Holy Shnikeys!! Lots of noise on here since yesterday. Where do I begin??
As some of you know, I'm a PGY-2 in EM at Christ and I've posted several times this year. I'm not offended by anyone's posts on this thread, but I'm truly sickened to learn that people around the country (you folks) have such a completely jaded and inaccurate view of our program. Time for some clarification.
(1) The Biographies - This is a complicated issue. Bottomline - those biographies are accurate, yes, but they do not represent the true character of our residency. Like most people in Emergency Medicine, we watch football, we guzzle beer, we go skiing, we mountain climb, we play darts (actually we compete best at Golden Tee and Photo Hunt). We do not spend our free time doing research on the Wildebeast species (WTF?). Each biography was written by Dr. Harwood (PD) on Match Day. Several years ago, the Advocate organization (big health care organization which owns and oversees Christ) asked that the biographies be placed on the Advocate website. Last year, as an intern, our entire class b*tched and moaned (as did every single class before us) asking that our biographies NOT be posted. The biographies make us sound like a bunch of tools (especially the dude who taught piano lessons in med school....what a do*chebag...ahem) and I do know of several people who did not apply to Christ EM for this very reason. Some of us tried to "alter" our biographies to include more "fun -sounding" verbage. (I tried to include a blerb about my stellar victory in U. of Michigan's naked mile - no joke - I kicked a**). We were all denied. Advocate, an organization terribly concerned about presentation and professionalism, wants to portray their residents as toolboxes.
Round 2. This year, we compromised. We didn't post the Class of 2007 biographies and we won't be posting any for the Class of 2008. We have essentially done away with the Advocate website. If you notice, the portion on Christ EM is not updated. We have a new website
www.christemergency.org. I highly encourage you guys to take a look at our pictures - ski trip, riding the bull at Satellite ranch in Dallas, a bunch of us drunk off our a** on graduation night - we're your typical EM residents - humble, fun-loving, intoxicated, and well-rounded. This current website is more of an internal website - we are in the process of creating one designed for prospective applicants.
Bottomline - when I first read the Advocate website, I had the exact same feelings as those posted here regarding the program. Somewhere between, "Holy ****, am I intimidated" and "I think these guys got slammed into lockers one too many times in high school." Then I interviewed. Of the seventeen places I interviewed, the Christ residents were the most friendly, laid back residents I met on the interview trail. After the interview, we all went out to "Groucho's" (south side Chicago dive bar) - not just the residents, but a bunch of nurses, medics, and ER techs. I tried to match up my experience with the biographies I had read the night before - it just didn't make sense. I expected "pretentious, over-intellectual, and annoying" and I got "relaxed, engaging, and enebriated." I fit right in.
(2) The selection process - I have been deeply involved in the recruitment process for the past two years and again, you guys have a very inaccurate view of our selection criteria. Our selection criteria is no different from any other good EM program. Life experiences, committment to EM, letters of rec are the most important. We have interviewed applicants who have failed their boards (and no, they did not rotate with us) each of the past two years - their applications (life experiences) were exceptional. Do we interview less people than other programs? Yes. Several years ago, Christ interviewed ~40 people per year and the academic cut-offs were somewhat strict. If you look closely at those bio's, you'll see that not every person is an academic all-star....some are far from it....and they are often times the best residents. Our attendings have learned that some of our program's best residents are those with average academic accomplishments - God only giveth so much - they often have the best communicative skills, the best work ethic, and the most phenomenal attitude - and that's 90% of being a good EM doc. During these past two years, we interviewed 60-70 people per year - all were exceptional candidates - there was an enormous range in terms of academic nerdiness.
(3) Rotating at Christ - When I applied, I heard a rumor that "if you don't rotate at Christ, you won't get in." This is entirely not true. Approximately half of our current residents rotated as students. Our policy is the same as that for any other EM program. If you're interested in the program, try to come and rotate - but all of the applications (rotaters and non-rotaters) are judged equally. If someone rotates and does a phenomenal job, I don't give a s*it what their application looks like - they've proved themselves - so of course, they're going to end up at the top of our list. Each year, ~ half of each incoming class is made up of students who rotated during the year- no different from any other EM program.
(3) Trauma at Christ - OK, I don't have hard numbers either, so I'm not going to attempt to speak with authority. Here's what I do know. Mount Sinai is #1 in Chicago for penetrating Trauma (I don't know if that is based on percentage or raw volume) and I was told that Christ is #2. In terms of raw #'s, I was told that Cook County is #1 and Christ is #2 - but.....I am told that Cook County is #1 in # of admissions and Christ is #1 in # of discharges meaning that we may have a higher volume. Bottomline - all three sites - Mount Sinai, Cook, and Christ have excellent Trauma experiences (this is just an important FYI for students reading - these represent the main Level #1 Trauma centers in Chicago - not Rush, UIC, NW, UofC like many people would think). I love the Trauma experience at Christ - we are given a ton of autonomy. I have been told by those who have rotated at both Cook and Christ that they like Christ better because the Trauma team is much smaller - I didn't do Trauma at Cook so I don't know.
There you have it. Wilco and I need to take off - we need to hit the weight room and put some hours in at the soup kitchen before tomorrow's chess tournament....do you think we'll have time for that 8th grade volleyball game? Then Napoleon, Kip, Pedro, and I are taking some bowstaff lessons.....
Love,
Syd Barrett
PGY- 2 Stoned catatonic disenchanted guitarist (did they include that in my bio?)
Emergency Medicine
Advocate Christ Medical Center
