Wake Forest Residency Reviews

Hey there, just thought I would post another review for fun or to see what folks think. I'll try to follow the template somewhat.

Wake Forest

Residents: OK, so when I was there (I didn't go to the dinner), all the folks I met were guys. I wasn't sure if I just hadn't met the girls, but I checked their website and found that the program is about 17% female (!!!) - forgive me if my math sucks but I think that's right. Also 2 female attendings out of 19 total. zoinks! So this program felt a bit male-dominated to me. Also, I was totally out of my element there, all the residents seemed to be either from the south or very comfortable with the southern culture, which I was not. I couldn't add much to the conversation about NASCAR, barbecue, football, basketball, and fried stuff (fried pickles? fried "snicker bars"??). Lunch was at a diner-ish type of place where I ate a fried pickle myself, didn't like it much. Well, I will try not to belabor the point but basically I just felt I didn't fit in there. They were all nice people though!

Shifts: 8 hour shifts, which I like.

Facilities: The facilities are just fine. I thought the hospital was very nice, had some quite pretty parts to it. Cute peds ED. AWESOME electronic med records setup. I love good electronic record setups. They also rotate at a community ED called Forsyth that I believe the Baptist Medical Center just bought.

Peds: See peds throughout all months, which I think is the main important point. They also do peds wards and PICU, and 6 months total in the peds ED.

Trauma: it's a level 1 trauma center, you do trauma in 1st year and 3rd year, but in 3rd year it's just consults to the ED and none of the bad stuff. They are a certified chest pain and stroke center, which is probably a good thing.

Faculty: Really liked the faculty. Highly professional. Did a great job of selling the program. I enjoyed my interviews with them, they had a very academic feel. Only thing was that they were all men.

Curriculum: I mentioned some of it already. They have it down to a science because of being such an old program, I think that is a big strength of theirs. It's a 3 year revolving curriculum for didactics. They have a disaster medicine elective and a disaster response team, plus opportunities in tactical medicine. All are plusses to me. The program seemed very concerned with quality review type of stuff, which I think is important. They do the monthlong orientation to start with, another plus.

Patient population: runs the spectrum.

Location: Winston-Salem is a bigger city than I pictured! Not that it is big in the scheme of things, but I was picturing a tiny, dusty city in the back woods. There is a VERY affordable neighborhood right next to the hospital. Cheap houses to be had, which is awesome. The city didn't seem dead culture-wise, they have some arts connections and theater. In terms of restaurants it looked like by and large 'family' and 'American' fare (what we ate for lunch basically), which is disappointing to a foodie like me. But there were a few scattered ethnic places.

Summary: This program is such a great program. I think they do an amazing job with education. I was very impressed that they were in the top 10% in the nation in scores on the ABEM inservice and a 100% written pass rate for the past 5 years. Internal and external moonlighting allowed after internship. Standard benefits plus a PDA, I believe.

Loved this program, but felt like I didn't fit in. How sad! I don't know what this means for my rank list. On one hand I figure you can find 'your type' of people anywhere, and I'd make my way despite the culture shock. On the other hand every program has been telling me to go with my gut about where I fit in. So I'm very torn about how to rank this program. I suppose I'll put it in the middle somewhere.

Below are my biased short reviews:

Maine Med: +good residents, lots of camaraderie, cushy number of shifts, do lots of stuff in the ED (do not consult as much), lots of ED time as opposed to offservice, lots of outdoor opportunities in area
-not too much pen trauma, fair blunt, cold winters, small program, homogeneous population

U Mass: +good residents, very nice ED, well respected residents, good research, Hawaii elective, awesome helicopter experience, good reputation in area, great ultrasound
-hard to switch shifts, some unhappiness with residents, seemed like residents stay 1-3 hours after shifts for cleanup

Baystate: +work less than allmost anywhere else, good blunt trauma, good patient mix, very little offservice
-residents did not seem strong, faculty I interviewed with seemed disinterested, cramped department, city sucks and lots of residents live far away in nice town, bad ultrasound

OHSU: +very nice hospital, good research, cool city, residents were friendly
-small program, go to lots of different hospitals because primary does not see enough variety, residents did not seem strong

Carolinas: +great teaching, great research, awesome facilities, strong off service, good ICU experience, great reputation, strong residents
-lots of off service months, city not exactly what I expected

ECU:+strong residents, good teaching, nice department, great patient population, good reputation
-electronic records seem poorly implemented, city is very undesirable for some people

Wake Forest: +good teaching, good facilities, strong residents, good US
-Winston-Salem shuts down on Sundays

Christiana: +good residents, huge department, good records, good patient population, great benefits, nice facility, good teaching, very little off service, great ICU experience, great ultrasound
-area may not suit some

U Conn: +nice PD, nice facilities, good relationships with trauma
-area,

Duke: +New PD seems awesome, nice hospital, would be a good area to live in,good teaching
-not enough electives

I'll post this caveat before each of my reviews: I'm not really a numbers person, so I don't really remember all the details like annual number of patients seen, board pass rates, etc. etc. So, forgive me if some of my details are slightly off and feel free to correct them.

Residents: A lot of residents came out to dinner the night before the interview, but by some strange coincidence, there were no women. As a matter of fact, I only saw one female resident the whole time. The guys I ate dinner with seemed nice enough, but it wasn't the friendliest group I'd met. I really had to drive the conversation among the 4 or 5 seated around me, though they chatted among themselves just fine.

Faculty: The chair of the department was very professional and seemed to have been doing this a long time. I liked my interview with him. The other interviews not so much. I don't think 2 of the interviewers, including the PD, had read my file. They didn't know some very basic stuff from my CV. Also, the PD asked me a question that was, I wouldn't say inappropriate, but it got a little close to rude. I also got a kind of snide remark from another of the interviewers.

Here's the thing: I'm not a super-sensitive person and I don't get offended easily at all, but this interview experience kind of turned me off.

Curriculum: Fairly standard. Lots of electives. I tried to ask about international rotations, but the PD didn't seem to really want to talk about them.

Location: Winston-Salem seemed like a decent enough small city. But I love that part of the country. Close to the mountains. Not far from the ocean. I love North Carolina.

Overall: I didn't have a great interview experience and I wasn't too impressed with the residents. Everything else seemed fairly standard. The location was the best part.

This is a couples' match list...if it were just me, my list would likely look pretty different. Some programs would have been higher on the list (especially Cinci), but Vandy definitely would still have been my #1.

I interviewed at 18 programs, and ranked all 18. This ROL is obviously just my (and my fiance's) opinion- no offense to anyone is intended. It was really helpful for me to look through ROLs from past years, so I thought I should reciprocate by posting mine.

I felt so fortunate to get to interview at these programs and honestly thought each of them had notable strengths. The couples match certainly complicates things (and requires LOTS of negotiation) but luckily I feel like I would be happy at a lot of these places.

Let me know if you have any questions about my list or the programs I visited. I'm happy to give my advice/thoughts to next year's applicants too- just message me!

1) Vandy: I am absolutely in love with this program. Love the faculty, love the Chair and PD, love the residents. It's one of the most resident-centric programs I have seen, with the best teaching in the country. Very busy ED with so many critical care patients. Tons of trauma because of huge cachement area; great relationship with trauma surg. Curriculum extremely well thought-out, including no floor months. Residents are very close and are amazing people. Very diverse patient population (tertiary care, uninsured/underinsured, bread and butter EM, peds, immigrants). Nashville is a really fun city, great COL, easy to live right by the hospital. Grads go anywhere in the country they want. This program has everything I want.

2) UCLA-Olive View: Truly amazing PD who has the residents over to his incredible house (and he was the medical director for the show ER- I thought that was pretty cool), and distinguished faculty. Well thought-out integration of county and tertiary care experience. Ronald Reagan is an incredible facility, and Olive View is a nice little hospital that has a new ED opening this April. Program curriculum is "front-heavy" (easier 3rd and 4th years), which I liked. Intern year is getting much better every year- there will be 6 months of EM during intern year 2011-2012 and fewer medicine/surgery ward months. PD described the program as a "liberal arts EM program," which I thought was an apt description and a pretty neat concept. Amazing international opportunities and a lot of elective time. My Spanish is mediocre at best, and that seems pretty essential (especially at Olive View). Trauma not as extensive as at other LA area programs. COL high and lots of commuting in nasty LA traffic.

3) UNC: Residents were very happy and welcoming. I really liked the dual hospital system. I went back to do a second look and shadowed at both hospitals, which only served to increase my enthusiasm about their way of training. Of course, it does result in a lot of commuting but the traffic isn't bad so that didn't bother me. Amazing PD who is an outstanding teacher and very supportive of the residents. Program produces very well-trained EPs who also have satisfying personal lives. I love the location and the COL. Great moonlighting opportunities. Medicine and surgery ward months intern year (but at WakeMed so relatively laid-back). Not as much trauma as some other programs. Duke is obviously nearby so there is some division of patient populations, but I felt that was made up for by the WakeMed experience.

4) Highland: This is a well-known program that I felt lived up to its strong reputation. Faculty and residents are all very laid-back and fun. Strong family feel. A lot of the faculty trained at Highland (which may be a negative), but of course they stayed on faculty because they love it so much there. GI rounds TID seem like a great idea. Not an "official" Level 1 trauma center but there is none in the county, so serves as the de facto trauma center and see a lot of trauma. Not a stroke center, so do a month of neuro at UCSF. Amazing U/S experience. Peds is not integrated (no peds beds in HGH). Highest salary I saw on the trail (because they are unionized). Tahoe ski cabin sounds like fun. Sounds like they have everything worked out in regard to UCSF's EM program, but still made me a tiny tiny bit nervous.

5) BIDMC: The 3+1 (Junior attending year) is an amazing opportunity that I was very excited about. The curriculum is very well thought-out with a clear graduated responsibility. Rotate through 5 "affiliate" hospitals (community sites), which seems like a good experience to see how different systems work. Amazing EMR. Peds not integrated. Trauma pretty good but obviously there are a lot of hospitals (including four Level 1 trauma centers) in Boston. Relatively new program (10ish years) but has established itself extremely well. Had a great feeling about this program on the interview day and it was initially higher on my list; in the end, I decided that Boston is not at all ideal for me and that's what pushed it down the list a bit.

6) LA County: Another program that was initially much higher on my list. I was in awe of this program during the entire interview day. Very sick patients and a lot of trauma, in which EM has a huge role (they do essentially all procedures). EM also manages airways during codes on the floors (which at most other places is done by anesthesia or MICU)- I thought that was cool. Residents were really fun people and amazingly impressive. Work 12s all four years (except on peds). Facilities are amazing but very much divided up into pods. Not as many academic opportunities as a lot of other programs I looked at. This place, in my opinion, provides the best clinical training in the county but wasn't the best fit for my career aspirations and personal life once I got over the "sexiness" of the amazing clinical experience. Location also not ideal for me personally.

7) Wake Forest: I love this place. PD and Chair were both very enthusiastic. Very well-established (30 years old) program with a long history of producing great EPs. Residents were very family-oriented. Very busy ED, which pleasantly surprised me. Loved the city (can get an amazing house for very little money) but it did feel a bit isolated.

8) Emory: So many faculty, and a lot of them are really well known in EM. Increasing focus on research- get a lot of NIH funding. Grady is Grady- tons of trauma (only Level 1 in Atlanta). Hugely busy, exciting ED. Patient population at Grady not very diverse- primarily African American. ED divided into red (surgery/trauma) and blue (medical) pods. Residents were very diverse and most were single. Atlanta is amazing but of course the traffic sucks and it's relatively expensive. I expected to like the program more than I did, but I got a weird vibe on interview day. It was probably just me, though!

9) Indianapolis: LOVED this program but in the end the location just wasn't going to work well. Residents were incredible- really sociable, welcoming, and proud of their program. Outstanding clinical experience, with time split between Wishard (county) and Methodist (tertiary care). Residents have a huge role in their program (49% ownership) which I thought was amazing. Very much a team attitude. In ICUs, work one-on-one with CC-trained EM faculty- so a great experience. Residents were more regional than I had expected for a nationally well-known program.

10) BWH/MGH: Strong academic program. Well-known faculty and lots of research opportunities. Felt like this was a great place to jump-start a career in academics. Lots of elective time. Program grads are highly recruited and go wherever they want after training. From talking to the residents, seems like they do fewer procedures than most other programs I looked at. Also, medicine and surgery ward months. Residents said they felt a bit "looked down on" by other residency programs at the hospitals, for what that's worth. I'm not a fan of Boston.

11) UAB: Their PD is awesome. Very responsive program leadership. The residents are pretty Southern and a lot of them have kids. Great lifestyle. Do LOTS of moonlighting. 10-year old program but feels like it's been around longer (that's a good thing). Birmingham was a very pleasant surprise. Great physical set-up of the ED. Very impressed by the program but realized as interview season progressed that I wanted a place that produces more academicians.

12) Wash U: Very busy ED. Great elective opportunities. Strong off-service rotations, but lots of ward stuff 1st year. Division status (I asked about this and the program leadership said it's not an issue). Didn't really care for St. Louis.

13) Cincinnati: LOVED this program- would have been among my top few programs, but my fiancé really disliked it for his specialty. Oh well.

14) UVA: Very nice program leadership, good reputation. Relatively low volume (although also smaller class so it works out.) Not much trauma. I didn't really click with the residents. City was too small and isolated for me. Great program but not a good fit for me.

15) Michigan: Awesome program. Love the PD. Survival Flight sounds great, as does the trauma experience in Flint. I didn't really click with the residents. The main problem for me was the location. I just don't think I could tolerate those winters- I almost crashed my car about 5 times just while I was up there interviewing.

16) Duke: I thought the PD was incredible and the faculty were very impressive. Residents were nice but seemed pretty guy-dominated. The program seems to be still fighting some battles. Wasn't a good fit for me.

17) Louisville: Had a really weird interview day, in my opinion. I found the group interviews to be awkward. Relatively low volume ED but lots of trauma. Not what I was looking for, but it had a lot to offer.

18) Harbor: This one was a surprise. Very well known program with great pathology and amazing faculty, but not a good fit for me. I personally don't want to have to deal with the transition from 3 to 4 years and the move to a new physical ED. I greatly preferred USC-LAC, but that's obviously just me and it's good that not everyone loves the same program!

Very established (one of the oldest) programs.
Positives: PD- This is almost a negative for me actually, just cause I didn't really jive with him and we don't have much in common, but that being said, he obviously takes resident training very seriously, the residents all like him a lot, and I have no doubts I would receive top caliber training from him. Residents- All of the residents seemed happy and I felt like I got along with most all of them very well. By a quick glance at the website they all seemed to really like the outdoors, but honestly I didn't get a super strong feeling of this while I was their but probably just random from the residents I met. Faculty- I really enjoyed my interviews here. A few serious questions, but for the most part layed back as per usual with EM interviews. One attending really seemed to love the outdoors which we talked about a lot and I really felt like he would be a great guy to work with and learn from. Winston Salem- Again, I really loved this city. That being said, im not looking for to much nightlife honestly, which I hear is pretty weak here. Im more looking for a town with lots to do on days off such as hiking/biking/etc. Great cost of living and highest salary I saw on the trail. Curriculum- Seemed great
Negatives: As I mentioned, I didn't jive really well with the PD, he seemed a little too serious or something, can't put my finger on it honestly. Nightlife- if your into that, then your probably not going to find much here from what I gather. Also seemed like they did a lot of charting after shifts…. Or maybe its just the only place the question was brought up, not sure but not a game changer for sure. Didn't get a feel about off-service one way or the other.

Iride said:

Very established (one of the oldest) programs.
Positives: PD- This is almost a negative for me actually, just cause I didn’t really jive with him and we don’t have much in common, but that being said, he obviously takes resident training very seriously, the residents all like him a lot, and I have no doubts I would receive top caliber training from him. Residents- All of the residents seemed happy and I felt like I got along with most all of them very well. By a quick glance at the website they all seemed to really like the outdoors, but honestly I didn’t get a super strong feeling of this while I was their but probably just random from the residents I met. Faculty- I really enjoyed my interviews here. A few serious questions, but for the most part layed back as per usual with EM interviews. One attending really seemed to love the outdoors which we talked about a lot and I really felt like he would be a great guy to work with and learn from. Winston Salem- Again, I really loved this city. That being said, im not looking for to much nightlife honestly, which I hear is pretty weak here. Im more looking for a town with lots to do on days off such as hiking/biking/etc. Great cost of living and highest salary I saw on the trail. Curriculum- Seemed great
Negatives: As I mentioned, I didn’t jive really well with the PD, he seemed a little too serious or something, can’t put my finger on it honestly. Nightlife- if your into that, then your probably not going to find much here from what I gather. Also seemed like they did a lot of charting after shifts…. Or maybe its just the only place the question was brought up, not sure but not a game changer for sure. Didn't get a feel about off-service one way or the other.

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PD is a cool dude imho... i went to med school there (graduated several yrs ago, trained elsewhere, but he is still there). you're right that he cares a lot about the residents and the program. i got the heck out of W-S for a bigger city, but it's a great program.

update?

I'm a resident here. I've really enjoyed it so far. Most faculty members that I've worked with has been enthusiastic about teaching. The three classes are pretty close and hang out a lot. PD is super supportive and makes sure that we have all the things we need to be successful.

I've been on several off-service rotations at this point and have enjoyed them for the most part. Some services are extremely busy, but everyone seems genuinely happy in the other programs at the hospital.

If I can give any advice about choosing who you rank highly, try to take into account how happy everyone seems where you're interviewing at. Residency is hard in a different way from medical school. You will work a lot and every day you learn something that you didn't know or forgot (at least I do anyway) and how well you fit in with the people you're working with will make all the difference in December/January of intern year when you're looking at another 6 months of a steep learning curve. I can say that at least for me, Wake Forest has been great.

Have some questions about this program... if there is anyone I can PM please let me know

quickfeet said:

Have some questions about this program... if there is anyone I can PM please let me know

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Please quit the worthless post

Hi, since it’s been some time since the last major update, can someone familiar with the program (preferably a current resident or recent grad) comment on the following?

• What are the average number and length of shifts (I think I'm remembering correctly that they do 8H shifts) per month for each PGY year? Is there enough time to pursue academic/professional/extracurricular interests?
  
  
• Are shifts stratified by acuity (e.g., “trauma” shift or “resuscitative” shift), or is the entire spectrum of pathology/trauma seen on each shift?
  
  
• Who runs the trauma, EM or surgery residents, or is it an alternating schedule?
  
  
• Who does the emergency procedures (intubations, chest tubes, resuscitative thoracotomies, etc), is it shared with anesthesia/surgery residents based on an alternating schedule?
  
  
• Are there any emergency procedures that EM residents are not allowed to do (RSI, thoracotomies)?
  
  
• Is there frequent commuting between off-site locations (not including the dedicated training blocks)?
  
  
• How is the scut work for EM and non-EM months (e.g., transporting own pts to CT, obtaining vitals)?
• How well do the resident classes get along, and is it really as bad as some folks say for single people?

Thanks so much for your time and contribution.