Stanford Anesthesiology

uncas... if you look at the rank lists , it seems there is a large east coast bias. i dont recall seein much of any west coast progs on anyone's rank list. its just a small sample size. i'm sure stanford has an excellent program, and wouldnt be presume that others didnt it to be 'popular' becuase it hasnt been mentioned yet.

I both rotated and interviewed there. I spent 2 weeks in the peds ORs and 1 week on Peds pain, so my experience is somewhat limited. I felt that the residents were generally competent, confident, and friendly. I felt the staff were into teaching and building confidence to practice independently. Of the dozen or so programs where I've interviewed, it is the hardest working program I've seen. Residents, during both the rotation and the interview, universally felt they would like more time to read (or to have a life), and I was told their board scores may not be as high as other programs that allowed more time to study. There are no CRNAs here (although I've been told they are considering hiring 1-2 to help out), so this is a "learning thru working" type of program. The philosophy is that anesthesiology is a physician endeavour and that having it be an all-physician department improved their reputation/respect within the hospital. One of my interviewers discussed this at length. In my brief experience, I felt there was a good relationship btwn surgery and anesthesiology.

On the didactic end of things, there are lectures 1-2/week, with grand rounds Qmonday. There are separate lectures for CA1/2s and CA3s, I believe. On the interview day, they showed us a very nice VA with simulator and airway labs, but this is not unique to Stanford.

I just joined this thing because I keep seeing so many incorrect and misleading statements on here. I am about to be boarded in another area of medicine and I have interviewed at most of the top places for anesthesia so I feel I can be of help to some people.

When I looked at Stanford the main impression I left with was that it is malignant. I know this because I am a senior resident in another area of medicine and know what to look for. The day I interviewed, the other applicants who were med students had no idea what to look for or the questions to ask about. You guys really should look at this sort of stuff closely because it does matter. Good luck with your decisions.

Anesthesia1, it might be helpful for us if you would share what it was that gave you the impression that Stanford was malignant. It might be more helpful yet if you would share with us, as you put it, "what to look for or the questions to ask about." I sorta feel like vague, unsupported statements don't carry as much weight as details.

I'd also be really interested in others' opinions about Stanford. Anybody else have negative feelings about their experience there? I liked it -- but they seemed to work hard. Can't remember hours specifically, but I remember the residents saying they felt they could use some more reading time.

What exactly is so malignant about the program? Its frightening what kinds of things can get perpetuated on forums, without any substantiation.

anesthesia1 said:

I just joined this thing because I keep seeing so many incorrect and misleading statements on here. I am about to be boarded in another area of medicine and I have interviewed at most of the top places for anesthesia so I feel I can be of help to some people.

When I looked at Stanford the main impression I left with was that it is malignant. I know this because I am a senior resident in another area of medicine and know what to look for. The day I interviewed, the other applicants who were med students had no idea what to look for or the questions to ask about. You guys really should look at this sort of stuff closely because it does matter. Good luck with your decisions.

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i think what he is trying to say is stanford is his first choice so stay away. In reality the easiest program I interviewed at worked around 60-65 hours and the "most malig." worked 65-70. So I don't think this is much of a difference and I interviewed at most the big name places on the east and west coast including stanford.

IV Doc said:

i think what he is trying to say is stanford is his first choice so stay away. In reality the easiest program I interviewed at worked around 60-65 hours and the "most malig." worked 65-70. So I don't think this is much of a difference and I interviewed at most the big name places on the east and west coast including stanford.

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Hehe. Thats what I thought too when I read it.

IV Doc said:

i think what he is trying to say is stanford is his first choice so stay away. In reality the easiest program I interviewed at worked around 60-65 hours and the "most malig." worked 65-70. So I don't think this is much of a difference and I interviewed at most the big name places on the east and west coast including stanford.

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i dont think people are as worried about the exact hours...more so what the residents "feel" the hours are like...i loved Stanford but the residents felts they worked very hard...I also loved UCLA and UCSD and the residents felt the had great hours...etc etc

I would agree with King Y....when I was at Stanford I had attendings basically tell me, look, we think of this program as very hard working, and if that's something that turns you off, you shouldn't rank it #1...that said, it is certainly NOT malignant IMO. Malignant implies morale problems, personality issues, lack of trust, etc...no sign that any of that is going on there. They just work hard, and the way I see it that translates to an excellent training.

An extra 5 hours a week is not going to make or break a program for me.