How is U Nebraska program?

[Jesmine]

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Hi, I'm an IMG and thinking about adding more programs to my list. How is U of Nebraska program? Any input would be great. Considering $25 per program now, I really want to make the right decision. Thanks!

 

[superkeith]

ideally, of course, we would get a response from a current or fellow resident at the program. i only interviewed at the program, but am willing to give my two cents.

i believe the residency program at the university of nebraska to be an outstanding one. dr. fletcher, the program director is passionate about providing the best resident educational experience possible. it is my impression that they believe the role of the resident is to learn the art and science of the field rather than to function as a discounted grosser. dr. lazenby, head of ap, is a renowned gi pathologist that also has a reputation as an outstanding educator.

the program provides great clinical training with ample opportunity to pursue research projects including those in their noted hematopathology division. additionally, facilities are modern and there is strong pa support in place.

equally as important is the fact that the residents appear to get along well with each other. individually, many of these residents have impeccable credentials and amazing resumes. however, you would never know this in sitting down and having a conversation with them. they are smart, humble and work well as a team.

needless to say, i would have been thrilled to have been able to match there.

 

[Jesmine]

Thanks a lot, superkeith.

 

[beary]

I agree with superkeith. I interviewed there because Nebraska is my home state and was extremely impressed with the program.

Pretty much the only thing I worried about was the relatively small size of the program and their relative lack of fellowships (hemepath and they recently added a surg path fellowship). Ironically I have decided to go into hemepath and would love to end up in their fellowship.

Anyway, I would definitely apply. 👍

 

[Neddy]

I agree with superkeith. I interviewed there because Nebraska is my home state and was extremely impressed with the program.

Pretty much the only thing I worried about was the relatively small size of the program and their relative lack of fellowships (hemepath and they recently added a surg path fellowship). Ironically I have decided to go into hemepath and would love to end up in their fellowship.

Anyway, I would definitely apply. 👍

I recently asked my program's two hemepath fellows which fellowships they were most impressed with nationally, and Nebraska was one of the first places they mentioned.

 

[mlw03]

I agree with superkeith. I interviewed there because Nebraska is my home state and was extremely impressed with the program.

Pretty much the only thing I worried about was the relatively small size of the program and their relative lack of fellowships (hemepath and they recently added a surg path fellowship). Ironically I have decided to go into hemepath and would love to end up in their fellowship.

Anyway, I would definitely apply. 👍

thanks for your thoughts on UNMC. i hadn't really considered the program, but between SDN and some people i know from school, i kept hearing that it's a place worth checking out if you think you could live in Omaha. so i did my research and found that yeah, it looks pretty solid. i would agree that lack of fellowships is a detractor, but when i'm there one of the questions i'll be asking is, "are there any fellowships you anticipate adding by 2012?". i'll try to remember to share that info here for next year's applicants. and for someone not wanting to live in a big city, Omaha seems to have a lot to offer. so now that i've been invited to interview i looking forward to checking the place out for myself to see if all the positive remarks i've heard/read hold up.

 

[ygdrasil]

I interviewed there last week, and I thought I’d post some of what I learned there. This is pretty long, but it was a useful way for me to record what I’d learned. It reads kind of stiff because I tried to stay objective.

The interview basics- 1 night lodging was provided at the downtown Hilton, I had dinner at an upscale brew pub the night before (and managed to restrict myself to only 2 of their delicious pints of stout) with their junior chief (3rd year) and their post-sophomore fellow.

The interview day began at 8 am with their daily didactic session. This varies in format from day to day- sometimes it’s a lecture, sometimes they cut a brain, but at least once a week it’s an unknown conference, which was what was happening on my day. The standard format is to receive a lecture on a group of entities on Monday/Tuesday, and then see related unknowns later in the week. The didactic is routinely attended by all the residents, and more than one mentioned that this “common learning experience” helped establish team learning and esprit de corps. Prior to the 8-9 am session, there’s also a 7:30-8:00 am informal “interesting cases” ‘scope session run by the residents, for the residents, at the residents.


I then met with Dr. Lele, the program director, who moved into the job a little over a year ago, and made many changes (generally described as “for the better” by residents) in the program. He attends the daily didactic and frequently chimes in with questions and comments. He also runs another “interesting cases” ‘scope session at 4:30-5:00 pm.

For the rest of the day I spent half-hour sessions with seven other attendings, representing AP and CP evenly. They generally represented the strengths of their program as 1) strong Hemepath 2) busy and diverse transplant center (they trans everything except lung) 3) strong cytogenetics 4) Good CP with PhD’s running chemistry (which has a tandem mass spec machine, which I guess is state of the art) and microbiology (UNMC is the state public health lab, so they get tons of micro cases, and have a level III biohazard suite). From 11:30-1 I ate lunch with four residents.

AP schedule is based on a 3-4 day rotation. On Day 1 they gross, Day 2 the residents look at the cases in the morning, then start sign out at 1 pm. Day 3 is a second day of sign out, and Day 4 is conditional on the post-sophomore fellow being on service, and is designated a “float” day, wherein the resident finishes pending cases, helps cover frozens and helps if gross is piling up. The residents uniformly described the 3-4 day rotation as relaxed and very conducive to learning. On their gross day, they rarely find themselves staying later than 6, and are usually done by 5 pm. Signout is also relaxed, as the residents feel they have enough time to preview the cases, and are usually done signing out by 5.

Call is divided evenly among the residents and is assigned by the day, so a resident expects to be on call 1:11 days, and covers 4 weekends/year. First year residents divide up the four major holidays. While on call, the resident stays to cover late frozens, usually until about 7. Generally call involves the transplant service, with lots of frozens of liver parenchyma. Blood bank call is handled only by the resident(s) that are currently on the blood bank rotation, and apparently most of those questions are covered by the staff and medical director. So, 1:11 days, and residents expect to get called about 50% of the time, usually for about an hour. Weekend call covers the autopsy service.

They process about 28,000 specimens/year, including bone marrows, and not including outside consults. Their derm specimens are signed out in-house by two dermpaths. Residents can follow a skin case and sign out with them, but the residents I talked to said they needed/planned on doing a derm elective. There’s a strong pediatric path group in town, about 2 miles from UNMC, that is the only routine “outside” elective site (other elective sites are, of course, allowed. One resident is currently doing something in Sweden for a month.)

Starting salary for PGY-1 is 46K this year. Additional benefits not listed on Frieda are $5/day allowance for lunch, $1,000/year for books/educational travel, one free trip to a conference/four years, and a free trip whenever you’re presenting something. Residents get their own desks, ‘scopes (older Olympus and Nikon at the moment, but $$ is approved for four new ‘scopes/year, which will filter down through the ranks), and computers.

The residents/fellows and some techs gather socially about once a month, and a few times per year an attending hosts a party.

Residents describe Omaha as an affordable city (especially housing- the Omaha Chamber of Commerce states that the median home sale price in 2005 was $138,000, vs. $216,000 for the national average at that time.), with low traffic and crime.

 

[Jesmine]

I interviewed there last week, and I thought I’d post some of what I learned there. This is pretty long, but it was a useful way for me to record what I’d learned. It reads kind of stiff because I tried to stay objective.

The interview basics- 1 night lodging was provided at the downtown Hilton, I had dinner at an upscale brew pub the night before (and managed to restrict myself to only 2 of their delicious pints of stout) with their junior chief (3rd year) and their post-sophomore fellow.

The interview day began at 8 am with their daily didactic session. This varies in format from day to day- sometimes it’s a lecture, sometimes they cut a brain, but at least once a week it’s an unknown conference, which was what was happening on my day. The standard format is to receive a lecture on a group of entities on Monday/Tuesday, and then see related unknowns later in the week. The didactic is routinely attended by all the residents, and more than one mentioned that this “common learning experience” helped establish team learning and esprit de corps. Prior to the 8-9 am session, there’s also a 7:30-8:00 am informal “interesting cases” ‘scope session run by the residents, for the residents, at the residents.


I then met with Dr. Lele, the program director, who moved into the job a little over a year ago, and made many changes (generally described as “for the better” by residents) in the program. He attends the daily didactic and frequently chimes in with questions and comments. He also runs another “interesting cases” ‘scope session at 4:30-5:00 pm.

For the rest of the day I spent half-hour sessions with seven other attendings, representing AP and CP evenly. They generally represented the strengths of their program as 1) strong Hemepath 2) busy and diverse transplant center (they trans everything except lung) 3) strong cytogenetics 4) Good CP with PhD’s running chemistry (which has a tandem mass spec machine, which I guess is state of the art) and microbiology (UNMC is the state public health lab, so they get tons of micro cases, and have a level III biohazard suite). From 11:30-1 I ate lunch with four residents.

AP schedule is based on a 3-4 day rotation. On Day 1 they gross, Day 2 the residents look at the cases in the morning, then start sign out at 1 pm. Day 3 is a second day of sign out, and Day 4 is conditional on the post-sophomore fellow being on service, and is designated a “float” day, wherein the resident finishes pending cases, helps cover frozens and helps if gross is piling up. The residents uniformly described the 3-4 day rotation as relaxed and very conducive to learning. On their gross day, they rarely find themselves staying later than 6, and are usually done by 5 pm. Signout is also relaxed, as the residents feel they have enough time to preview the cases, and are usually done signing out by 5.

Call is divided evenly among the residents and is assigned by the day, so a resident expects to be on call 1:11 days, and covers 4 weekends/year. First year residents divide up the four major holidays. While on call, the resident stays to cover late frozens, usually until about 7. Generally call involves the transplant service, with lots of frozens of liver parenchyma. Blood bank call is handled only by the resident(s) that are currently on the blood bank rotation, and apparently most of those questions are covered by the staff and medical director. So, 1:11 days, and residents expect to get called about 50% of the time, usually for about an hour. Weekend call covers the autopsy service.

They process about 28,000 specimens/year, including bone marrows, and not including outside consults. Their derm specimens are signed out in-house by two dermpaths. Residents can follow a skin case and sign out with them, but the residents I talked to said they needed/planned on doing a derm elective. There’s a strong pediatric path group in town, about 2 miles from UNMC, that is the only routine “outside” elective site (other elective sites are, of course, allowed. One resident is currently doing something in Sweden for a month.)

Starting salary for PGY-1 is 46K this year. Additional benefits not listed on Frieda are $5/day allowance for lunch, $1,000/year for books/educational travel, one free trip to a conference/four years, and a free trip whenever you’re presenting something. Residents get their own desks, ‘scopes (older Olympus and Nikon at the moment, but $$ is approved for four new ‘scopes/year, which will filter down through the ranks), and computers.

The residents/fellows and some techs gather socially about once a month, and a few times per year an attending hosts a party.

Residents describe Omaha as an affordable city (especially housing- the Omaha Chamber of Commerce states that the median home sale price in 2005 was $138,000, vs. $216,000 for the national average at that time.), with low traffic and crime.

Thanks!!! That's very helpful information. May I ask how many people do they interview each time?

 

[ygdrasil]

I was el solo hombre on my day.

 

[LADoc00]

they give you 5 bucks everyday for lunch?? Seriously? Does the surg path director open his wallet and hand out crisp 5 dollah bills so you can go grab an off campus burger or is it a cafeteria credit?

That is cool. (moves UofN up on the LADOC ranking list...)

 

[ygdrasil]

It's cafeteria credit. I absolutely blew my cool when the residents told me about it: "Really? Why... that adds up to... like 1500 bucks a year!" Displaying mad math skills to which they were kind enough not to snicker in reply.

 

[LADoc00]

It's cafeteria credit. I absolutely blew my cool when the residents told me about it: "Really? Why... that adds up to... like 1500 bucks a year!" Displaying mad math skills to which they were kind enough not to snicker in reply.

figure take that 1500 buck credit, pretax income it is more like 2500 bucks/year. Not shabby. Thats a weekend in Vegas for me now, but as a resident that is real money, especially in middle of nowhere Neb.

 

[yaah]

We get cafe money too, the amount depends on what service you are on (you get certain amounts for every call day + certain amounts for each surg path month + some for heme, cyto, etc). I think my first year I got $600, second year was like $1600, third year similar, this year will be more like $500. They also don't add on taxes to it (so a $1.50 meal costs only $1.50 instead of $1.63 or whatever it would be with taxes) because it is pre-tax "income," like health care.

Health care is also a great perk at some programs. We only pay something like $15 a month. Some programs it is free.

Thus, when you start adding in perks, an HO $48000 salary ends up being a lot more.

 

[LADoc00]

my residency program had free Rogaine, Propecia, Viagra and condoms at one point. You just went down to Pharm and threw what you wanted into a bag....then admin. caught on🙁

 

[mlw03]

Health care is also a great perk at some programs. We only pay something like $15 a month. Some programs it is free.

that's very significant. i pay about $100 a month for my private health insurance now, so that kind of thing effectively adds $1000 per year to your salary - not insignificant.

when interviewing, how does one inquire about these things without sounding like a money-grubber? website are often vague, saying only "resident shares cost of health insurance," but how do you find out how much each? same with educational funds. that's salary as far as i'm concerned. whether i'm given money for it or not, there's book a pgy-1 needs to buy, and it's all going to go on the same credit card.

 

[CameronFrye]

We've been harrassing the hospital about this for a couple years, b/c residents in other fields were getting on-call meal money. As of Oct 1st, we now receive 50 bucks a month for meal money. Although things usually move slowly, our dept and hospital do try to be responsive to resident requests. Another example would be our recent book fund increase (now up to $800 per year).

 

[CameronFrye]

that's very significant. i pay about $100 a month for my private health insurance now, so that kind of thing effectively adds $1000 per year to your salary - not insignificant.

when interviewing, how does one inquire about these things without sounding like a money-grubber? website are often vague, saying only "resident shares cost of health insurance," but how do you find out how much each? same with educational funds. that's salary as far as i'm concerned. whether i'm given money for it or not, there's book a pgy-1 needs to buy, and it's all going to go on the same credit card.

You won't look like a money-grubber. In fact, you probably won't need to ask, b/c I think every program gives you a packet with a detailed list of the benefits. Be sure to read things carefully though, b/c a "book fund" means something different at different places. For example, I remember one place that gave 1000 bucks per year, but that money was meant for books, meetings, computers, etc. At our program, we get a dedicated book fund and all meetings are paid for if you are presenting an abstract (you also get one "freebie" your fourth year). Parking and money for resident research are other things you may want to ask about.

 

[ygdrasil]

In my single interview experience, the Program Director was excited to talk about benefits, because he felt his program had a competitive package. Things became more vague when I asked about health insurance, because it really depends on what deductible you want, if you're adding a spouse, or if you're adding a family. So I wound up just asking a resident with a similar family situation to mine what she paid for health.

I've heard of programs that give housing subsidy. University of IA has that listed on Frieda, I wonder what it adds up to, if it just means the program has some cheap condos to rent, or what.