UT Southwestern Vs UF Jacksonville

[kortneeluv]

I have been offered an away rotation at each of these programs for the same month. Which one is the better program?

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[Ronin786]

UTSW. Not even close.

 

[amyl]

Yes for sure.

 

[kortneeluv]

I've just heard some not so good things about UTSW, like that the residents are more like workhorses and as a student you get lost in the mix of things because the program is so big. Can anyone comment on this?

 

[BLADEMDA]

 

[BLADEMDA]

I've just heard some not so good things about UTSW, like that the residents are more like workhorses and as a student you get lost in the mix of things because the program is so big. Can anyone comment on this?

Every big program gets the same kinds of comments. Residency isn't a place to lounge around when at work. If you want the beach then rank another program.

 

[Ronin786]

I've just heard some not so good things about UTSW, like that the residents are more like workhorses and as a student you get lost in the mix of things because the program is so big. Can anyone comment on this?

Doing an away somewhere is your shot to prove yourself and get a small foot into the program. Think about where you would want to be as a resident and make your decision. Even at big programs, there are ways as a medical student to get noticed and make a good impression.

 

[deleted171991]

Doing an away somewhere is your shot to prove yourself and get a small foot into the program. Think about where you would want to be as a resident and make your decision. Even at big programs, there are ways as a medical student to get noticed and make a good impression.

That is correct. I have seen unimpressive (for me) students get into my program after brown-nosing to the right people during a rotation.

 

[aimedicine]

How does one actually impress on an anesthesiology rotation besides showing up on time, acting interested, trying to be helpful when possible, having a good personality, and getting along with the residents? I mean is anyone really going to expect a 4th year medical student to properly manage ASA 4s on day 1?

As someone who did 2 away rotation and just successfully matched this year...the way you impress is by being helpful hand that means showing up early to help your residents set up their room, do machine checks, and make sure things that are needed are in room. Going to preop with the residents to introduce yourself to patients and place iv if needed. Help wheel patients back to OR, and place monitors on patients. Ask to intubate! ask to do a-line and iv line. Know all your drugs cold, read about your case and know your patients. Most importantly be personable!!! Do not ever ever be late as a med student during anesthesia rotation...not only will they not let you do procedures, but words will spread quickly about you as the student that shows up late and is lazy.

 

[deleted171991]

How does one actually impress on an anesthesiology rotation besides showing up on time, acting interested, trying to be helpful when possible, having a good personality, and getting along with the residents? I mean is anyone really going to expect a 4th year medical student to properly manage ASA 4s on day 1?

I've had (very few) students who took our elective rotation who were just outstanding in basic science and logical thinking. They were just a pleasure to teach. Pertinent comments and questions, rapid associations, really fast learners, good knowledge of medicine. Generally pleasant, professional people, but not the kind that felt the need to kowtow. They were considering anesthesiology, but also other specialties.

Then there were the very average people who were just pleasant, nothing outstanding. Not a spark, not a proof of higher intellect, and totally unimpressive in general medical knowledge. But absolutely great at compensating with brown-nosing, especially with the right people, and telling everybody how much they like anesthesiology and our program and all kinds of BS. What you would probably call "good personalities". Some of these guys ended up in our program, because they were liked by the faculty who spent 15-20 minutes/day with them (which gets me to the opinion regarding how bad anesthesia faculty can be at evaluating and teaching residents).

I am not saying that medical knowledge and intelligence should trump a bad personality, but a program full of (worse than) average people with great personalities will end up being exactly that: (worse than) average. They will make for great slaves during residency, but unimpressive graduates. You can't make chicken salad out of chicken ****.

 

[aimedicine]

I've had (very few) students who took our elective rotation who were just outstanding in basic science and logical thinking. They were just a pleasure to teach. Pertinent comments and questions, rapid associations, really fast learners, good knowledge of medicine. Generally pleasant, professional people, but not the kind that felt the need to kowtow. They were considering anesthesiology, but also other specialties.

Then there were the very average people who were just pleasant, nothing outstanding. Not a spark, not a proof of higher intellect, and totally unimpressive in general medical knowledge. But absolutely great at compensating with brown-nosing, especially with the right people, and telling everybody how much they like anesthesiology and our program and all kinds of BS. What you would probably call "good personalities". Some of these guys ended up in our program, because they were liked by the faculty who spent 15-20 minutes/day with them (which gets me to the opinion regarding how bad anesthesia faculty can be at evaluating and teaching residents).

I am not saying that medical knowledge and intelligence should trump a bad personality, but a program full of (worse than) average people with great personalities will end up being exactly that: (worse than) average. They will make for great slaves during residency, but unimpressive graduates. You can't make chicken salad out of chicken ****.

Very harsh opinion..IMO if you score over 230 (average basic knowledge score) on the boards you have the raw material to be a great anesthesiologist provided you are driven to learn...but the other 50% is having faculty that are motivated to teach. Being a fast learner sometimes also depend on the teacher...i remember being assigned to this resident who i'm sure was smart but sucked at communicating information, in fact he wouldn't explain much but just show you how to do something once very quickly and expect you to know it...i had a hardtime learning anything he was trying to teach me....but when i was assigned to a different resident who took his time to explain something, i would grasp it the very first time....thus making it seem like i was a fast learner. You can't expect a 4th year med stud. to be a full blown anesthesiologist after a few weeks of rotation, after all anesthesiology residency is 4 years for a reason...if i was a faculty, the most important thing i will be using to access a rotating student is willingness to learn and work ethic. My cousin who was very "average" student became a fine neurosurgeon via relentless work ethic and dedication to his craft, i'm sure a student with an "average" basic science knowledge can learn anesthesia, it can't be that hard...afterall CRNAs schools are only like 2yrs lol.

 

[jthedestroyr]

A lot of people have bagged on UF-Jax without even having seen the program. As someone whom interviewed at the program last year, I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the faculty/residents were. They had some deficiencies in a few fields that were overcome by doing some rotations at Mayo. Mayo as I recall did all their high risk OB at UF-Jax since UF-Jax has an insane amount of high risk OB.

I felt should I have landed there, I would have had a solid foundation. It's a very young program, and of course has some holes to plug, but they have a solid PD and a very committed chair. I met more than a handful of people on the interview trail that had a very favorable opinion of the program.

I know people want to stress UTSW name, but from my interview I felt faculty at UF-Jax were a lot more involved and around, therefore it might be easier to get a solid LOR from UF-Jax. UTSW is so large that it would be hard to work with the same attending enough for a solid LOR, while UF-Jax is small program that would allow you to really get to know some attendings.

my 2cents