WARNING: abusive hem/onc fellowship (washington university in st louis)

I have personal experience with this particular institution...haven't been there for a couple of years. My experience was the place is very high-powered and there are a lot of aggressive, ambitious people there. Some will throw you under the bus to try to advance themselves. This seems similar to a handful of other similar large, academic med centers I've come into contact with. I knew some hem/onc fellows while I was there, and didn't notice the hem/onc division being any rougher or more malignant than other departments. I actually know a couple of the attendings were awesome...however, I realize there are many different attendings at a place like that, so perhaps things have changed.

dam !! i hate when people are mean to others just because they have the power!
😡

I am not sure what happened to the original post but I have investigated the matter a little further. I can't confirm everything stated in the original warning but I can tell you that this division is known to be particularly toxic/malignant at wash u. It is true that there is a ton of hidden call which amounts to over 180 days of home call in the first year alone, with much more call during upper year rotations if you choose to double-board on a clinical track. I also can confirm that one of the first year fellows has already resigned. I think it's fair to warn applicants to really ask a lot of questions during the interview here, especially about 'hidden' call on a night-by-night rotation-by-rotation basis, to determine if the program is truly making efforts to change from the current paradigm.

ziggy783 said:

I am not sure what happened to the original post but I have investigated the matter a little further. I can't confirm everything stated in the original warning but I can tell you that this division is known to be particularly toxic/malignant at wash u. It is true that there is a ton of hidden call which amounts to over 180 days of home call in the first year alone, with much more call during upper year rotations if you choose to double-board on a clinical track. I also can confirm that one of the first year fellows has already resigned. I think it's fair to warn applicants to really ask a lot of questions during the interview here, especially about 'hidden' call on a night-by-night rotation-by-rotation basis, to determine if the program is truly making efforts to change from the current paradigm.

Click to expand...

🙁 damn scary!

Guys, keep in mind that we can see IP addresses. If you want to complain about a program, feel free to do so in a professional manner. There is no need to create second accounts to say the same thing.

That being said, my personal rule about complaints is: if you bring a complaint to the table, you'd better damn well bring your suggestions on how to improve it.

Well, better to have home call than in house call 🙂
Anyway, I think it's important to remember one thing about these types of programs (Duke, UCSF, Wash U, etc.)- you can pretty much assume that with most (maybe not all, but definitely most) of these type places you are going to get worked harder than you would at a smaller, less intense hospital that's not ranked up high on some US news and World Report hospital or med school survey. These places want to keep up their big reputations so they want the trainees to do more - put out more publications, get bigger/better scores on inservice exams or board exams, etc. and their hospitals to take on the sickest patients, and a lot of them. This means the trainees generally have to work harder than at some other hospitals. I'm not saying I know for sure whether the WashU onc program is malignant vs. not, I can only say the faculty I knew there weren't particularly malignant vs. other departments @that hospital.

anyone else think its funny talking about 'benign' or 'malignant' heme onc programs? 😀