I have avoided peeking at the others to provide my own unbiased take. This is my last review (yay!) so I am trying to make it good.
University of Maryland Emergency Medicine
Residents: 14 residents in the intern class, coming from everywhere in the country. MD was everyone's first choice. About half were married, some with kids. They have a great sense of humor and seem to love each other alot. The first month of thes residency is spent together in the ED and in orientation so this enhances bonding. The resident's get great jobs and fellowships.
Faculty: Lots of greats, here. This is an award-winning faculty with lots of power all over the university. In particular, Dr. Mattu is very well respected and won PD of the year in 2006. He stresses leadership development and has worked very hard on the curriculum to TEACH you how to be a leader. He also regularly surveys his recent grads to see what they would have liked to see more or less of during residency, and modifies the program accordingly. He is very kind and down to earth. Dr. Browne, the chairman, is very generous in terms of funding multiple parties and is well-liked.
Hospital: Training occurs primarily at the University of Maryland, with trauma experience at the famous Maryland Shock-Trauma.
University of Maryland - an academic center with about 40 beds and 15 peds for a separate ED). When I visited, it wasn't packed (some empty rooms, no people in the hall beds), but it gets 50K visits per yr with 20% acuity. Documentation is via T-sheets. It is NOT a peds trauma center. The ED is very nice and modern looking.
Shock - Trauma - All traumas screened by the trauma line come through here. 14 trauma bays with its own OR, CT scan, and blood bank that receive a crazy amount of adult traumas. You start running traumas as an intern, and often EM comprises the majority of the shock-trauma teacm. People also come from all over to rotate on shock trauma. Since many were stealing the cool scrubs that said "shock trauma center", they changed the label to "STC" and made the scrubs a see-through pink color
.
You also rotate at mercy, which uses dictated records.
Ancillary Stuff: As with many places, great ancillary services, you won't have to do any wheeling people around, starting IVs, or making your own phone calls. They say the RNs have a good relationship with the residents and are on a first name basis. In fact, on first Tuesdays the RNs, residents, and faculty all go out for buffalo wings at the local pub.
Admitting: To medicine at least. I think UE knows.
Curriculum: There are NO floor months, mainly ICU and ED. In addition to the shock-truma rotation, you do trauma anesthesiology, trauma radiology, and trauma US (all what they sound like). Seniors will run the whole adult ED and peds ED on separate rotations like a junior attending. Ped EM rotations are also being sprinkled throughout the 3rd year to ensure you're fresh on kids when you leave. Hours are 18 12hr shifts as an intern and 14-17 12 hr shifts as an attending (per Dr. Mattu, many employers prefer this).
Didactics: WOW!!! This is the best didactics I have ever seen!!!
No textbook, all reading is cutting edge review articles. Core curriculum includes cases, tox, peds, rads, ekg, but also geriatric EM, critical care, risk management, and joint EM/IM and EM/Peds conferences since they have both combos available. There are also procedure labs with lots of fresh cadavers along with sim. Maybe the best features are the professional development (including job hunting, finances, leadership courses, conflict management, and wellness) and board review series (Nov-Feb is dedicated board review didactics). All this has lead to a higher than average board pass rate, as well as a number of excellent grads who kick butt in academics.
Research/Fellowships: Strong clinical and one basic science/translational researcher. They stress that many of their faculty are devoted more to teaching than research, however. No research requirment, though 30-40% of residents end up doing original research for their scholarly project. Residents get first dibs on fellowships, which include EMS, critical care/truma, hyperbarics, and research. International opportunities in honduras, S. Africa, Mayalsia, India, Bali, Malaysia, and China, etc, abound.
Perks: Lots of parties! An orientation crab feast, Orioles game (they don't staff any games, tho), sailing competition, December holiday party, spring lobster feast, and 1st Tuesday wing nights are only some of the ED-sponsored activities. All interns get a PDA, EM textbook, and all memberships, and seniors go to ACEP. You can moonlight with a few provisos but few choose to do so.
City: Baltimore is a mid-sized town "with the charm of the North and the efficiency of the South", as I was told by a resident. On my way in, I saw a bench that said, "Baltimore: the greatest city in America" (a trauma surgeon appended that statement with "for trauma"
. Seriously, it's no New York and will probably be the murder capital of the world again but it boasts a decent cost of living, good seafood, adn the waterfront.
Negatives: Some residents complained that they have to call consultants for many things a community doc wouldn't have to and have to fight for reductions, etc with ortho. There is also little structure to the anesthesia rotation (you just show up and wander around begging), and your US scans don't count (you have to have rads repeat them).
Overall: A program with an outstanding reputation, innovative curriculum, wonderful faculty, and a winning personality in a medium-sized city that keeps the trauma coming. I was extremely impressed by this program and would be happy to train here.