- Joined
- Feb 25, 2008
- Messages
- 1,642
- Reaction score
- 10
Thanks to everyone posting reviews. I also look forward to those awaiting the match to post theirs. I plan to apply this coming cycle so I'm eager to hear more.
Thanks to everyone posting reviews. I also look forward to those awaiting the match to post theirs. I plan to apply this coming cycle so I'm eager to hear more.
If anyone "waiting" to post reviews has Yale, Penn, or UCSF reviews and would be fine PMing them to me, I'd be interested. Thanks.
Hopkins is different to most places in that it is very much influenced by European psychiatry from the 1960s (i.e. love Jaspers, love phenomenological approach, recognise differing approaches to psychopathology, important of thorough assessment including biographical method, important of history taking and mental state examination, psychiatry has strong medical and neurological knowledge/skills, extremely self-reflexive and critical, Socratic). They are nihilistic on the one hand dont believe in DSM, dont believe in biopsychosocial model, dont believe in the explanatory power of one model of psychopathology, dont believe hermeneutics and meaning in madness is scientific and critical of American psychoanalysts who pretended it was, dont believe in fads e.g. PTSD, multiple personality disorder, pediatric bipolar disorder; however they seem to have a biobehavioral (my term) approach to other illnesses and schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are sacred cows that are viewed as diseases. I agree with much of what they say, but this is where they fall short (they are not diseases) and they have lapped up Kraepelin too easily (though most psychiatric geneticists will now tell you that there are no genes for any mental illness, and most will admit that schizophrenia and bipolar are not diseases and they never were). They use the perspectives approach which recognizes 4 approaches most often useful in trying to understand a patient rather than trying to say everything is a mixture of factors, or that one or two models applies to every illness.
I actually agree for the most part. I wrote these reviews directly after interviewing at each place, and MUSC was one of my first interviews.As I progressed through the interview season I realized that it is a pretty good system. Still think those 4 months would be intense. If the number of shifts I was told is correct then it breaks down to 64-72 hours per week for the month. I can handle it, but it's not an easy month. However, it does allow you to keep pretty standard 50 hr work weeks when not on weekend rounding, and about 60 when weekend rounding, so it does help to alleviate the intensity on the other 20 months. A pretty good trade off.
I actually agree for the most part. I wrote these reviews directly after interviewing at each place, and MUSC was one of my first interviews.As I progressed through the interview season I realized that it is a pretty good system. Still think those 4 months would be intense. If the number of shifts I was told is correct then it breaks down to 64-72 hours per week for the month. I can handle it, but it's not an easy month. However, it does allow you to keep pretty standard 50 hr work weeks when not on weekend rounding, and about 60 when weekend rounding, so it does help to alleviate the intensity on the other 20 months. A pretty good trade off.
I also wanted to add that it's rare for us to hit 60 hours in a week on inpatient psych months even with weekend rounds. There are obviously exceptions but weekend rounding is quick (like 2-4 hours each day) so 50 hours was more like a week with weekend rounds.
One plus for New Mexico even if Albuquerque isn't known for restaurants -- New Mexican food is about the most delicious food on earth, and it's hard to get anywhere else. So maybe they don't have fancy restaurants, but there's still lots of good food.
UNM Interview Review
Accommodations/food: program pays for a night in a hotel, there are a number of local options but I recommended Hotel Andaluz. *A very nice hotel located downtown. *No pre interview dinner the night before. Coffee and snacks at breakfast. *Lunch with a number of residents catered in from a local Mexican restaurant.
Interview Day: day begins around 815 with an introduction to the program and a quick discussion with the PD and vice chair of education. *4 interviews throughout the day (one with PD, vice chair of education, one of the chiefs, and a faculty member at the VA), tours of the VA, UNM hospital, UNM psych hospital, and a driving tour of Albuquerque with the PD. *Day ends with a short discussion with the PD and vice chair of education as a wrap up/ answer any further questions. *The day as a whole is pretty laid back, which seems to be the Albuquerque way. *None of the interviews were stressful although the one with the chief was very interview-esque ( tell me about a difficult situation and how u handled it, etc), whereas the others were more conversational. Day concludes around 4pm.
Program overview: from my understanding this program provides the majority of mental health services to the entire state of NM as well as much of the rural areas of surrounding states. *It also has a flagship VA which provides for the same coverage area, as well as being the tertiatry referral center for 7other VAs, so there is plenty of pathology here.
Curriculum: PGY1 is 4 months of IM (1 is inpt wards the other 3 are selective of inpt IM/FM/peds, outpt IM/FM/peds, and ER). 2 months neuro, and 6 months inpt psych general adult. *The majority of PGY1, including all 6 months of psych, is at the VA. *Some could see this as a negative, but the Albuquerque VA is real nice and not typical the VA drudges. *You also begin outpt VA psych/med clinic 1/2 day a week in which you treat both the psych and medical aspect of psych patients who come to the clinic. *PGY2 is all inpt psych with 7 months of general adult at UNM psych hospital, 1 month inpt child, 2c/l, and 2 psych ER ( one of which is night float). *You also begin psychotherapy clinic 1/2 day week. *PGY3 is outpt psych, both general adult and specialty clinics. *Most are split into half days a week instead of doing month long blocks. *There is also at least 1 elective, which generally consists of 1/2 a week for the year, which is generally used for more outpt work although I was told it could be used as a research time or scholarly activity. *PGY4 is 100% elective, and during your third year you meet with faculty to discuss your plans and are assigned a mentor to guide you through whatever you choose to do fourth year. *
Pschyotherapy- *PD and others list this as a strength. *Most supervision is case discussion or audio/video recording playback as opposed to direct observation/1 way mirror kind of thing. *Lots of in-house lectures on therapy as well as tele lectures from outside faculty who are experts in the specific area of therapy. *
Didactics- dedicated 1/2 day a week when on psych service pgy1 and entire pgy2. *Not sure about didactics in pgy3 or 4. *Not stressed much during the interview day and wasn't brought up by any residents as a strength or weakness. *I prolly should have inquired further.
Facilities: UNM general hospital is a really nice approx 400 bed hospital. *UNM psych hospital is 32 gen adult beds, a 15 bed Geri unit, and a separate 5 bed psych ER. *VA has 24 psych beds split into 2 gen adult units. *UNM children's psych has 53 beds, which is impressively large. All of the above are the territory referral centers for a very large geographical area, so I don't think lack of psychopathology would be a problem. *All facilities are pretty nice too, including the VA. *The University hospital campus is very large and has a real good feel to it. *VA is located about 15 min from the university campus but everything else,including outpt clinics, is located on campus.
Call- PGY1s have q7 call which runs til midnight. *However, they only take call thurs-sun, so from what I gather that probably comes out to rotating between a thurs/fri short call and a weekend call shift and doing one or the other every week. All pgy1 call is covering the VA. *PGY2 call is mostly night float, 1 month for each resident plus all residents share Dec to allow each other vacation time during the month. *In addition to the night float there is a 12 hr weekend day call approximately q3 weeks. All call during pgy2 is covering both the PES as well as floor call at UNM psych. *PGY3 is q24 supervision of interns at VA. *PGY4 is no call. *Other than call there is no weekend rounding.
Moonlighting- not allowed for the first 2 years. *There is in house moonlighting PGY3 covering nights at the VA, and PGY4 you can continue at VA or pursue offsite moonlighting. *The somewhat restricted moonlighting is kind of a downer for me. *This program used to be one of those wonderful places that if you were an upper level resident on one of your regular call shifts they would pay you as if you were moonlighting. *They unfortunately don't do this anymore, and they cited residency hour restrictions as the reason.
Research- there is actually a lot of psych research going on at UNM including some things that I think are really cool. *They do a bunch of schizophrenia research including first break studies. *They have first class neuroimaging and do a ton of psych research with that. *They also claim to have a big involvement in addictions research. *So there are lots of opportunities to be involved with some really special research, however, most residents do very little. *They are required to do a research proposal as an academic endeavor but most do it with the intention of not ever beginning or following through with the proposal. *A select few residents choose to be very involved with research. *There is no research track and most of resident research is not done until the 4th year (which is 100% elective and thus can be completely research year if you choose). *However, the PD said it would certainly be possibly to start getting involved in the 3rd year to some degree and that the residency would work with the residents to make that possible, and I genuinely believe him and think the people involved with the residency would be very accommodating to residents and would help them achieve their goals. *
Fellowships- child, Geri, addictions, and psychosomatic just approved*
Special things- this program also has a very renowned rural psych program including significant opportunities in native American psych, lots of rural opportunities in all parts of the state, and a relationship with a facility in Alaska which allows residents to spend a month there. *It is also possible, and I think relatively common for residents to spend significant amounts of time (at times months) at the rural sites throughout the state. *They are also big in telepsych, and use the tele technologies for other things such as tele lecture series as well. *Another really special thing going on at UNM is the IDEAS in psychiatry series. *Effectively, the department brings in world renowned subspecialists from all over the country and world to come to campus and have lecture series and other teaching activities with the residents, faculty, and community at large. *This seems like a really special program and a great opportunity for everyone involved. *It also shows the fiscal strength of the program.*
Faculty: all the faculty members that I met were fantastic. *Very pleasant, easy to talk to, showed sincere interests in residents and there interests/education. There are a number of highly published faculty, and lots of faculty that have come from other of the more "prestigious" places to get away from the coastal lifestyle or various other reasons I am sure. *Apart from the research publications there are a number of faculty who write for significant psychiatric textbooks and are working on the dms-v as well. I was quite impressed with the faculty. *
Location/Lifestyle: Albuquerque is unique. *It's likely a love it or hate it thing for the majority of people. *Tons of outdoor activities, great hiking, skiing, mountain biking and other things are all just outside the city limits. *Beautiful landscape with picturesque mountains you can see from pretty much any building on campus. *The downside is besides the outdoor activities there doesn't seem to be much going on. *It's certainly not a city renowned for it's restaurants or singles nightlife. *Personally, I don't think I would get bored there, and I appreciate the culture and general laid back feel of the city. *I could see others being miserable in Albuquerque though, and if you are a big city person it is almost certainly not the place for you and even I (who am by no means a city person) would have liked to see a move lively downtown area.
As far as lifestyle, on the continuum of hours worked I'd say the residents are somewhere in the middle. *Call (see above) is not terribly often, but intern year is almost every weekend (if you include Friday as the weekend). *As far as typical days for the first 3 years it seems pretty much 730/8ish to 5 when you're not on call. *One resident said he worked between 50 and 60 hours a week first 2 years, which would be consistent with the middle of the spectrum work schedule. *It seems you could easily maintain a good lifework balance, working hard but still having time for family and a social life. *
Benefits: pretty standard, 46-52k salary, benefits also seem pretty standard. *Albuquerque is on the cheaper end of the spectrum as far as cost of living is concerned, so it would probably go farther than other places. *Full list of benefits easily found on website if interested.
Strengths: great faculty who are invested in resident education, laid back and congenial atmosphere, lots of cool research going on, relaxed liberally minded city with lots of culture, great outdoor activities, pgy4 100% elective and I get the feel the residency works with residents to help them achieve goals, great faculty and research opportunities without the pretentious attitude, strong rural psych program, cool IDEAS visiting faculty series
Weaknesses: not a lot going on in Albuquerque in terms of social activities, no research track, middle of the road in terms of hours worked and call, restricted moonlighting*opportunities, I didn't really click with most if the residents I met (but that's more of a personal weakness)
overall: "middle of the road" in terms of name value, but overall deceivingly strong with great faculty and very good resources. *I have often seen this program described as a diamond in the rough, and I could agree with that. *It comes off as a very strong program in a location that's less than ideal for a lot of people. *I would by no means be disappointed if I ended up at UNM.
I wanted to pipe in on UNM. My ex-wife is a resident there.
UNM received a large grant, and chose to start the IDEAS program, which pays famous doctors money to come and spend a week to give lectures. These visitors have little impact on the educational experience, and reflect odd values on UNM, as NM is a very poor state which is severely underserved.
There is not a lot of research outside of brain imaging and schizophrenia going on at UNM.
Also, the PD seems personable on interview day, but at social events, most residents have been very disillusioned by his actions. I don't know why UNM has a reputation for being so friendly and caring, because after hanging out with the residents there for several years, it seems rather unfriendly. It is non-hierarchical, however. That's true. And NM patients are wonderful.