If there were not enough reasons to take your home residency seriously, here is another big one: faculty members that run residency programs are usually looking for great candidates to fill their practices. And, that person that they are looking for might you!
But, why would programs want their residents to stick around? I mean, doesn’t that decrease the diversity of experience of the faculty training? Well, yes and no. First of all, not everyone that you recruit will be from the residency program. And, newly hired residents mostly go to fellowship programs outside of the residency institution.
Yes, the resident does miss out on the nuances of working at different sites when you never leave your home residency program. However, let’s be real. There are numerous benefits to holding on to your residents and not just recruiting outside the institution. Let’s go through the distinct advantages for both the residency program and residents to become faculty at the same site as their residency.
The Resident’s Perspective
You Know What You Are Getting Into
Familiarity is the number one reason to stick around at your home base. You are much less likely to be surprised by the business if you know them beforehand. I can’t tell you how many times I had heard of practices withdrawing partnership positions at the last second, a month or two before the scheduled start time. Or, some imaging businesses may be less savory than you think. These disasters are much less likely to occur when you learn about your future job as you train during residency.
It Feels Like Home
There is something to be said about working for a practice that you know. It’s very comfortable to wake up and go to work with colleagues that you already respect. And, by now, you probably have loads of connections and friends in the same place that you went to your residency program. You indeed can’t find that as quickly if you move to new radiology practice in a new locale!
You Know Your Location Beforehand
Sometimes, folks move to a new job to find out that they wanted to live in a different environment. Perhaps, you thought you might like to live in a rural community and then discovered that you enjoyed the suburbs better. Or, you decided that you wanted to live farther away from your family, only to realize that you should have been living closer. You have already answered all these questions when you have been living near your home residency program beforehand. Your surroundings are familiar.
The Program’s Perspective
You Know What You Are Getting Into
Just like for the resident, I believe this one is the biggie. One of my favorite phrases is, “Better off with the devil you do know than the devil you don’t!” And, that phrase doubly applies when recruiting from inside the system. If you are hiring from within, you already know all the foibles of the applying candidates. On the other hand, an unknown outside entity can throw your practice into disarray if you find out that the person you are hiring is not as it seems. I can’t tell you how many radiology businesses hire an “unknown” candidate only to find out once they start that they do not do mammography after saying that it might interest them during an interview. And, other new candidates are not as good as they seem. Theses sorts of issues occur much less often when you recruit your own!
You Can Recruit For The Specialty You Need
Say that your practice is short of MSK radiologists. Well, if you run a residency program and you like a candidate, you can tell them that you will have a job if you complete an MSK fellowship. By targeting great candidates for your practice, you can also guide these individuals into areas that your business may need. Of course, residents may not want to do what your imaging practice requires. But, if you have the choice between several fellowships that you might like the same, it would not hurt to complete the one that helps your future practice.
You Can Choose Those Resident Features That Will Grow Your Practice
If you are looking to hire, your practice probably needs certain types of faculty. Perhaps, many of the faculty members in your hospital are introverted, and you need a future extroverted leader to run the business. Or, your desired resident is a techie, and you require someone that knows their way around a RIS system and PACS. Recruiting residents that will help to build the practice in these respects can fulfill all the niches that you might need in the future.
Working At Your Home Residency Base
Don’t dismiss the possibility of working for the institution where you have trained. Even though the grass may seem greener on the other side, there are distinct advantages to staying put. Take into account all the opportunities that arise as you make your choices for your career. But, your original experiences working at the same site as where you trained may be the best!
