Q. Where do your patients come from?
A. The majority of our patients come from the greater Boston area and from an incredible diversity of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition to our local patients, our specialty clinics care for patients from across the country and around the world. Read more about our patient population here.
The City of Boston's New Bostonians' Demographic Report ranks Boston as having the 5th highest proportion of immigrant residents among the 23 largest U.S. cities. In Boston, over 140 different languages are spoken and only 66.6% of Boston residents speaks only English. The other most spoken languages include Spanish, Haitian, Creole, Chinese, Portuguese/Cape Verdean Creole, Vietnamese and French.
Q. What EMR system do you use?
A. We use Epic across all of our sites.
Q. What parking options are available at work and at home?
A. At MGH: MGH offers discounted parking for residents. Residents who live outside of the MGH zip code are offered parking closer to the hospital. Residents who live within the MGH zip code can also get discounted parking, but it is located slightly farther from the hospital. All community sites/clinics offer free or nearly free parking. Cambridge Hospital charges for parking; many residents take the T or walk to get there.
At home: Most neighborhoods have resident parking stickers and in the neighborhoods farther from the city center (i.e. Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, West Roxbury) unrestricted parking becomes more and more abundant.
Q. What does a typical resident schedule look like?
A. Schedules fluctuate a small amount each year, but a typical schedule for the three years can be found HERE.
Q. How much autonomy do residents have in the care of patients?
A. At MGfC the residents provide care for our patients as the responding clinician, generating and implementing care plans with oversight from our attending physicians. In this way, residents become recognized as the patient's doctor and are able to build this relationship while reacting to clinical changes with attending guidance.
Q. Are all inpatient rotations at MGH?
A. While many of the inpatient rotations are at MGH, our residents also rotate to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for inpatient community rotation, Cambridge Hospital for community pediatric emergency medicine, and Brigham and Women's Hospital for additional neonatal delivery room experience. Residents average 6 weeks of clinical time at Newton Wellesley across their residency time and interns spend about 1/3 of their ED shifts at Cambridge Hospital.
Q. Boston seems expensive - can you survive on a resident salary?
A. Our salaries as residents are proportionate to the cost of living in the city, so while Boston may not be the best place to buy a home during residency (although residents have done it!), we all manage to not only survive but thrive during residency. We live in places we love, feed ourselves and our families, enjoy the city, and even go on some pretty amazing vacations! The abundance of free food as a resident, free activities in Boston, and good support and financial advising through Partners GME make up for the sticker shock. Plus, MGH has a Lease Guarantee Program that will help residents cover the upfront advanced payment up to two months of rent for many apartments in the area surrounding MGH and a program to support economically disadvantaged residents that you can check out HERE.
Q. How important are Board scores?
A. We do not heavily weight board scores in our decision making. However, we do require that applicants have passing scores in Step 1, Step 2CK, and Step 2CS at the time the ROL is submitted.
Q. Are there childcare options?
A. Many of our residents have children. People use a variety of childcare services including nannies (and nanny sharing) and local daycares. MGH has subsidized daycare for employees as well as a back-up daycare center located on the main campus for days when parents are in a last-minute bind. MGH also pays for subscriptions to "parents in a pinch" (www.parentsinapinch.com) for all employees. This is a service which provides last minute babysitting and employees just pay for the babysitter's time.
Q. What's happening in Quality and Safety at MGfC?
A. Residents play an active role in quality and safety project initiatives throughout the hospital. One ongoing project involves vancomycin dosing in children, for example. Residents have also been named "Safety Stars" along with nursing and faculty colleagues. To learn more about Q&S at MGfC, you can visit there page here.
Q. What types of visas does MGfC sponsor?
A. The Massachusetts General for Children sponsors J-1 visa applications for all matched residents requiring a visa. In many situations, we are able to sponsor H1-B visas for those who would prefer that type of visa. We will not sponsor H1-B visas, however, if we do not have all USMLE steps by the time the ROL are due in NRMP.
Q. Can residents get involved in the HMS Center for Primary Care?
A. Absolutely! They have several events during the year that residents are invited to. For more information about the Center for Primary Care, click here.
Q. Do you have fellows?
A. There are several fellow training programs at MGfC including PICU, NICU, GI, pulmonary, and endocrinology. We love our fellows and find them to be a valuable part of our community. Despite having several fellowship programs, MGfC remains a residency-run program where residents form the primary team.
Q. How much ICU time do residents get?
A. Our residents spend a month in the NICU as an intern and again as a senior. Our juniors spend two months in the PICU and one month at BWH focused on newborn resuscitation and triage.
Q. Is there food at conference?
A. We have bagels, pastries, fruit and yogurt most mornings, and lunch five days a week at noon conference. Residents are also given a meal card to be used in the Hospital's cafeterias for shifts on weekends and nights. Our nights and weekends team also love to order from local restaurants. Outside of work, every neighborhood in Boston has unique and delicious places to eat and hangout! Ask the residents and Chiefs what their favorite local restaurants are!
Q. How much vacation do you get?
A. Every resident is scheduled for two 2-week vacations each year. We also give each resident an additional 5 days off for one of the three winter holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years).
Q. Why doesn't your program have tracks?
A. We work hard to help resident design residency to meet their individualized educational goals. Rather than track residents into pre-defined and potentially narrow categories, we provide an opportunity for residents to explore their diverse interests and create a residency specific to their own learning and career needs, which may span several traditional “tracks”. A total of 9.5 months of residency are therefore chosen by an individual resident, with mentorship from faculty. Six and a half months of electives are within the core subspecialties listed by the ACGME and residents choose these rather than being assigned by the program to staff the GI or pulm service, for example. An additional three months of “individualized curriculum” can be completely self-designed and we have had residents create incredibly rich and diverse rotations such working on a hospital-boat in Cambodia, working on comparative zoology with veterinarians, working in Kenya to create an emergency medicine curriculum and working with the Chief Quality Office of the hospital. At MGHfC, one-size does not fit all and no two residents have the exact same training experience because no two residents are exactly the same. We value resident individuality and autonomy in designing their training to meet their needs.
Q. What is different about the Pediatrics Prelim Year?
A. Preliminary year residents do much of the same responsibilities as categorical interns, with a few exciting exceptions:
Prelim residents get up to 8 weeks of elective time (4 weeks of Development can be transitioned to elective)
Continuity clinic can be geared towards long term career interest (i.e. Dermatology prelims can choose to do continuity clinic in a Pediatric Dermatology clinic OR general pediatrics)
Prelim residents rotate for 2-4 weeks in the Pediatric ICU for exposure to critical care
Q. Does the program use night float or 24 hour shifts?
A. Our program uses a mix of the two throughout the 3 years.
PGY-1: Night float on the wards. Every 8 days residents do a 24 hour shift in the NICU with a fellow.
PGY-2: Night float on the wards and on the Birth and Transition Rotation at Brigham and Women's. Overnight shifts in the ED. 24 hour call during PICU, no more frequently than every 4 days. Residents do not stay for rounds or to present overnight admissions on rounds in ANY clinical setting.
PGY-3: Night float on the wards. Overnight shifts in the ED. 24 hour call during NICU, no more frequently than every 4 days.
Last year, we held a vote amongst residents about transitioning from 24 hour calls to day/night float. Based on resident voting, we continued 24 hour calls in the NICU and PICU. We are always open to re-evaluating based on what system our residents like best!
Q. How many sites do residents rotate at away from MGfC?
A. Residents rotate at the following sites during their 3 years:
Cambridge Health Alliance during PGY-1 ED rotation (~ 4 shifts per ED block)
Brigham and Women's Hospital during PGY-2 Birth and Transition rotation (4 weeks total)
Newton Wellesley Hospital during PGY-1 and PGY-2 wards rotations (4-8 weeks total over the 2 years)
We have 20 continuity clinics, ranging from academic clinics, community health centers and private practice. Each resident is assigned to one clinic with a dedicated preceptor that they attend weekly over the 3 years.
Q. How does your backup system work?
A. We have a backup system used to cover illness, emergencies or unexpected absences. We do not have a "pay back" system but the chief residents keep track of how often residents have been called in to cover to preserve elective educational opportunities and to distribute back up needs equitably between residents who are on backup call. Residents have approximately 2 months of call free elective per year which can be used for away rotations, global health or any other educational opportunities!