baylor houston thoughts

I'm a resident at Baylor (though not in IM), and I was a student there, so since no one else has answered your question, I'll take a stab...

Overall, I don't feel like the IM program is malignant in the terms that you are asking. When I do my off-service rotations in IM, I'm always very impressed by the general rapport and collegiality of the residents - most of the classes get along very well and work together very well. Most of the attendings that I've worked with have been great - they enjoy teaching, and really want to help you improve your skills and knowledge base. There are a few bad apples here and there, but I truly think they are the minority. The ways in which I think Baylor is malignant is mostly to do with the volume and hours - it makes everything that much harder, and I think as a result, I know some residents complain about having their schedules tweaked, what were supposed to be call-free months suddenly changed to have call, etc. However, you will learn a ton in this program and be surrounded by some truly excellent people.

I am a MS4 at Baylor now going into IM. Baylor's program is not as malignant as many of the IM programs I've interviewed at. Overall the malignancy comes from having only few truely call free months in a year. The volume is pretty much on par with the good academic programs. You do work extra hard while you are in the ICU and ER as third year residents. Also as a third year ward resident you get very little sleep while on overnight call (Q8). Overall they have a medium hard intern year, a very relaxed R2 year and a very hard working R3 year. You get trained well and place well in fellowship. They are going through a transition right now (building their own hospital, St. lukes etc) but the previous chair of IM is still there (now the Dean of education) and is still very involved. The PD, Dr. Hamill is very nice and has a very good idea as to where the program should go. Honestly, you don't do that much training at the private hospitals anyways so the transition shoudn't impact the residency as much as it did the fellowship.

rliou said:

Honestly, you don't do that much training at the private hospitals anyways so the transition shoudn't impact the residency as much as it did the fellowship.

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That's interesting, because when I interviewed it seemed as though you DID actually spend alot of time in St. Lukes (although I could be getting things confused.) Where then do the residents do most of their Gen Med and subspecialty rotations?