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I feel I must respond to the the MULTIPLE hear-say "friend of a friend hates UW" comments made on this forum with my own first-hand opinion for those of you who may be considering the Univ of Washington for anesthesiology...and also to respond to the question of people leaving anesthesia residency in general
I am leaving a prestigous Emergency Medicine program after 3 years of a four year residency to pursue anesthesia. Why am I putting myself through another 3 years of residency when I could be done in 12 months?
1. I am very unhappy in EM, I cannot deal with people's social issues/transfer issues/EMTALA/death and dying in the ED. EM is a terrific specialty and I greatly admire those who dedicate themselves to taking care of this challenging population during extremely trying times in terms of ED overcrowding, insurance/economic challenges, and lack of access to primary care. However, it is NOT the right path for me, and I realized that while there are things I love about EM (procedures, my colleagues, taking care of sick people) I am NOT happy with this and see myself already burnt out
2. I should have stuck with anesthesia, which was what I wanted to do in the first place, but was turned off by attendings I respected in other specialties who told me that I would never get a job, that I was too "smart" to do anesthesia, and other ridiculous statements that they really did not have the knowledge about anesthesiology to back up, but I was a dumb medical student and fell into this trap that anesthesia (remember, this was a few years ago) wasn't competitive or prestigous enough. Obviously I regret this SO MUCH now and wish I would have followed my own instincts!!!
As for UW...it is a FABULOUS program. You will be hard pressed to find many other places where you will get more hands-on training with SICK, complicated patients. Whether or not you end up taking care of such high-acuity patients or not when you are done with your training, wouldn't you rather know how to take care of the sickest of the sick so that when your routine, outpatient case hits the fan you will feel confident in knowing how to take care of that patient???? 36 months is NOT a lot of time. While I agree you should be happy where you are, working hard during residency is also a good thing because you need this time to learn what the hell you are doing. If you are out of the OR by 1pm every day and have no autonomy as a resident you will not be prepared for this when you start.
As far as the attrition from the program goes -- this program is HUGE. It is not fair to compare a program with 18 or 24 residents to a program with 60 residents -- of course there will comparitively be more people leaving, because there are more people period! I would guess that other similar programs in size and at academic med centers (like UCSF, Hopkins) have similar attrition. Not everyone is going to be happy in whatever field -- I have known friends who have left OB, Surgery, medicine, peds -- you name it. People DO change their minds (like ME!)
Please note that this is NOT intended to be a bash on VM's program. I really liked it too when I interviewed there. But they are totally different programs, so it isn't fair to compare them.
If you are interested in a residency that will train you extremely well in all aspects of anesthesia, if you like taking care of sick, complicated patients; if you want to go to a nationally respected department and program in a FAB city, I think UW is an excellent choice. Awesome residents who are really fun to work with, smart/well known and respected attendings/department/institution --- I think UW has the whole package. And people are getting GREAT jobs, fellowships, and academic positions when they are done.
Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions.
I am leaving a prestigous Emergency Medicine program after 3 years of a four year residency to pursue anesthesia. Why am I putting myself through another 3 years of residency when I could be done in 12 months?
1. I am very unhappy in EM, I cannot deal with people's social issues/transfer issues/EMTALA/death and dying in the ED. EM is a terrific specialty and I greatly admire those who dedicate themselves to taking care of this challenging population during extremely trying times in terms of ED overcrowding, insurance/economic challenges, and lack of access to primary care. However, it is NOT the right path for me, and I realized that while there are things I love about EM (procedures, my colleagues, taking care of sick people) I am NOT happy with this and see myself already burnt out
2. I should have stuck with anesthesia, which was what I wanted to do in the first place, but was turned off by attendings I respected in other specialties who told me that I would never get a job, that I was too "smart" to do anesthesia, and other ridiculous statements that they really did not have the knowledge about anesthesiology to back up, but I was a dumb medical student and fell into this trap that anesthesia (remember, this was a few years ago) wasn't competitive or prestigous enough. Obviously I regret this SO MUCH now and wish I would have followed my own instincts!!!
As for UW...it is a FABULOUS program. You will be hard pressed to find many other places where you will get more hands-on training with SICK, complicated patients. Whether or not you end up taking care of such high-acuity patients or not when you are done with your training, wouldn't you rather know how to take care of the sickest of the sick so that when your routine, outpatient case hits the fan you will feel confident in knowing how to take care of that patient???? 36 months is NOT a lot of time. While I agree you should be happy where you are, working hard during residency is also a good thing because you need this time to learn what the hell you are doing. If you are out of the OR by 1pm every day and have no autonomy as a resident you will not be prepared for this when you start.
As far as the attrition from the program goes -- this program is HUGE. It is not fair to compare a program with 18 or 24 residents to a program with 60 residents -- of course there will comparitively be more people leaving, because there are more people period! I would guess that other similar programs in size and at academic med centers (like UCSF, Hopkins) have similar attrition. Not everyone is going to be happy in whatever field -- I have known friends who have left OB, Surgery, medicine, peds -- you name it. People DO change their minds (like ME!)
Please note that this is NOT intended to be a bash on VM's program. I really liked it too when I interviewed there. But they are totally different programs, so it isn't fair to compare them.
If you are interested in a residency that will train you extremely well in all aspects of anesthesia, if you like taking care of sick, complicated patients; if you want to go to a nationally respected department and program in a FAB city, I think UW is an excellent choice. Awesome residents who are really fun to work with, smart/well known and respected attendings/department/institution --- I think UW has the whole package. And people are getting GREAT jobs, fellowships, and academic positions when they are done.
Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions.
