For anybody who went to the BPEI interview... I was curious to what people thought about the work hours for the first years. They said the first years spend most of their time in the eye ER. During the interview I never encoutered one first year and they were not at that evenings outing. Are the first years miserable?? Any thoughts???

Which day did you interview on because I met some of the 1st years on Friday during the interview day, but none of the 1st yrs came out later that night.


For anybody who went to the BPEI interview... I was curious to what people thought about the work hours for the first years. They said the first years spend most of their time in the eye ER. During the interview I never encoutered one first year and they were not at that evenings outing. Are the first years miserable?? Any thoughts???

Which day did you interview on because I met some of the 1st years on Friday during the interview day, but none of the 1st yrs came out later that night.

Friday - did they seem happy or did you get some other feeling from them?

I can't speak for this current year's crop of first years, but I talked to a friend who is now a 2nd year (and was therefore a recent 1st year.) This resident said they worked hard the first year but certainly not to the point of exhaustion and overall, she was very very happy, even during the busiest times of 1st year.

Friday - did they seem happy or did you get some other feeling from them?

thanks :thumbup:

For anybody who went to the BPEI interview... I was curious to what people thought about the work hours for the first years. They said the first years spend most of their time in the eye ER. During the interview I never encoutered one first year and they were not at that evenings outing. Are the first years miserable?? Any thoughts???

They were busy learning how to do refractions in spanish.

"?Mejor o peyor? ?Uno o dos?"
:laugh:

I'm a first year right now, and I have to say that I am having a great time here at Bascom Palmer. I'm not even six months into the residency, and I've already done 10+ peripheral iridotomies, 30+ PRPs, 15 focals, multiple lid lac repairs (some of my buds have even done marginal lac repairs), chalazia, lid biopsies (not full thickness), 10 intravitreal injections (kenalog, avastin) a few YAG capsulotomies...the list goes on.

I've also seen a lot of AMAZING disease through the emergency room. Ocular histoplasmosis, retinitis pigmentosa, VKH, MEWDS, PML, toxo, Axenfeld Reigers, retinoblastoma, fungal endophthalmitis, CMV retinitis, etc.

The hours are not bad either (especially when you compare to medicine and surgery). You will work hard, but how else will you learn? We are responsible for staffing the emergency room 24/7 so one of us is there at all times.

As for the morale--the seven of us are all very happy. We all get along extremely well, even outside the workplace. Our program director also looks out for us(he meets with us at least monthly asking for feedback).

The BP res director even looked out for the optometry externs. He is very much pro-teaching. All the faculty there were outstanding, but him, along with the ocular tumor guru over there really stood out in my mind as the most caring for their students.

PS - Does the director still wear red on busy days?

I'm a first year right now, and I have to say that I am having a great time here at Bascom Palmer. I'm not even six months into the residency, and I've already done 10+ peripheral iridotomies, 30+ PRPs, 15 focals, multiple lid lac repairs (some of my buds have even done marginal lac repairs), chalazia, lid biopsies (not full thickness), 10 intravitreal injections (kenalog, avastin) a few YAG capsulotomies...the list goes on.

I've also seen a lot of AMAZING disease through the emergency room. Ocular histoplasmosis, retinitis pigmentosa, VKH, MEWDS, PML, toxo, Axenfeld Reigers, retinoblastoma, fungal endophthalmitis, CMV retinitis, etc.

The hours are not bad either (especially when you compare to medicine and surgery). You will work hard, but how else will you learn? We are responsible for staffing the emergency room 24/7 so one of us is there at all times.

As for the morale--the seven of us are all very happy. We all get along extremely well, even outside the workplace. Our program director also looks out for us(he meets with us at least monthly asking for feedback).

Do you think Bascom Palmer is a FMG friendly hostpital? With a USMLE score of 90% does a FMG have a chance?

What are people's thoughts on the chairman at BPEI? Good? Bad?

I'm a first year right now, and I have to say that I am having a great time here at Bascom Palmer............. Our program director also looks out for us(he meets with us at least monthly asking for feedback).

Thanks for the feedback. Are these procedures done under the supervision of an attedending for a senior resident?