Tips for the residency interview trail

I'm not going to be bashful about this. I'm known to give pretty good advice. Maybe because I'm a slightly anxious person and a perfectionist so I'm always (over)thinking things? (But then again, one could be too anxious and indecisive making him/her a poor go-to person for advice.) I think it's simply because I do my research before and after an event, evaluating whether or not the advice I got was actually helpful and what advice I would give to my future self and to others. Anyway, I've been on the interview trail for 3 weeks now, and I'm almost half way through. I want to share some tips I've thought of along the way:

• Schedule interviews with ample time in between for travel and rest. Back to back interviews (one day after the other) are absolute no-no's in my book. You might think you're a superhero after going through core surgery and core medicine in MS3, but you don't want to risk it for something this important. And if you're thinking, "well I don't really care about one of the interviews," then you why are you going at all?

Just

Our program director pointed out during her orientation presentation that she's not "just" practicing general medicine, she is practicing medicine. Do you ever hear anyone saying, "I'm just going into orthopedic surgery?"

I'm going into internal medicine, planning to do just general medicine - either as a hospitalist or a PCP or both. :)

Taiwan tops the expat health care charts

Nearly seven in 10 expats in Taiwan say they spend less on health care than they used to before moving – compared with a global average of just three in 10.

The FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] states in its guide to the country: “As is to be expected of a nation as developed as Taiwan, health care facilities and medical equipment are of outstanding quality. Since 1995, Taiwan has had a socialised health care plan, the National Health Insurance (NHI) which covers nearly all citizens.”

- The Telegraph

My thoughts: Of course the survey is biased, in particular a lot of selection bias. Its respondents are not randomized, so you don't get a good representation. Also, the more important question is do you get quality health care for your dollars spent, however much less you do have to spend? That was a major debate in the comments section... I wish I had more time to look into this more, but some anecdotal "evidence," I've heard from friends who've spent time in Taiwan that you do get decent healthcare in Taiwan. I don't think anyone can beat the technology and innovation of the U.S., but we already know that U.S. health care system is far from being a model one.

Also, this is another piece of real life evidence that a country can be non-socialist and still have a socialist health care finance structure and not combust into a complete socialist government. So surprising! (Not.)