How vital is Level I trauma center to residency training?

[Zico181]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Interviewed at a program I loved but they don't get much trauma through their own ED. They send their residents away to different hospital nearby for more trauma experience (I think it ends up being a one-month rotation each year but I'm not positive). I guess I'm wondering if it would be a detriment to my training to get my trauma experience a month at a time each year instead of being at a hospital with its own level I trauma center and being able to see crazy trauma on a daily basis. And if so, how much?
Thanks!



Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[deleted564680]

Trauma is the easiest and most annoying part of rads according to most people so a month is probably fine. Also, I'm not sure there's a huge difference between level 1 and level 2 if said level 2 is still a big hospital. Level I is just around to say that they'll take all comers and there are certain staffing requirements. It really amounts to having gun shot wounds, high velocity crashes, etc. Otherwise, level II hospitals are going to see everything else if they are big and have a high catchment area. For example, would you see "more" at a 300 bed level I trauma center that has 30,000 ED visits a year or at a 1000 bed level II trauma center that has 90,000 ED visits a year? I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer that question but the point is that it's not a straightforward answer.

I think your choice would depend too on the rest of the hospital you're considering. Is everything excellent except trauma? Is it a high volume hospital otherwise? Is it a high pathology/complexity hospital? I valued those things more but that was me.

And also not a huge percentage of practicing rads even read heavy trauma for their jobs. The only place I think it might hurt is that you might not get as many emergent IR things if IR is your thing. Overall, I don't think it's a big deal but others should certainly weigh in.

 

[cowme]

Strong oncology and surgical sub specialties are the most important.

Trauma is easy and tedious. I would worry about not having much, that away rotation will be plenty

 

[Fab5Hill33]

Trauma is relatively easy. But 1 rotation a year at another hospital seems low. What's more important than a rotation, though, is do you cover trauma on call. That's where you learn to make quick decisions on your own. There's no stress or urgency in nailing down a cancer taking overnight call - it can be biopsied or scoped in the next few days. But when you have to make quick calls on trauma cases that affect whether a patient goes to surgery or not, I think it's actually a really good learning experience and makes you that much more confident coming out of residency.

 

[redoitall]

Interviewed at a program I loved

I am not expert being in your position, but I think everything that matters is in the quote.

Residents in a program where there is no trauma 1 don't complain, the ones who have it don't complain either (aside from perhaps the workload?). There are so many variables in picking a program that I would not let that one detail spoil your feeling (which in the end is the most important). If you loved it then I would definitely go with it. Trauma 1 in house or not, you will become a good radiologist if you put in the work, a great one if you are also happy where you are.

 

[Zico181]

Thank you all for for the great advice, getting everyones perspective on this was very helpful!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[tco]

From what our graduates say, it makes handling volume a lot easier. For instance, if you can just look at a study, quickly describe some facial fractures and say, Left Le Fort II and Right Le Fort I, and move on to the next study, it saves time.

With that said, meh. I don't know if the workload is worth it. I'd personally rather have the night off tonight than going in for an evening call shift, but it's what I apparently asked for.