I'm a current student and applicant to the program. Probation: been off that for a while now. The "new" chair Dr. Delphin has turned the whole place around. Didactics: every Tuesday there is a protected 5 hour block from 12-5 pm, and to accomodate it no resident is on call overnight on Monday. Different resident years are scheduled for different portions of that block. Also, there are 30 SimMan sessions throughout the resident years. The same attending who conducts those sessions also has a company that prepares residents for the boards (I dont remember if it's written or oral or both). Then there are various lectures on the subspecialties. I did an OB anesthesia elective, and every day you are one on on with the OB Anesthesia attending for didactics. The other didactics (journal clubs, M/M, Grand Rounds, etc are similar to other programs).
No more rotations at Deborah Heart and Lung and no rotations at the VA. All rotations are done at the University Hospital or at Hackensack University Medical Center (a huge powerhouse private hospital for the TriState area).
Residents are all AMGs, except for 1 who is FMG but came, did research, completed preliminary year, and then got accepted to the program.
Trauma experience is good - after all it is Newark. On my ER rotation, I saw them do bilateral thoracotomy and then cross-clamp the aorta in the mini-shock trauma room of the trauma bay. That's not something you expect to see every day. SICU is under Trauma surgery, MICU medicine(pulm), CCU cards, and CTICU anesthesiology.
They hired a new regional attending so now that rotation has started and is gaining favor with the orthopedic attendings. I'm on a short pain elective now, and the only procedure I haven't seen the resident do is a cervical epidural - The attending says the dangers are too high and its a procedure that would only be given to fellows in the middle of their fellowship year, if there were fellows.
It's overall a good program. The residents who I know have all surpassed their numbers. The negatives would be that the hospital does have financial problems, but is not likely to shut down or anything because it is a huge safety net hospital for the northern half of the state. Also, peds is not very strong because there isn't a pediatric general surgeon at University Hospital (the last, my dean of student affairs, having left at the end of May '09). You see peds at hackensack though.
PM me if you have any other questions.
