Beyond the Match, Episode 3: Working Conditions, Resident Mobility, and Accountability

You stayed late again, the service is still short-staffed, and when you finally say something, the answer is: you just need to be more efficient. More resilient. That's the go-to explanation for almost everything hard about residency — but what if the problem isn't your resilience at all? In the finale of Beyond the Match, Mckenzie Roebuck, Carl Engelke, Michael Brinton, and Omer Hassan of CoSEF look downstream at what happens after residents match: working conditions, culture and mental health, the practical barriers that make transferring so difficult, why residents may not trust existing reporting systems, and what real accountability and resident voice would require.

Hosts:

Dr. Mckenzie Roebuck, CoSEF BTK Lead, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, mckenzie.rowe@inova.org

Dr. Carl Engelke, The Ohio State University, Carl.Engelke@osumc.edu

Dr. Michael Brinton, Medical College of Wisconsin, mbrinton@mcw.edu

Dr. Omer Hassan, University of Calgary/Alberta Children's Hospital, omerh91@gmail.com

CoSEF: X @surgedfellows, cosef.org

Learning objectives:

Summarize the real problems the congressional report identifies in working conditions, mistreatment reporting, and resident mental health

Distinguish necessary difficulty in residency training from preventable system dysfunction, and describe its relationship to resident well-being and reporting

Explain the practical barriers to resident mobility, including position availability, training requirements, funding, visa status, professional risk, and stigma

Describe local and national accountability mechanisms — including program reporting, GMECs, ACGME pathways, and unions — and the limitations of each