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Okay, since J2B requested it:
Please don't ignore the "official" interview feedback area, but here's a chance to perhaps expand on things, and present a little more fully the impressions of each place.
Arkansas
Overall impression: I really liked this program
Residents: Very heavy from the Southeast, and they do tend to retain quite a few of their own students (which in my opinion is a positive thing). This was my second interview, took place in mid November, so still pretty early in the season too, but the residents here have stood out as being the most outgoing, and the most frequent askers of "do you have any other questions". Having only interviewed at my home program prior, I was pretty unprepared. I think there were 6 or 7 residents at the dinner the night before and then another 5 or 6 that came to Lunch the next day. Biggest thing: The residents were happy.
Hospital Big, expanding, and you can tell it's a children's hospital (not just an adult hospital painted in bright colors). It is not a "new" facility, at least compared to some of the other places I'm looking. Again, they are adding more beds.
PICU was awesome. This was the first "rat farm" NICU I'd seen (all the NICU's at my home program have been built within the last 8 years and so they're built in the "villous" semi-private room format).
There are only a couple months that are not at Arkansas Children's, instead at the University Hospital. I'll have to check my notes, but I'm pretty sure it was only a NICU rotation. We did not tour the University site.
Continuity clinic is not attached to the hospital (a couple blocks away). BRAND NEW. I did not tour the location, but the pictures looked awesome. Looked like a set up you'd find in an affluent private clinic.
Call rooms and resident lounge were nice. There hasn't been a lot of variation in call rooms from place to place (what do you really need?) but these were among the best.
Interview Day Early day. They'll put you up in the Hilton, and the shuttle to ACH leaves at 7am. Program coordinator will meet you at ACH, the Department Chair will meet with the group. Go to Morning Report. Three interviews are 30 minutes each, one with the PD, one with the Chief Res, and one with a faculty member. All were laid back. Faculty spent most of the time with me "selling me". PD seemed very grandfatherly, and liked to talk, I pretty much listened. Chief's interview was about trying to get to know me. Returned to hotel at 3pm.
Curriculum
LOTS of ER time. Outpatient months are split between clinic and ED.
Benign call schedule - 3-4 overnight calls a month while on wards, due to night float system. Interns do a month of NF.
Didactics schedule varies on time of year: Early on, noon conferences are M-F as "intern lecture" series. After August, goes to W-F. PD claims it's a 2 year repeating sequence of lectures, but residents didn't seem to notice that. In May/June, it becomes a board review sequence.
7 months of electives, 5 in the third year. There are some requirements that have to be fulfilled with elective time.
There are fellows, but did not seem to be a fellow driven program. The "biggest" complaint I heard was that fellows are a little eager in the first couple months, but after those, there's little animosity. Fellows are NOT an extra layer between you and the attending.
Unique intra-program moonlighting opportunity - after completing PICU as a PL2, you can go out on transport services, doing initial stabilization and helicopter flights. I can't remember if it was $50 or $75/hour in 12 or 24 hour shifts. But b/c it's intra-program, you do have to keep below work hours, so it does limit your months you can do it.
There are lots of non-academic services to make sure that residents aren't dealing with poor learning cases.
Benefits
Don't have salary benefits in front of me, but it wasn't any sort of outlier in terms of amount. Free parking, On-call meal allowance, plus $ for keeping up on your paperwork (which surprised me). Standard library stuff including UpToDate. $400/year educational fund. Program will pay for costs to go to conferences.
Research
Not a huge deal was made about it, but there were some that did it. I don't have much in my notes about it.
Location
LR surprised me. It is one of my smaller locations, which was a concern. But overall, seemed nice. Housing costs are extremely reasonable whether renting or buying. I've looked at some of the apartment sites and it's pretty cheap (at least in my opinion). Seemed like there was enough to do socially. The residents mentioned that they hang out pretty frequently, especially the single ones - pretty common to do happy hours, and they usually go play bar trivia on Monday nights vs the Ortho residents.
Concerns
Board pass rate is only at the national average (maybe lower), including one year in the last three which was particularly poor. I think the noon conference board review series is a new entity. One of the PL3's did mention that she and several of her classmates are studying as a group on their own accord.
One resident did claim it was a "work" program, which I take to mean that the expectation is you're going to learn through patient load rather than didactics and teaching...but she was the only to label it that way. None of the other residents said anything that was similar...but on the other hand didn't push it the other direction.
Little Rock. It's not that I dislike the town, but I'm just not "sure" about it. Might go back for a second look. I'm a single guy, so my concerns are different than what might matter for someone who is married, or has kids.
Other considerations
For those with Step 1 or 2 scores >90 OR AOA membership, or a certain class rank, there is the Chairman's Scholars fund, which gives you $1500 in both the 2nd and 3rd years which can be used for any number of educational uses including saving it to pay for board review or boards cost.
There must be something in the water because there were a LOT of pregnant residents, for those who are concerned about that.
Program Coordinator was excellent and everyone loves her. Most said they would donate part of their own salary to keep her.
Please don't ignore the "official" interview feedback area, but here's a chance to perhaps expand on things, and present a little more fully the impressions of each place.
Arkansas
Overall impression: I really liked this program
Residents: Very heavy from the Southeast, and they do tend to retain quite a few of their own students (which in my opinion is a positive thing). This was my second interview, took place in mid November, so still pretty early in the season too, but the residents here have stood out as being the most outgoing, and the most frequent askers of "do you have any other questions". Having only interviewed at my home program prior, I was pretty unprepared. I think there were 6 or 7 residents at the dinner the night before and then another 5 or 6 that came to Lunch the next day. Biggest thing: The residents were happy.
Hospital Big, expanding, and you can tell it's a children's hospital (not just an adult hospital painted in bright colors). It is not a "new" facility, at least compared to some of the other places I'm looking. Again, they are adding more beds.
PICU was awesome. This was the first "rat farm" NICU I'd seen (all the NICU's at my home program have been built within the last 8 years and so they're built in the "villous" semi-private room format).
There are only a couple months that are not at Arkansas Children's, instead at the University Hospital. I'll have to check my notes, but I'm pretty sure it was only a NICU rotation. We did not tour the University site.
Continuity clinic is not attached to the hospital (a couple blocks away). BRAND NEW. I did not tour the location, but the pictures looked awesome. Looked like a set up you'd find in an affluent private clinic.
Call rooms and resident lounge were nice. There hasn't been a lot of variation in call rooms from place to place (what do you really need?) but these were among the best.
Interview Day Early day. They'll put you up in the Hilton, and the shuttle to ACH leaves at 7am. Program coordinator will meet you at ACH, the Department Chair will meet with the group. Go to Morning Report. Three interviews are 30 minutes each, one with the PD, one with the Chief Res, and one with a faculty member. All were laid back. Faculty spent most of the time with me "selling me". PD seemed very grandfatherly, and liked to talk, I pretty much listened. Chief's interview was about trying to get to know me. Returned to hotel at 3pm.
Curriculum
LOTS of ER time. Outpatient months are split between clinic and ED.
Benign call schedule - 3-4 overnight calls a month while on wards, due to night float system. Interns do a month of NF.
Didactics schedule varies on time of year: Early on, noon conferences are M-F as "intern lecture" series. After August, goes to W-F. PD claims it's a 2 year repeating sequence of lectures, but residents didn't seem to notice that. In May/June, it becomes a board review sequence.
7 months of electives, 5 in the third year. There are some requirements that have to be fulfilled with elective time.
There are fellows, but did not seem to be a fellow driven program. The "biggest" complaint I heard was that fellows are a little eager in the first couple months, but after those, there's little animosity. Fellows are NOT an extra layer between you and the attending.
Unique intra-program moonlighting opportunity - after completing PICU as a PL2, you can go out on transport services, doing initial stabilization and helicopter flights. I can't remember if it was $50 or $75/hour in 12 or 24 hour shifts. But b/c it's intra-program, you do have to keep below work hours, so it does limit your months you can do it.
There are lots of non-academic services to make sure that residents aren't dealing with poor learning cases.
Benefits
Don't have salary benefits in front of me, but it wasn't any sort of outlier in terms of amount. Free parking, On-call meal allowance, plus $ for keeping up on your paperwork (which surprised me). Standard library stuff including UpToDate. $400/year educational fund. Program will pay for costs to go to conferences.
Research
Not a huge deal was made about it, but there were some that did it. I don't have much in my notes about it.
Location
LR surprised me. It is one of my smaller locations, which was a concern. But overall, seemed nice. Housing costs are extremely reasonable whether renting or buying. I've looked at some of the apartment sites and it's pretty cheap (at least in my opinion). Seemed like there was enough to do socially. The residents mentioned that they hang out pretty frequently, especially the single ones - pretty common to do happy hours, and they usually go play bar trivia on Monday nights vs the Ortho residents.
Concerns
Board pass rate is only at the national average (maybe lower), including one year in the last three which was particularly poor. I think the noon conference board review series is a new entity. One of the PL3's did mention that she and several of her classmates are studying as a group on their own accord.
One resident did claim it was a "work" program, which I take to mean that the expectation is you're going to learn through patient load rather than didactics and teaching...but she was the only to label it that way. None of the other residents said anything that was similar...but on the other hand didn't push it the other direction.
Little Rock. It's not that I dislike the town, but I'm just not "sure" about it. Might go back for a second look. I'm a single guy, so my concerns are different than what might matter for someone who is married, or has kids.
Other considerations
For those with Step 1 or 2 scores >90 OR AOA membership, or a certain class rank, there is the Chairman's Scholars fund, which gives you $1500 in both the 2nd and 3rd years which can be used for any number of educational uses including saving it to pay for board review or boards cost.
There must be something in the water because there were a LOT of pregnant residents, for those who are concerned about that.
Program Coordinator was excellent and everyone loves her. Most said they would donate part of their own salary to keep her.
) but I think Children's Mercy has a lot more to offer and I'd be better trained.
)) opportunities for call-free electives that can be done away, one each in the PL-2 and PL-3 years. There are daily radiology rounds for inpatient and ICU teams with an attending radiologist. Standard morning report, noon conference, and grand rounds. Mock codes. Some of the noon conferences are set up in more of a workshop format covering topics in evidence-based medicine. Continuity clinic is at St. Chris.
