Question for residents about their residency program...

[mar8d]

I asked this in the residency reviews thread but it seems that thread is only for interviewees to put their two cents in about the programs where they've interviewed.

I've interviewed at some great places, and I've really been blown away by some programs. Having said that, I wonder if the residents could address the areas of their programs that might be considered weaknesses.

I'll kick off this thread by asking Carolinas Medical Center residents:
1. Do you feel like there are too many off service months that are not in the ICU? Are the orhtho clinics beneficial to you?
2. Besides your great colleagues, what is the best part of your program?
3. What do you think are areas that need to change in your program?
4. Do you feel like you get enough exposure to penetrating traumas?

(I hope others feel free to ask about other programs too!)

Oh yeah, HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

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[Seaglass]

Probably a really great part of the program is me. Just my 2 cents.

And there is more than enough penetrating trauma which, for my 2 cents, is really boring.

 

[mar8d]

Um...thanks for letting me know you are awesome, seaglass....

Anyone have thoughts on the curriculum?

 

[Seaglass]

Sorry, I was just kidding. One of our residents posts on here often so I'll leave most of it to him. We're currently in the holiday schedule so you may want to bump this thread after the new year.

I'm a fellow there so I haven't been through the curriculum myself. I would say the greatest strength of the program is that it is a strong community program with great academic credentials. You will be well prepared to do either community or academic EM after this program. They have plenty of all types of trauma. The residents will have to help you with the others.

 

[Pinner Doc]

Could someone comment on Highland's 1st year curriculum? I know they have that 4 week block of unpaid vacation at the end of the year, to be made up at the end of 4th year.... but is there paid vacation throughout the first year as well? Or are you literally going through 12 straight months with no break? The website didn't make this clear, and I didn't write it down during interview day.

Thanks!

 

[mfleur]

Yes, there is a month of paid vacation in addition to the unpaid july vacation. Gotta love that!

 

[reddot]

There is also one month of PAID vacation, and you can request your preference for when this is prior to starting internship. The unpaid month is IN ADDITION. You have two months of vacation total.........

 

[TysonCook]

I already posted about off service rotations on the residency review thread...Here it is:
I've had 2pm's and above there was the question re: Carolinas Off Service Rotations. Here's my take on it and I'm sure that the other CMC'ers will weigh in.....

I think that while we do several off service months, including floor IM and Peds, it serves us well as EP's. Things change a LOT from your MSIV to your intern year (esp the last 6 months of fourth year). When you come to CMC, you are treated as a MD, not just an intern, which by and large is a GOOD thing to start easy by doing some floor months etc. It gives all a chance to learn the ropes, manage low acuity inpatient patients, and then move on to ICU level players, especially since we don't do a "orientation month".

While off service months are sometimes floor months, a lot of what we see here is going to be the "bread and butter" EM stuff, so it isn't too off of what we do on a day-to-day basis in the ED.

Things to think about when looking at our (or any programs) off service months...
1. If you are off service, what does that entail (i.e. clinic, home call, floor work w/in house call etc). A good example is our second year peds month. While is is classified as an "off service" month, we are exclusively in the ED doing ED shifts, Peds lectures, etc. Another example is our Ortho month in which we do NO floor work, no admits, no H+P's, its entirely ED specific either in the ED, or learning reductions/injections in clinic with attendings (not resident clinic). Once again, considered off service, but very much ED in the end.

2. What exactly is your concern in "off service months". Is it that you are concerned that you won't have enough time in the ED? Then you should look at # of ED months, # of shifts, and # of hours x years, rather than off service stuff.
If you are concerned that you don't "need" IM floor month etc then basically you are a fool (there is always something to learn, especially when you are going to manage the ICU's ALONE the next year). We graduate plenty of people that can manage any ED with our on service training.

3. At Carolinas, we train only at one facility, so you will still be in the ED a large portion of your off service months (learning from our attendings and cheifs etc when you are admitting a patient, seeing call ins, etc).

4. We are allowed to moonlight after your first ED month, so on my off-service months I still work 4-6 shifts in the ED, combine that with my "thank you bobs" (see below), I can work 4-8 ED shifts even on an off service month.

5. We have DAILY lecture, so even when you are on a off service month, you come to Emergency lecutures every day, not random surgery etc.

6. Lastly we do some extra shifts on several months to help out in the ED. This works out to be 2-3 shifts a month during SOME off service rotations allowing us to loosen the schedule and allow for some others to have time off etc. We call them "thank you bob" shifts and we do them second and third years.

Sorry for the long response, but as you can tell it's not as plain and simple as off/on service. It plays into what each rotation defines as duties, and when you are in the ED what #'s of shifts/hours you work. This goes for all programs, not just CMC.

Hope this helps, and good luck to all that are interviewing!!!!

 

[TysonCook]

As for the rest of your q's re: Carolinas:
2. The best things: too numerous to count. Seriously. Medicine specific: perfect mix of resident and private attending for admits, great spectrum of both pathology AND payer base, skill set of attendings with wide variation of people that graduated from other programs (not too inbred), fellowship opps, trauma and med exposure (I could go on and on). For the "perks"; $1900 for education PER YEAR, conference EVERY year, regardless of presentations, free books, great and well known attendings that work with us, own call rooms (w/desks, computers, DVD, flat screens, sinks), free food (that is seriously tasty), wireless hospital with labs and patient data directly updated to my palm, cafeteria 24/7, salary, moonlighting opps (I could go on and on here as well).

3. Area needing change (not at all bad, but could use some adjustment, seriously we have it very very good!):
a) Working on our time off/vacation. It is fairly difficult to get time off on certain rotations. If you need to get time off during ED month, there may be the possibility that you will work the same # of shifts, regardless of vacation.
b) The computerized/paper chart mixture. This is not unique to Carolinas, unfortunately it can sometimes help you, or hurt you depending on how good you are with computers.
c) Possibly need to increase residents (this will help w/b). This is being addressed this year by interviewing ~140 applicants for 14 spots. (up until now we had ~80-100 interviews for 11 spots). Our class mix is interns:11, second years 11, seniors 10. For a large volume trauma center.

4. We get plenty of penetrating as well as blunt trauma. I DO NOT worry about trauma experience (we're the only level 1 trauma center in the area, with a large city, plenty of crime in certain areas, tends to get buuuusy w/trauma).

For other q's you can email SeaGlass, Hawk22, or Radiohead...we all bounce around here

 

[mar8d]

Thanks for your input! I really appreciate it.

 

[roja]

I don't think any of our current residents are on here now, so I will try and answer, as I graduated about a year and a half ago..

1. Do you feel like there are too many off service months that are not in the ICU? Are the orhtho clinics beneficial to you? No, we don't have alot and the ones we have are high yield.
2. Besides your great colleagues, what is the best part of your program? NYC
3. What do you think are areas that need to change in your program? the hospital needs more GME money so we can have more residents.
4. Do you feel like you get enough exposure to penetrating traumas? yes

 

[easy1226]

Does anyone have any insight into the details of either EM residencies in Kentucky (UofL or UK)? These are my state schools, and I'll probably end up at one or the other. Interested in EM, so I'd like to hear about these programs, preferably from the mouth (or keyboard, rather) of a current resident. Thanks!

 

[em2008]

Here is a question for Emory residents regarding diversity... I have heard several people say that there isn't much patient diversity at Grady, that it is entirely an inner city, African American population without much representation from other cultures or races. I'm not sure what to make of these comments. I'd appreciate input from residents! Do you feel you get enough variety in your patient population?
Thanks!