I hear its better the 2nd Time...give me more please

[ms.beth]

Input please:
Anyone I want personal thoughts... even if not first hand but also from what you have heard:

I am having trouble with ....Emory, Yale, Duke

Emory...fantastic training. Closest to home. Great city. BUT...too volume "move the meat" driven with lack of ED teaching? Off service at Grady seems sketchy???...kind of a dumpy hospital which though good for ED what about others??? Would I have a life there???

Yale...great training, great faculty, great opportunity for anything in EM, great hospital, good off service BUT malignant?? (so I've heard), under surgery dept w/ internal struggle??, 4 yrs??? New Haven?? I am a southerner and need to be active...outside. Too much of a college town?? Life there????

Duke....great facility and faculty. Sports medicine. Close to family. 3hr from beach. BUT....program??? new and hear questionable things.. off service i hear you get dumped on??? I hear you work, perhaps too hard, all three years. I dont mind a few but all three???? ED volume lacking????

Please help if you don't mind and I won't bug you agian

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[southerndoc]

Yale... malignant? Ha! I find the program far from malignant. You will see many patients (too many sometimes, we are working on that), but the program is anything but malignant. Most of us are on first name basis with most faculty members, including the section chief and program director (she insists we call her by her first name). The faculty are very receptive to suggestions.

The administration might have an internal struggle with surgery (we want department status), but as a resident, I've never seen this struggle. I can't tell we are under the surgery department. The surgery residents never make an issue of it.

New Haven is not as bad of a town as one would think. I spent a couple years in Macon and Savannah, both of which had higher crime rates than New Haven. A lot of southern cities have higher crime rates than New Haven.

As far as life outside the program, there are plenty of things to do. NYC is an hour away by train. Boston is 90 minutes by train. There are plenty of places to do outdoors things if you are into that. A running/biking/skating trail that's 8 miles long is nearby (in Hamden), an indoor climbing gym, outdoor climbing spots, trails for hiking (Sleeping Giant), etc. This place is loaded with music festivals in the fall, many plays during the winter, etc. You won't run out of things to do.

If you have specific Q's about the program, feel free to PM me. Yes, the program is 4 years, but for most of us that's a plus. The international health opportunities are awesome, the EMS experience is very good, and the ultrasound training we receive is second to none. Most of our interns have 250+ ultrasounds by the end of their intern year!

 

[dlung]

Yale...great training, great faculty, great opportunity for anything in EM, great hospital, good off service BUT malignant?? (so I've heard), under surgery dept w/ internal struggle??, 4 yrs??? New Haven?? I am a southerner and need to be active...outside. Too much of a college town?? Life there????

I interviewed at Yale, and had/have similar concerns. I am a California-exile in the Midwest and have desperately missed being active outside...

The college town thing is probably a personal preference. I've met some ex-Yale-ites who had a great time living there. Plus, NYC and Boston are relatively close. One thing that has knocked it down a bit for me is that it's definitely not the most convenient travel location... Hartford's only an hour, but after being in a city with just a regional airport for the past 4+ years, it's been a major pain in the gluteous mm to travel sometimes even with a moderate airport hub an hour drive away. It's a relatively light program, though, which would make it easier to get out of town.....

From my perspective, there's an infinitely larger amount of outdoors stuff to do in CT than in my part of the Midwest. I'm dying to get back into mt biking and snowboarding...

As fer the program itself, the working-relationships are where I expected it to be as it's only 10 years old... they seem to be moving along, however, with physical plant improvements soon and expected dept status in 4-5 years and slowly working out kinks like that weird trauma arrangement they have with surgery... They've had some great faculty placements for their graduates, which is very encouraging to me since I'm probably headed into academics.

I also have a fondness for Yale 'cause I went out drinking with several applicants and residents after the interview and had a blast...

What did you think about Yale?

 

[southerndoc]

As fer the program itself, the working-relationships are where I expected it to be as it's only 10 years old... they seem to be moving along, however, with physical plant improvements soon and expected dept status in 4-5 years and slowly working out kinks like that weird trauma arrangement they have with surgery... They've had some great faculty placements for their graduates, which is very encouraging to me since I'm probably headed into academics.

Just so you aren't misled, there are currently NO plans for improvement of the Yale ED. Bridgeport's ED is undergoing renovation now, but the Yale ED has no short- or long-term plans for improvements. Our section chief (Gail) is trying to get funds for this, but this is in the very early stages and no definite plans have been made.

Department status may occur in 4-5 years, especially given the fact that we have more federal grants for research than the department we are under.

The relationships with the other residents are excellent. I've only had one encounter with a resident (surgery) that was less than ideal. The guy was obviously pissed off at the world for being on call on a weekend, and when I called him for a surgery related issue (a patient they had operated on the week prior), he was very sarcastic and hateful, but I just ignored it. (This patient ended up being admitted, and the resident ended up looking like an a**.) That's been the only incident I've ever had with a resident. I never get crap from residents about admitting patients. When you want a patient admitted, you call the attending yourself, tell them what you have, enter an order in the computer, receive an "Infogram" with the admitting team and pager number, then you call the resident and give them report. Many times the patient is moved upstairs to their room before the admitting resident sees the patient (i.e., they workup the patient after they hit the floor).

If you want further info, PM or email me.

 

[spyderdoc]

From my perspective, there's an infinitely larger amount of outdoors stuff to do in CT than in my part of the Midwest. I'm dying to get back into mt biking and snowboarding...

What did you think about Yale?

My buddy and I went mountain biking all over the place there during residency. The best trails are in Guillford. I used to go w/ one of my co-residents and a couple of attendings as well. We used to always run into (not literally) one of the Pedi EM attendings, who lives near there and always trail running w/ his yellow lab.....There are some good trails down near Bridgeport that are great as well....The trails in Branford are good beginner trails and fun to go trail running as well...I sure miss the biking there. Pretty technical, but a blast. I do a lot of biking here in the Santa Monica mountains now, and I still long for the mountain biking trails of CT!

Sorry, I just saw your MTN biking reference and started reminiscing.....

To get a good review of the trails, go to:

http://www.mtbr.com

Good Luck!
Mark

 

[ms.beth]

Hey all the yale responses are great!!! Good info resting some of my concerns. Others who know about Duke and Emory please let me know.

dlung: i loved it!!! If it were in the south...#1 BUT unfortunatley location is of big concern to me. I have been in NYC for the past 18 months and had a hard time with the lack of space, outdoors, and weather which leads me to hesitate in a NE program for 4yrs. However, Yale is the only NE program I am really considering b/c I got such a fantastic overall vibe during my interview. The faculty was very chill but you could see proactive and into teaching. On top of that there are US, EMS, Sports Med, Intl Med opps that seemed to be the best that I saw on the interview trail (EMS excluded). Overall, it had everything...the residents I met were very cool and normal yet very dedicated and confident. A good mix in my opinion. The malignancy stuff was all heresay...not a vibe that I sensed at all. Like I said....I loved it there and everything about it EXCEPT....location and New Haven?? I guess I have to decide what it most imp.

PS...Islip is 34 miles away according to Expedia...for me to get home they had flights similar(price, cnnxn, time) to out of Laguardia here in NY

 

[aliraja]

When you want a patient admitted, you call the attending yourself, tell them what you have, enter an order in the computer, receive an "Infogram" with the admitting team and pager number, then you call the resident and give them report.

You call the attending yourself? Is this just the private patients? Or are you calling the admitting attending for the non-insured chronic panc that's back for the 10th time in 4 days who just happens to have intractable N/V that you have to admit for hydration?

 

[southerndoc]

You call the attending yourself? Is this just the private patients? Or are you calling the admitting attending for the non-insured chronic panc that's back for the 10th time in 4 days who just happens to have intractable N/V that you have to admit for hydration?

We call the private attendings. Clinic patients we just book and call the resident.

 

[aliraja]

I was just getting a little jealous.

 

[southerndoc]

I was just getting a little jealous.

The only attendings of clinic patients that we call are the specialty clinics (i.e., faculty nephrologists, cardiologists, neurologists, etc.; we call those attendings directly).

 

[bcrosspac]

Input please:
Anyone I want personal thoughts... even if not first hand but also from what you have heard:

I am having trouble with ....Emory, Yale, Duke

[Duke....great facility and faculty. Sports medicine. Close to family. 3hr from beach. BUT....program??? new and hear questionable things.. off service i hear you get dumped on??? I hear you work, perhaps too hard, all three years. I dont mind a few but all three???? ED volume lacking????

Please help if you don't mind and I won't bug you agian

I can respond for Duke. What questionable things are you referring to? I have been on several off service rotations and other than cardiothoracic surgery, I have not felt dumped on at all. As interns, we are working 10 and 12 hour ED shifts. The 2nd and 3rd years are working 8's and 12's (Sa-Sun-Mon). As we increase in size (we are taking 8 per year now), the number of ED shifts per month should decrease. Please feel free to PM me with any specific questions. Our new ED will be incredible and will be done the Fall of 2007.

 

[Apollyon]

I can respond for Duke. What questionable things are you referring to? I have been on several off service rotations and other than cardiothoracic surgery, I have not felt dumped on at all. As interns, we are working 10 and 12 hour ED shifts. The 2nd and 3rd years are working 8's and 12's (Sa-Sun-Mon). As we increase in size (we are taking 8 per year now), the number of ED shifts per month should decrease. Please feel free to PM me with any specific questions. Our new ED will be incredible and will be done the Fall of 2007.

The 12's are Sat/Sun only.