I am currently a student at UM doing clerkships at JMH.
1. You will probably work harder here than the majority of other hospitals
2. There is a lot of scut/arguing with the lab/arguing with the nurses/arguing with the patients/etc...
3. Something like 1/2 of your patients will speak ONLY spanish or Haitian creole. We sometimes joke that our caucasian patients are tourists, as they are pretty rare.
4. We are the main tertiary care center for an area that includes most of Latin America.
5. The breadth of pathology is insane and unmatched. You will not leave Jackson without "seeing it all."
6. The patients are relatively non-compliant, which is both frustrating and helpful in terms of seeing firsthand the cost of non-compliance.
7. A good portion of your colleagues will be FMGs. This bothers some people. In reality, Jackson is sort of a Harvard of South America. Many of the best and brightest physicians will compete for the opportunity to come train here. They are often better than the US grads.
8. Jackson is associated with UM, which is becoming an academic powerhouse. It really is an odd blend of high level university program (most multi-visceral organ transplants in the world, #1 eye hospital in the world) and county hospital (the elevators don't work, no one will do my stat CBC)
9. If you want a standard experience, a reasonable lifestyle, or a normal patient base, do not come here. If you don't mind exchanging a lot of hours and your native language for some amazing pathology and access to some very high level technology, this might be the place to go. One of my residents on another service joked about taking step III and successfully answering all of the most complex questions while flunking the simple questions about treating things like strep throat.
