- Joined
- Jun 8, 2005
- Messages
- 944
- Reaction score
- 9
I thought that this program was better than average but unfortunately I saw it less than 12 hours after I had just left Indy. I made the drive over on I-74 about 3 hours west in moderate snowfall, and met them residents at a seafood place on the Illinois river in east Peoria. Now I must say, this group of residents was much easier to get to know than virtually any group I had met thus far. We were all sitting down and throwing back cold pale ales within the first 30 seconds and it was like we had known each other our whole lives. A couple of the applicants though made it painfully obvious that this interview was for them nothing more than a backup for all the Chicago programs they really wanted to go to. They were just a bit snobbish and thus it just let me have more fun with the residents one on one.
They put me in a free hotel and did not require me to show up until 10AM. For this alone I should rank them very high!!! They have a very nice program director, and faculty, and they have a long record of training great EM docs and have tons of research among them. It really felt like a small program in a small town, which is nice for many types of applicants. They have an average ED which is a little cramped, and their facilities are scattered among several city blocks where you have to be a map writer to be competent enough to make it from one place to the next. We had a 2nd year touring us who admitted he still gets turned around. Their flight system seems to be good but after just coming from Indy I felt there was little comparrison. But we all have top be realistic and understand that Indy has 17 spots, and if all 2000 EM applicants interviewed there, probably half would rank it top. And so I think it is very relevant for future people who read this thread to make darn sure you have some good-to-excellent programs in your top 3 so that when you don't get the "exceptional" program, you have others to fall back on. I was very impressed with the fact that 2 of the residents flat out told me that they had ranked Peoria 2nd. One had ranked Mayo higher, and the other had ranked Maine higher. One had some ties to Peoria but the other did not, and thus I think it says a lot that he ranked it second. Its the kind of place that I think ends up on most everyone's rank list right after the "incredible" programs. And incredible means different things for different people. I have heard some people talk bad about the way Indy runs its program, but for me it is exceptional.
They have 3 helicopters, and they are staffed by a doc/nurse most of the time, but not always. I think their flight program is above average for sure since they fly all three years, and they fly 2 shifts per month which count as their EM shifts as well. And the number and type of shifts they work in Peoria make is extremely attractive. I love that they work 10 hour shifts weekly and 12's on the weekend. They end up with a 3 day weekend and a 2 day weekend every month on their EM service, and they still get 4 more days or so off sometime during the month. They only work like 19-18-18 shifts a month all 3 years.
I really got no feeling about didactics though. They were not really talked about too much. But they do have journal club at faculty homes monthly and after the talk they seem to turn into big pool parties and fun. These people all get along incredibly well and I think Peoria is one of the most livable cities in all the US. You can live 10 minutes from the hospital on an acre of land with a 2000 sqft home for less than 150-200K. And if you just want a home, you can buy a monstrous home for very cheap.
Off service rotations seem to be fine without any real scut. They simply can the rotations that turn into scut and add something different. There is a great deal of faculty support in this respect. The one last weird thing I should mention that might be a plus or a minus to you depending on your experience with it is that this is a Catholic hospital system. It is huge, and seems to be completely run by "the sisters" as everyone refers to them. So I had this feeling that I might get my knuckles slapped with a ruler if I cursed or said something too out of religious line
Its both good and bad from what one resident told me. He said it keeps faculty from EVER treating residents in any way other than a professional way, and that there is zero tolerance for ANYONE who violates such. That said, he got written up for yelling at a nurse during a code 
....so it goes both ways. I don;t think you would have a problem unless you abused medical students and nurses...but you know some people just have to manners!!
Also, this place is a huge tertiary/quaternary receiving center and a level I, and has a huge medical school here that supplies an endless stream of med students to help you on many different services. To me this is important because I like to teach. Their board pass rate is high as well. Oh, and their benefits: The highest pay I have seen on the trail at 45-46-47K for 3 years. But if you have a family, the premiums alone run you 200 bucks a month to cover everyone under the hospital HMO and would be much much more if you wanted a PPO. But you would need nothing more than this network I can assure you!
Overall, I give this program a good grade and would be nothing less than happy if I ended up there. I think the main thing when you make your rank list is to make sure you do not include programs on it that would have you unhappy at them. I would certainly prefer to be at a program like this one than one in a major/expensive city, but that is just me speaking as a father and someone who loaths traffic and congestion.
Summary: Better than average flight program, great residents, laid back med school environement, laid back faculty and PD, small town feel, above average pay, low cost of living and a great schedule. I venture to say this place has very little that we don't all put down as acceptable for where we want to end up. Its definitely worth checking out and although you probably won't rank it above a Hennepin or a Cook county if you are the typical young single midwesterner, you will definitely be surprised at how high you will want to rank it compared to what you thought you would rank it before you interviewed. Good solid B+ maybe even A- program.
They put me in a free hotel and did not require me to show up until 10AM. For this alone I should rank them very high!!! They have a very nice program director, and faculty, and they have a long record of training great EM docs and have tons of research among them. It really felt like a small program in a small town, which is nice for many types of applicants. They have an average ED which is a little cramped, and their facilities are scattered among several city blocks where you have to be a map writer to be competent enough to make it from one place to the next. We had a 2nd year touring us who admitted he still gets turned around. Their flight system seems to be good but after just coming from Indy I felt there was little comparrison. But we all have top be realistic and understand that Indy has 17 spots, and if all 2000 EM applicants interviewed there, probably half would rank it top. And so I think it is very relevant for future people who read this thread to make darn sure you have some good-to-excellent programs in your top 3 so that when you don't get the "exceptional" program, you have others to fall back on. I was very impressed with the fact that 2 of the residents flat out told me that they had ranked Peoria 2nd. One had ranked Mayo higher, and the other had ranked Maine higher. One had some ties to Peoria but the other did not, and thus I think it says a lot that he ranked it second. Its the kind of place that I think ends up on most everyone's rank list right after the "incredible" programs. And incredible means different things for different people. I have heard some people talk bad about the way Indy runs its program, but for me it is exceptional.
They have 3 helicopters, and they are staffed by a doc/nurse most of the time, but not always. I think their flight program is above average for sure since they fly all three years, and they fly 2 shifts per month which count as their EM shifts as well. And the number and type of shifts they work in Peoria make is extremely attractive. I love that they work 10 hour shifts weekly and 12's on the weekend. They end up with a 3 day weekend and a 2 day weekend every month on their EM service, and they still get 4 more days or so off sometime during the month. They only work like 19-18-18 shifts a month all 3 years.
I really got no feeling about didactics though. They were not really talked about too much. But they do have journal club at faculty homes monthly and after the talk they seem to turn into big pool parties and fun. These people all get along incredibly well and I think Peoria is one of the most livable cities in all the US. You can live 10 minutes from the hospital on an acre of land with a 2000 sqft home for less than 150-200K. And if you just want a home, you can buy a monstrous home for very cheap.
Off service rotations seem to be fine without any real scut. They simply can the rotations that turn into scut and add something different. There is a great deal of faculty support in this respect. The one last weird thing I should mention that might be a plus or a minus to you depending on your experience with it is that this is a Catholic hospital system. It is huge, and seems to be completely run by "the sisters" as everyone refers to them. So I had this feeling that I might get my knuckles slapped with a ruler if I cursed or said something too out of religious line
Its both good and bad from what one resident told me. He said it keeps faculty from EVER treating residents in any way other than a professional way, and that there is zero tolerance for ANYONE who violates such. That said, he got written up for yelling at a nurse during a code ....so it goes both ways. I don;t think you would have a problem unless you abused medical students and nurses...but you know some people just have to manners!!Also, this place is a huge tertiary/quaternary receiving center and a level I, and has a huge medical school here that supplies an endless stream of med students to help you on many different services. To me this is important because I like to teach. Their board pass rate is high as well. Oh, and their benefits: The highest pay I have seen on the trail at 45-46-47K for 3 years. But if you have a family, the premiums alone run you 200 bucks a month to cover everyone under the hospital HMO and would be much much more if you wanted a PPO. But you would need nothing more than this network I can assure you!
Overall, I give this program a good grade and would be nothing less than happy if I ended up there. I think the main thing when you make your rank list is to make sure you do not include programs on it that would have you unhappy at them. I would certainly prefer to be at a program like this one than one in a major/expensive city, but that is just me speaking as a father and someone who loaths traffic and congestion.
Summary: Better than average flight program, great residents, laid back med school environement, laid back faculty and PD, small town feel, above average pay, low cost of living and a great schedule. I venture to say this place has very little that we don't all put down as acceptable for where we want to end up. Its definitely worth checking out and although you probably won't rank it above a Hennepin or a Cook county if you are the typical young single midwesterner, you will definitely be surprised at how high you will want to rank it compared to what you thought you would rank it before you interviewed. Good solid B+ maybe even A- program.
