I'm an intern at Children's National Medical Center (CNMC, formerly known as DC Children's).
It was indeed one of the Howard/Community Health track spots that went unfilled last year and filled in the scramble. The categoral track and primary care track spots all went in the regular match.
To address the concerns you raised, I just finished my second month. My first two months were the busiest ward months you do as an intern - Hem/Onc and Respiratory/Neuro. I can fully vouch for the fact that you are definitely busy, but I think overworked is too strong a word. I have the benefit of talking to lots of my classmates from med school who graduated and are now interns at various places in various specialties (including peds). Unlike interview day, they are not trying to sell their programs to me. What I realize now is that interns *everywhere* are worked very hard.
Although I definitely do often feel like I'm working hard and have no life, I guess we are all lucky we live in the 80-hour work week era. CNMC just instituted a night-float system for ward months this year so unless you are the dedicated night person, you do not stay overnight from Sunday to Thursday. You stay until 4-5 on most weekdays, except once (or rarely twice) a week when you stay for "short call" until 7-8 to check out to the night float person. On the weekend, in a 4-week month, you generally have one Friday call, one Saturday call, one Sunday call leading into your night float week. Following your night float week, you get off at 8am on Friday and don't come back in until Monday morning (your "platinum weekend" once a month). One out of 4 weeks you are on night float, covering your own service only (no cross cover by interns). This goes for all of the ward months during the year (categorical interns have 6, other tracks have slightly less, but I don't know the specifics). In addition, each intern spends a month in the NICU, where you have the more traditional q4 overnight call. Non-ward and non-NICU months are more relaxed -- last month I have Development which is outpatient, and I'm picking up a call to cover someone on one Saturday but otherwise no call. You have a similar month of outpatient clinic as well. You have a month on well baby nursery -- can't remember at the moment if we take call during that. Another month is 2wks of nights and 2 wks of vacation. Another month is 2wks of ER and 2wks of vacation.
If you are like I was as a 4th year med student, all of those words about night float won't mean that much to you. The first time you are told about the night float system (which a bunch of programs have), it helps to have someone drawing on the board or some visual aid. But I wanted to give you some objective data so you can draw your own conclusions. The truth is, for your ward months, there are only so many ways they can move people around and still follow the 80-hour/week rule, so I can't see how some other program would be significantly better. I especially appreciate this fact after lots of frank discussions with other interns at various programs and in different specialties. I reported my schedule to you with no spin, please compare it objectively to other programs. One big benefit I see to the night float system: when I'm there only during the night (just got there at 7pm and leaving at 7am), I am more awake for those nighttime admissions or calls that your patients are crumping. Even the age-old page at 2 am "Doctor, can I have an order for tylenol for this asthma patient's tooth/face/toe/butt/knee/pick-any-part-of-the-body pain?" or "Doctor, it's 4 am and the patient hasn't had any urine output since 10pm!" doesn't bother me when I'm expecting to stay up all night anyway and can sleep during the day.
I guess my point is this: when you are interviewing, I think the most important things to focus on are whether you'd get a good education and what the working environment is like (most importantly, what your fellow residents are like, are they competitive or supportive?), not whether the interns you talk to are good at hiding the fact that everywhere you go interns are worked very hard. I'm not going to hard-sell my program. It's your responsibility to decide what kind of program you want. Personally, to address my above criteria, I think CNMC does work hard to give us a good education, and the other residents are great, as they probably are at most institutions because pediatricians tend to be nice people. But you should come interview here and decide for yourself.
bpkurtz
