Interesting rec regarding Mayo

[bigdreamer#1]

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Hey all,

So, in my quest to pursue Neurology, I've been fortunate to gain the advice of a well respected, well known by program directors, Neurologist who has been kind enough to actively help guide me in my goal to gain residency. In doing so, he has on several occassions discussed my list of programs of which I have interest. Often times he comments on the programs director, the type of program and if the training is sufficient there and well respected.

When Mayo came up he explained that it certainly is well respected and a suberb facility to send very tricky neruro patients. Although he felt that because of this, that as a resident you get less autonomy and less overall real "practice" because most patients that go there are there to see the "experts." Therefore, he felt that as a training institution it would be best avoided.

I can't help but wonder if this really is a factor, it seems somewhat reasonable to agree with this opinion, but I wonder how heavily this concern is detrimental to residency training? Thoughts? I'd love a discussion......

 

[AlternateSome1]

I was told similar opinions regarding Johns Hopkins, Mayo, and Cleveland Clinic. The impression was that the fellows and the attendings steered and you just did the grunt work, so it was best to go to these big name locations for a fellowship. After interviewing I still placed Cleveland Clinic pretty high on my list, as it seemed like a strong place to train with very happy/personable residents. I would recommend seeing for yourself regardless of what you have been told.

 

[neurologist]

Your "well respected, well known by program directors, Neurologist" doesn't know much about Mayo. Does Mayo get weird cases from all over? Yes. Those patients generally see residents or fellows before they see the attending, just like everywhere else. Pretty much the only exception is when some VVIP shows up. BUT, keep in mind that over 85% of Mayo's patients are local regular people from their regular hospital catchment area of southern Minnesota-northern Iowa-western Wisconsin who show up with everyday bread and butter neurology problems. There is no shortage of routine stuff. You will be closely supervised but that's how you learn. I'd rather be a patient in a setting like that than at some place where the attendings don't even answer their pagers for backup calls and let some R1s and R2s run amok overnight.

 

[bigdreamer#1]

Your "well respected, well known by program directors, Neurologist" doesn't know much about Mayo. Does Mayo get weird cases from all over? Yes. Those patients generally see residents or fellows before they see the attending, just like everywhere else. Pretty much the only exception is when some VVIP shows up. BUT, keep in mind that over 85% of Mayo's patients are local regular people from their regular hospital catchment area of southern Minnesota-northern Iowa-western Wisconsin who show up with everyday bread and butter neurology problems. There is no shortage of routine stuff. You will be closely supervised but that's how you learn. I'd rather be a patient in a setting like that than at some place where the attendings don't even answer their pagers for backup calls and let some R1s and R2s run amok overnight.

Yeah, he's quite opinionated. Thanks for your thoughts, I also had my doubts about the indication that the training would be lacking, so that makes sense about the bread and butter stuff.