In what ways are non-physicians included in the training program (e.g., pharmacists, nurses)?
  • What activities are residents expected to participate in, beyond normal clinical expectations? Are these obligations protected?
  • [Especially at places that have fellowship programs] What kind of procedures do residents get training in? Are there enough opportunities for residents to get trained in procedures?
  • What is the culture of feedback like at your program? Is it face-to-face? Is it exclusively through evaluations?
    • How do residents give and receive feedback?
  • How does your program support residents during difficult situations, or rotations where tough things are more expected, like ICU?
  • Are there outside rotators during rotations? (e.g., family med with peds, anesthesia with IM)
  • How does your program work with mid-level providers?
  • Can you talk about graduated autonomy/responsibility for residents throughout the program?
  • Can you talk about the use of simulation in your curriculum?
    • How frequently do residents participate in mock codes?

PD/Faculty Questions

  • Can you tell me about a time when a resident struggled academically or personally and what the program did to support them?
  • What were the top concerns on the most recent ACGME resident survey, and what are the plans to address those concerns?
  • What are some changes coming down the pipeline for your program?
  • What changes have you personally made and have seen being made during your time at the program?
  • What is the general attitude toward change in the program?
  • Are there any educational experiences that you feel residents are lacking in (e.g., specific patient populations, resources)?
    • Do residents from this program go on to academic fellowships?
    • Are there any educational experiences that you feel residents leave above-average in?

Medical Education Focus

  • What experiences, both formal and informal, are there for teaching medical students within the program?
  • What pathways are available for residents who are interested in medical education after residency?

Research and Networking

  • Is there protected time allocated for residents to pursue research during the program?
  • Are residents encouraged to attend regional and national conferences? How is this supported?

Scheduling

  • Call schedule? 24s? What’s the longest shift?
  • What percentage of time is spent inpatient v outpatient in each year?

Resident Questions

  • Are there limits to how many patients you have? What’s the typical number of patients you expect to have while inpatient? During ICU?
  • Do you feel empowered to call off sick? Is there adequate sick coverage?
  • How many hours do you typically stay past scheduled hours in order to finish charting?
  • How does your system communicate? Do you rely on phone calls, or are there alternative means, like Epic chat?
  • Do attendings typically communicate between each other? Do they have similar goals and priorities? Or do plans of care and expectations change with each new attending?
  • How is it with consult services? Do you do a lot of consulting? How is it working with consults?
  • What are some of the quality improvement projects that residents are working on?
  • What does mentorship look like between residents?
  • For night shifts, are attendings in-house? Do you feel adequately supported/able to call the attending?
  • How are admissions during rounds handled? Does the team go? Only 1–2 people? Is there a separate team covering admissions during rounds?
  • Can you talk more about the interdisciplinary support that exists for patients (e.g., inpatient vs. outpatient)? Folks like social workers, case managers, behavioral health, etc.?
  • What is something that surprised you about the program, or that you wish you knew going into it?
  • What’s one nice thing one of your co-residents or attendings has done for you?

Social Questions

  • Are there any fun traditions or annual events that your program has?
  • What would you say the breakdown is between people who are single vs. married, and approximately how many people have kids?

Specialty-Specific

Combined Programs

  • Do you feel like the combined residents are socially and culturally embedded within the [half] program?
  • When in [half], what requirements or protected education are you involved in for [other half]?
  • What has been your favorite thing about receiving combined training (e.g., patient interaction, way you’ve used the skillset, etc.)?
  • What is retention like? What has been the biggest barrier to retention?

OR Specialties (OB/Gyn, Surgery, Orthopedics, Anesthesia)

  • Do residents have their own workroom, or are they shared between specialties?
  • Are there specialty-specific call rooms?
  • How would you describe the OR culture?

Anesthesia

  • How much interaction do residents have with CRNAs and other anesthesia providers?
  • How do breaks and relief work? Do CRNAs relieve residents? Do residents relieve CRNAs?
  • Do residents struggle with getting any of their required procedures?
  • Are there any subspecialties of anesthesia that I will not have an opportunity to do a rotation in until my CA-3 year?
  • Can you talk about the transition between intern year and CA-1 year? Are you paired?
  • How is the support from anesthesia techs?
  • How does your program support residents during difficult situations, like unexpected outcomes (e.g., intraoperative death)?
  • When do you typically find out what cases you’ll be doing the next day (so you can plan your pre-ops)?
  • How do you obtain medications for cases? Case carts? Pyxis machines? Are there pharmacy breaks that complicate things?

Pediatrics

  • Can you touch on how scheduling works? Continuity clinic?
  • For continuity clinics, are residents building their own patient panel, or are they working off a preceptor’s panel? What is the farthest continuity clinic location?
  • How much experience do residents get with medically complex children (e.g., patients with tracheostomies and home ventilators)?

Family Medicine

  • What are the needs you see most frequently in the communities you serve?
  • Is your residency partnered with community groups such as mobile clinics or addiction medicine?

Questions to Expect From Interviewers

  • Tell me about yourself.
  • Where are you from?
  • Tell me why you want to go into [specialty].
  • Why are you interested in our program?
  • Where do you fit in our program’s mission?
  • What’s something you’re really proud of?
  • Tell me about a time that you made an error/mistake in a clinical environment. What happened, and what did you learn?
  • Can you describe a conflict you faced?
  • Tell me about a time you failed. [What did you learn?]
  • Tell me about a time you had a conflict with another member of your team.
  • What would you do if one of your co-residents was not pulling their weight?
  • If you could change one aspect of your personality with a snap of your fingers, what would it be?
  • When was the last time you made a hard decision? What was the decision and why was it hard?
  • What are 3 values you live by?
  • Tell me about a time you struggled to make a connection with someone important.
  • How do you handle stress?
  • What would you like your legacy to be?
  • Tell me about one of your mentors.
  • What’s the last non-medical thing you learned/read about?
  • If your best friend logged into this meeting right now, how would they describe you?
  • What do you think makes a good resident?
  • What are you looking for in a residency program?
  • What do you look for in co-residents?
  • What excites you about starting residency?
  • What about starting residency makes you nervous?
  • What would you like to do for research? [may only be applicable if you have a research background]
  • Why do you think your peers chose you for [elected] position?
  • How would you be a leader as a resident?
  • What’s something you wished you could improve on your application?
  • What questions do you have for us?

Anesthesia-Specific

  • What have you been reading about in anesthesia recently?
  • What do you think are the current problems facing anesthesia?
  • How does your background fit with anesthesia?

Questions to Consider Asking Fellowship Programs

General

  • How frequently are you called in from home call?
  • If you take home call and are called in, is there a place to sleep?
  • What is call coverage like if your fellowship spots do not fill?