General Surgery @ Walter Reed

[bigred001]

How is it? What does it take to match in this program?

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[pgg]

How is it? What does it take to match in this program?

A pathologically dysfunctional personality.

Seriously, it's been a few years since I've been there, but there was a reason all of the surgery residents & interns were HPSP. The USUHS grads knew better than to inflict WRAMC on themselves after going to school down the street and doing some required 3rd/4th year rotations there.

I'm sure it's an excellent program that graduates fine surgeons.

Walter Reed is also on the base closure list, which may be something to take into account if you're thinking of starting a 5 year program in the next few years. (The sooner they knock over those buildings, leave no two bricks atop one another, and sow the ground with salt, the better.)

If for some reason you think you know what you're getting into there and still want to spend 5 years of your life working in that particular layer of hell ... all the usual tips for getting a specific military GME slot still apply. Decent grades, board scores, time to show your face at a rotation or two with the department, research (even the tiniest project will get you a point with the GME board), etc. Sorry I can't offer more useful advice as I'm not a surgeon, surgery resident, surgeon wannabe, anywhere near WRAMC these days, or even in the Army.

Good luck, and keep a tight grip on your soul should you ever visit Walter Reed.

 

[UltimateDO]

Just to clarify the previous post. Programs tend to be very dependant on their PD, who changes every 4 years or so. Example, TAMC surg was malignant up until recent history when they got a new PD, residents are happy now. While pgg may have a point during the timeframe that he experienced Reed things could have changed, I would wait to see if someone with current exp could post. Regarding Reed and the BRAC, it has been my understanding since the announcement that Reed is simply getting a new hospital on the Bathesda campus with some residencies either going to or splitting with Belvoir. Functionally Reed has been part of the NCC for a while so the end result is that the residencies are simply going to be move to a new modern hospital with no change in the number of residency slots.

 

[rotatores]

A pathologically dysfunctional personality.

I couldn't agree more.

Seriously, it's been a few years since I've been there, but there was a reason all of the surgery residents & interns were HPSP. The USUHS grads knew better than to inflict WRAMC on themselves after going to school down the street and doing some required 3rd/4th year rotations there.

Also correct...although...1 poor soul from USUHS this year got picked up for Gen surg at WRAMC. Like I've said in my prior posts...once you've spent a few months at WRAMC you quickly decide not to do residency there.

rotatores
USUHS 2006

 

[chopperdoc]

Are BAMC, Madigan, and Tripler less malignant? Which location has the happiest residents?

 

[RichL025]

I couldn't agree more.



Also correct...although...1 poor soul from USUHS this year got picked up for Gen surg at WRAMC. Like I've said in my prior posts...once you've spent a few months at WRAMC you quickly decide not to do residency there.

rotatores
USUHS 2006

Disagree completely.

The student who was picked up to go to Walter Reed WANTED to go there. It was his first choice.

I did six weeks on gen surg at Walter Reed during my third year. I also spent a week there over the summer, scrubbing in to try and decide if gen surg was really what I wanted to do with my life.

I found the whole "malignant" reputation WAAAAAYYYYY overblown. There were one or two residents who were jerks, and the PD could be pretty sarcastic, but everyone was interested in teaching (even teaching med students) and I thought the program was very well organized towards academics.

 

[rotatores]

Rich,

This particular person told me that he only ranked this program #1 b/c he knew he wouldn't get Madigan.

rotatores

 

[pgg]

Programs tend to be very dependant on their PD, who changes every 4 years or so.

This is true, but my unhappy memories of WR apply to (more or less) the whole hospital and every department. My experiences there ranged from merely unpleasant to ohmygodwhatamidoinghereiwishiwasdeadpleasekillme awful ...

In contrast, I've had few or no complaints at every other hospital I've rotated through or spent any time at - NNMC, Wright-Pat, Tripler, NMCSD, NH Jacksonville FL, NH Camp Lejeune, Inova Fairfax, Union Memorial (Baltimore).

 

[UltimateDO]

Are BAMC, Madigan, and Tripler less malignant? Which location has the happiest residents?

Tripler now has really happy residents, apparently the new PD rocks. BAMC residents looked pretty beaten down and didn't exactly give good vibes to us at OBC last summer. Those are the only two surg programs I have any personal experience with.

 

[colbgw02]

Are BAMC, Madigan, and Tripler less malignant? Which location has the happiest residents?

I can't speak to general surgery specifically, but I do think that these med centers tend to take on a bit of a personality of their own. The PD is probably the single, most important factor, but I've found TAMC and Madigan to be much more laid-back than WRAMC, in general. I think it might have something to do with an Eastcoast/Westcoast thing. BAMC, both geographically and personality-wise, is somewhere in the middle.

 

[Capt_Mac]

I am a general surgery resident at one of the aforementioned programs. Do not judge your opinions based on one talk with residents. If they are having a bad day, they may look beat down.

Walter Reed: My experience with WRAMC has been interacting with their residents are conferences. I try to make it a point that if I can't say something good, I should not post it on the internet. Their residents seem to know a lot about surgical oncology, and this would make sense as their program director is a surgical oncologist. Their residents (like BAMC and Madigan) all do a research year and they almost uniformly do it in some oncologic area. Walter Reed has it's own personality just like all programs do.

BAMC: Much more trauma focus, makes sense as it is a level I trauma center and most of the combat medical research goes through ISR (right next door to BAMC). This is also where residents do most of their research. I would not consider this to be a malignant program, not in the least. The residents work hard, but the staff are all nice guys and good to work for.

Tripler: It's Hawaii, what else is there to say! I don't know much other than they have a new program director that seems pretty nice.