Any prelim candidates out there?

[Crash cart]

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Hey all,

wondering if there are any prelim folks out there and if so, what you are considering "important" for a good prelim program. I'm headed into anesthesia and am looking for a program with a strong ICU component and multiple elective. Personally, I do not want to do ambulatory months or really have anything to do with clinic. Thank god that there are people who enjoy that...

Thoughts?

 

[rugtrousers]

Hey all,

wondering if there are any prelim folks out there and if so, what you are considering "important" for a good prelim program. I'm headed into anesthesia and am looking for a program with a strong ICU component and multiple elective. Personally, I do not want to do ambulatory months or really have anything to do with clinic. Thank god that there are people who enjoy that...

Thoughts?

I'm also applying to anesthesia and am looking at prelim medicine and transitional programs. IMO, the important qualities of an internship are:

1. Reasonable # of elective months. The interns aren't all going into the same specialty, so the intern year should allow for some customization (prelim IM programs usually have a minimal number of elective months, if any).
2. Good teaching. I like the community programs with teaching and non-teaching services, but my attendings tell me that I should look for a rigorous intern year because most of the off-the-cuff teaching will be done by residents.
3. Minimal surgery. I think I do need some surgery exposure during intern year, but months of being a surgical intern (with mostly floor work) are, I think, unnecessary.
4. ICU. I either want ICU built into the schedule or the ability to add it as an elective. That said, I favor q4 call as opposed to q3 call because the ICU is intense enough as it is.

All things being equal, I would like to do my internship where I do anesthesia to avoid moving twice and learning two different hospital systems. I am also looking at programs like MSK, where pain management is amazing.

Good !

 

[Crash cart]

I'm also applying to anesthesia and am looking at prelim medicine and transitional programs. IMO, the important qualities of an internship are:

1. Reasonable # of elective months. The interns aren't all going into the same specialty, so the intern year should allow for some customization (prelim IM programs usually have a minimal number of elective months, if any).
2. Good teaching. I like the community programs with teaching and non-teaching services, but my attendings tell me that I should look for a rigorous intern year because most of the off-the-cuff teaching will be done by residents.
3. Minimal surgery. I think I do need some surgery exposure during intern year, but months of being a surgical intern (with mostly floor work) are, I think, unnecessary.
4. ICU. I either want ICU built into the schedule or the ability to add it as an elective. That said, I favor q4 call as opposed to q3 call because the ICU is intense enough as it is.

All things being equal, I would like to do my internship where I do anesthesia to avoid moving twice and learning two different hospital systems. I am also looking at programs like MSK, where pain management is amazing.

Good !

Good Luck!

 

[lucyz02]

Good Luck!

With your criteria being said... what programs have you found to be suitable.
I am also looking at prelims, I would like something with atleast 2 or maybe 3 electives, no more than 4 months wards(ughhh), some ccu/icu other criteria is a mix. I agree something that is educational but lifestyle accomadating, atleast in an ideal world. Who knows if we'll it though?
let me know your opinions, I am doing some prelim interviews in jan.

 

[pikachu]

it's hard to find prelim programs without clinic - that said, the extra effort is worth it - clinic is the most miserable part of my prelim year -

 

[rugtrousers]

With your criteria being said... what programs have you found to be suitable.

I'm looking at both prelim medicine and transitional. For prelim medicine, I liked Alameda County Medical Center in California. St. Vincent's in Bridgeport, CT and Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven, CT were also good programs but I didn't apply to their medicine program (just transitional).

For transitional programs, I liked:
-St. Vincent's in Bridgeport (no required surgery, 5 months of electives), -Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC (4 weeks surgery, 5 months of electives, subsidized housing)
-Alameda County Medical Center in California (lots of elective time, good ICU teaching)
-I also interviewed at Albert Einstein in Philadelphia and Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven - I liked these two as well, and they have strong reputations, but I had a more positive vibe from the first two programs.

Keep in mind that the ACGME dictates some of the requirements of preliminary and transitional programs. A prelim (med or TY) program has to require at least one ambulatory month for accreditation, so there's no avoiding that. The prelim medicine programs tend to have a clinic requirement on top of the ambulatory month, so look out for that. The TY programs did not have an ongoing clinic requirement, but they do have to have at least six months of training in core disciplines (medicine, surgery, ED, OB/Gyn, peds).

I still have two West Coast prelim interviews coming up, but that will only add to the confusion of making my supplemental rank list. Sigh.