Hawaii Surgery

[5oProlene]

I would sincerely appreciate any info about the general surgery residency at the University of Hawaii.

I've asked the program if I could email or phone a current resident to find out more about the program and they've denied my request. I also asked if I could shadow a resident for a day or two when I'm in Hawaii for vacation this June so that I can get a better feel for the program and they once again said this was not possible due to "patient confidentiality" and "insurance purposes".

So if anybody is a curent med student/resident at the Univ of Hawaii or who knows about the general surgery program, I would appreciate your input. PM me if you wish.

P.S.: How true is it that you have to have some connection with the state of Hawaii to be considered for their residency program??

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[Docgeorge]

Have you checked scutwork.com for UofH reviews? Those guys preround at 330!!!!!

 

[5oProlene]

That can't possibly be correct!

 

[Docgeorge]

go read the review on scutwork

 

[5oProlene]

You're right Docgeorge. Why would any program have residents pre-round so early?

Anybody here have the low-down on U of H??

 

[DoctorDoom]

I've asked the program if I could email or phone a current resident to find out more about the program and they've denied my request.

Any program that does that might be one to stay away from...

 

[slickster]

Met a plastics fellow who did gen surg at hawaii. Told me to go to any g surg program not named hawaii. If a program won't allow you to come for a second look and hang out or even talk to a resident probably a maligy place. Can they not find 1 happy resident to talk on the phone ofr 5 min, or are the residents so overworked they don't have a second to call applicants? (being sarcastic) think about it. I have not been to any place this year (g surg or plastics) where residents are not willing to give out their email/number.

 

[Blade28]

I'm a third-year med student who's just finishing up my 7-week surgery rotation at Queen's Hospital, the largest one in the state. I'll try to answer any questions you have...fire away!

Pre-rounding? At Queen's (also the toughest hospital here), we meet in the SICU at 0615 to round on ICU patients, then go to the cafeteria to round of the rest of our team's patients. So depending on how many patients you have (usually between 5-10), you'd have to start prerounding around 4 or 5.

 

[5oProlene]

Blade, thanks for your help. Here are some questions I have:

-Would you mind sharing info about the work atmosphere? Would you consider it malignent, easy-going, or somewhere in between? How well do residents get along with each other, and how well do residents get along with the attendings? What's the resident morale like??

-How often do interns operate?

-What/where are some fellowships you know of that recent graduates have obtained?

-Do they abide by the 80 hour rule?



P.S. Any truth to the story about an entire resident class quitting a couple of years back?

Thanks agains for your help! PM me if you wish.

 

[Blade28]

It's definitely pretty easy-going. There's one semi-tough chief resident now, so that makes everyone a little more hard-working, but there are a total of 3 chiefs, and they rotate among the various hospitals. The program was much more malignant about 3-4 years ago, but then a new department chair was hired and it's been very good since then. All the residents, interns, prelims and transitionals get along very well, and there's a great deal of joking and laughing going on. The only thing that's tough is the workload, but everyone seems to share in each other's misery.

The 80-hour work week is strongly adhered to, too, and most times when you're post-call you'll go home by around 9-10 in the morning.

The attendings are, for the most part, very nice and friendly. Of course there are a handful that are more strict, gruff and hard-to-approach than the others, but I really wasn't intimidated by a single one (and I was dreading this rotation!).

The good thing about the university-affiliated private hospitals is that residents are in virtually all general surgery cases, and even get to scrub in on sub-speciality cases as well when they have time (ENT, urology, etc.). All residents will do, on a typical day, anywhere between 1-4 cases. The usual cases for Gen Surg are hernia repairs, lap choles, lap appys, lap Nissens, colectomies, thyroid/parathyroids, lumpectomies/mastectomies, AV fistulas, etc. As you become more senior (PGY-3 and above), you'll do more gastrectomies, vascular bypasses, AAAs, etc.

Fellowship-wise, I only know about the three chiefs right now...two are going into plastics, and one's going into vascular surgery at the Mayo.

I don't know anything about an entire class quitting, sorry!

Any other questions?

 

[5oProlene]

Blade, thanks for answering those questions. I've got a few more I would appreciate your input on.

-Would you know if Hawaii has a USMLE cut-off for interviews?

-Is there a mandatory research year(s) required?

-I've heard that you have to have some kind of "past connection" to the island in order to be considered for their residency programs. How true is this for the surgery program?? I was not born in Hawaii nor do I have any family that live in Hawaii.

Thanks again!

 

[Blade28]

Originally posted by 5oProlene
-Would you know if Hawaii has a USMLE cut-off for interviews?

-Is there a mandatory research year(s) required?

-I've heard that you have to have some kind of "past connection" to the island in order to be considered for their residency programs. How true is this for the surgery program?? I was not born in Hawaii nor do I have any family that live in Hawaii.

No idea.

Nope. Many of the chiefs (present and past) are/were in their 5th year, then it's off to fellowships!

Not sure about that "past connection" - I know it does help loosen the requirements before consideration for an interview in MED SCHOOL. There are quite a few residents here who have no ties/connections to Hawaii (including all the chiefs, and about half of the 3rd/4th years).