For those with families, humanistic CA IM programs?

[MyGenome]

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I am a strong applicant, hoping to be in California for residency. I am choosing between IM and another field and one of the main reasons I am struggling with the decision is that I am concerned IM residency will be terrible for me and my family (which includes young kids). Are there any California IM programs that are humanistic, non-malignant, resident-oriented, friendly, better hours, etc in CA?

Any thoughts from residents or people who have interviewed in the last few years are really appreciated! Thanks.

 

[path or no path]

I am a strong applicant, hoping to be in California for residency. I am choosing between IM and another field and one of the main reasons I am struggling with the decision is that I am concerned IM residency will be terrible for me and my family (which includes young kids). Are there any California IM programs that are humanistic, non-malignant, resident-oriented, friendly, better hours, etc in CA?

Any thoughts from residents or people who have interviewed in the last few years are really appreciated! Thanks.

Huntington Memorial
Kaisers

 

[flipmd]

With the new duty hours, the hours get pretty close regardless of program. The biggest determinant would be the number of ambulatory months vs ICU/Ward months in the program, so make sure to take a close look at that. Also, going into community / smaller programs may seem like you're going to get better hours, but sometimes you have to handle more call due to less bodies to cover the nights.

Don't sell yourself short - unless you're in the ICU or Wards, IM residency generally is office hours + 1-2 hours and maybe half day weekends. There aren't that many programs in California, won't be that expensive to apply to all the University and the good community programs and if you can bunch up the interviews together, shouldn't be too expensive to go to most.

 

[MyGenome]

With the new duty hours, the hours get pretty close regardless of program. The biggest determinant would be the number of ambulatory months vs ICU/Ward months in the program, so make sure to take a close look at that. Also, going into community / smaller programs may seem like you're going to get better hours, but sometimes you have to handle more call due to less bodies to cover the nights.

Don't sell yourself short - unless you're in the ICU or Wards, IM residency generally is office hours + 1-2 hours and maybe half day weekends. There aren't that many programs in California, won't be that expensive to apply to all the University and the good community programs and if you can bunch up the interviews together, shouldn't be too expensive to go to most.

Thanks guys for the info. But it really does seem some programs differ a lot, I can't believe all programs would actually be equal in hours/treatment. I know of three university programs in California that people generally regarded as malignant after friends spoke to the residents during interviews, and also heard there are other programs where residents are treated much better.

Here are the programs:

Kaiser Permanente Southern California Program

San Joaquin General Hospital Program

University of California (San Francisco)/Fresno Program

Scripps Clinic/Scripps Green Hospital Program

Loma Linda University Program

St Mary Medical Center Program

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center / VA Program

UCLA Medical Center Program

White Memorial Medical Center Program

Kaiser Permanente Southern California (Los Angeles) Program

University of Southern California/LAC+USC Medical Center Program

Olive View/UCLA Medical Center Program

Kaiser Permanente Medical Group (Northern California/Oakland) Program

Alameda County Medical Center Program

University of California (Irvine) Program

Huntington Memorial Hospital Program

Eisenhower Medical Center Program

University of California (Davis) Health System Program

Scripps Mercy Hospital Program

University of California (San Diego) Program

Kaiser Permanente Medical Group (Northern California)/San Francisco Program

California Pacific Medical Center Program

University of California (San Francisco) Program

St Mary's Hospital and Medical Center Program

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Program

Kaiser Permanente Medical Group (Northern California)/Santa Clara Program

Stanford University Program

Los Angeles County-Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Program

 

[MyGenome]

I am going to bump, but I have narrowed down the list I am looking to hear about in terms of hour/lifestyle during residency. Does anyone know about these, or how they compare?

Kaiser Permanente Southern California Program

Scripps Clinic/Scripps Green Hospital Program

St Mary Medical Center Program

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center / VA Program

White Memorial Medical Center Program

Kaiser Permanente Southern California (Los Angeles) Program

University of Southern California/LAC+USC Medical Center Program

Olive View/UCLA Medical Center Program

Kaiser Permanente Medical Group (Northern California/Oakland) Program

Alameda County Medical Center Program

University of California (Irvine) Program

Huntington Memorial Hospital Program

Eisenhower Medical Center Program

University of California (Davis) Health System Program

Scripps Mercy Hospital Program

Kaiser Permanente Medical Group (Northern California)/San Francisco Program

California Pacific Medical Center Program

St Mary's Hospital and Medical Center Program

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Program

Kaiser Permanente Medical Group (Northern California)/Santa Clara Program

Los Angeles County-Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Program

 

[disorder]

With the new duty hours, the hours get pretty close regardless of program. The biggest determinant would be the number of ambulatory months vs ICU/Ward months in the program, so make sure to take a close look at that. Also, going into community / smaller programs may seem like you're going to get better hours, but sometimes you have to handle more call due to less bodies to cover the nights.

Don't sell yourself short - unless you're in the ICU or Wards, IM residency generally is office hours + 1-2 hours and maybe half day weekends. There aren't that many programs in California, won't be that expensive to apply to all the University and the good community programs and if you can bunch up the interviews together, shouldn't be too expensive to go to most.

I think you should listen to this person.

The reputations of old (and almost fairly recent) seem to no longer apply. For example, USC used to be widely regarded as a pretty tough and malignant program. However, with the advent of the ACGME regulations and new program director, many residents are EXTREMELY happy and have good work/life balance. On the other hand, Cedars has a rep for being a "cush" program, but during my interview there the residents made it a point to say "this isn't a 'cush' program, you're going to work hard".

If you truly are a "strong" applicant, I will echo the sentiments bolded above. Other than that, I can only give you my "feelings" towards the programs I interviewed at... and I doubt those are accurate? I will say this, many of the places that I had assumed were malignant due to information here on the board (and from others) had very happy interns and did not feel overworked. And, vice versa.

 

[gutonc]

Another thing to be aware of is that many of the (usually smaller, community) programs that, on the surface, have good working hours, are able to do so because they're routinely pulling residents from non-call rotations to cover nights and weekends on the wards/ICU services. So while you may work slightly less on your wards/ICU months, you will work significantly more on your "non-call" months than at other programs where when you're "on" you're on and when you're "off" you're off.

Honestly, you need to apply and interview to get even a remotely clear picture of the situation. Even then...a lot of this is a leap of faith, and there's nothing to prevent programs from changing their structure after you apply/interview/rank/match. My program changed the structure on it's wards and ICU services 4 different times during my intern year. That's the kind of stuff that you can't predict and there's no point trying.