End unfair dismissals in ACGME residency programs
- by: past residents
- recipient: ACGME and congress
Getting dismissed or terminated, or being forced to resign are common scenarios among a couple of hundred physicians-in-training, called residents, per year. It is understandable that a program director, the head of each program, may have qualms about a resident; however, some residents are dismissed from programs far too easily. Although, technically it is a job, it is also physician training, where residents learn to become doctors. Having been in a prior program raises "red flags" to a prospective program director, thus making finding a prospective residency program very difficult. Furthermore, prospective program directors call past program directors as references and there is sometimes badmouthing. There have been many cases where prospective program directors tell residents they will not hire them after speaking to their past program directors. Also, most program directors would rather hire fresh graduates than someone that was in a past program with possible problems, whether real or faux. Additionally, Medicare funding for residents is capped, making it difficult to get another position.
Please sign this petition, so that congress and the ACGME in charge of our programs, can become aware of damaging effects of residency cap funding and unfair hiring or firing practices. A constitution of resident rights should be drawn up to show that all residents are protected from anything that damages our career, especially when only in our training years. It is hoped that programs can have third parties assess situations, as the ACGME does not examine individual cases, unless they go to ACGME trial, which is put onto our records as a bad mark. At best, if nothing is done about these firing practices, the government can at least allocate funds for the total residents out of programs trying to find another program per year.
Thank you for your time.
Getting dismissed, terminated, or forced resignations are a common scenerio among a couple of hundred residents per year. Having been in a prior program rasies "red flags" to a future program director (the boss of residency), thus making finding a future residency program very difficult. They would rather hire fresh graduates than someone that was in a past program with possible problems, whether real or faux. Additionally, medicare funding for residents is capped, making it difficult to get another position.
Please sign this petition, so that congress and the ACGME (Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education) in charge of our programs, can become aware of damaging effects of residency cap funding and unfair hiring or firing practices. A constitution of resident rights should be drawn up to show that all residents are protected from anything that damages our career, especially when only in our training years. It is hoped that programs can have third parties assess situaitons, as the ACGME does not examine individual cases unless they go to ACGME trial, which is put onto our records as a bad mark. At best, if nothing is done about these firing practices, the government can at least allocate funds for the total residents out of programs trying to find another program per year. Possibly special programs can be created for these residents or they can be transferred to better suited hospitals, so that they can continue on to become doctors rather than lose their hard earned careers!
Thank you for your time.
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