Woohoo! Right up my alley!
I joined the USF program in Tampa, FL in its first year. It was a blast. I really enjoyed being the only class that was there. Everything was so intimate, and ALL the attendings, ALL the nurses, and all the hospital administrators welcomed us and were very cognizant of our needs.
We had no problems at our program... everything was such a smooth transition, I thought there would be more snags. Our PD, Kelly O'Keefe, was a PD at another EM residency, and our "second in charge," David Orban, was PD at UCLA. So our bosses have experience at other programs.
It was nice on our off service rotations, our role hadn't truly been defined outside of learning objectives. On our OB rotation, we told them we wanted to do 3rd trimester triage, lots of ultrasounds, deliveries, and I even held the OB/GYN consult pager to do some extra credit learning (but also to see how they viewed our ED consults). It was nice, because we got to learn what we feel would be best for EM.
I will admit there was a con or two. Our program si small, 6 a year. I wish our program were bigger. It got kind of lonely after a while since there were just us and the attendings. Now that we have interns, its a lot better... and I can't wait to be a senior resident with two classes underneath us.
One BIG pro that we all really appreciated but never expected... last year when I was in the ED, I was the only EM intern on. My first day I ran two codes with the attending. ANY procedure that was in the ED, intubations, lines, CT, thoracotomies, DPLs, ultrasounds, the attenidngs woudl ask us if we wanted first shot at it. Because of that, I think our #s are probably above average for interns in procedures.
Now that I'm a second year, I let all the interns "run" the code. I did it all by myself last year, so now I don't really need to be the one doing it. So I let the interns. Next year when I'm a third year, I'll let the second years have a shot, but they shoudl hopefully give it back to the interns. It allows our interns to cut their teeth pretty early.
I loved being at a new program. Obvviously I cannot compare it to being at an established program, because, well, I never went to one.
If you have any other specific questions, let me know.
Q
