Jefferson vs Tufts

[Doctorbob1485]

I interviewed at both of these places and was wondering if anyone could comment on either on. Which has the better reputation? Both seem very similar in term of exposure except Tufts has all of the areas including transplant and hearts while Jefferson does not have many hearts and their residents struggle to get their numbers but their regional is good.
Also could someone comment on the avg hours per day?
Also how is Tufts in terms of their regional experience and transplant?
What is the trauma exposure at either of these places?
Any help would be appreciated.

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[Twptophan]

Plenty of hearts at Tufts. We get occasional kidney transplants. Regional is fair at Tufts, however we are working on getting a rotation at the nearby Baptist hospital which is an orthopedic powerhouse.
Tufts is a level 1 trauma center and we see all types of things. Mostly traumas come in over night on call.
I put in 50-60 hrs per week.

 

[yancantcook]

This is for Jefferson

Which has the better reputation? everyone able to get jobs fine, several went to CA/portland last year, CHOP for peds, not sure how it compares to tufts

Also could someone comment on the avg hours per day? get in 630, leave 4-5pm, ~4 calls/month

typical CA3 will have between 200-300 peripheral RA nerve blocks logged


What is the trauma exposure at either of these places? Very little trauma at Jefferson (located in good part of Philly so not many GSW, car accidents), frankly do you want to be up all night every night like the guys at Temple doing GSW x 3 years?

Hearts: the OR only averages 1-2 heart cases daily, 1 dedicated OR for hearts

Overall: most of residents are very happy here, good work/life balance, admin takes care of residents well

 

[Doctorbob1485]

Plenty of hearts at Tufts. We get occasional kidney transplants. Regional is fair at Tufts, however we are working on getting a rotation at the nearby Baptist hospital which is an orthopedic powerhouse.
Tufts is a level 1 trauma center and we see all types of things. Mostly traumas come in over night on call.
I put in 50-60 hrs per week.

how about liver transplants/whipple and other complicated cases? fiberoptic intubations?
how many block would you say each resident graduates with?

 

[NotAMD]

how about liver transplants/whipple and other complicated cases? fiberoptic intubations?
how many block would you say each resident graduates with?

for tufts, overall very happy with my experience there now that ive been out for a while..

liver transplants, go to a separate site that does a lot, not many at tufts itself, id say youll end up doing 10-20 if i had to guess
whipple - yes you get plenty, maybe one a week your ca2/3 years .. HIPEC too frequently
fiberoptic intubations - lots, you feel very comfortable with it by the time you leave, both for collars, difficult airway, awake intubations, double lumen tube analysis
blocks - ~150 on average i would say, you get months dedicated to regional, good us trained attendings, catheters for knees, single shots for shoulders, hips. there are usually 3-5 ortho cases a day that require blocks

 

[thethethe]

is jefferson a strong program?

 

[Precedex]

how about liver transplants/whipple and other complicated cases? fiberoptic intubations?
how many block would you say each resident graduates with?

I want to make a point about fiberoptic intubations for residents. The number of fiberoptic intubations you do is not really a function of the program you're at (provided they have the equipment). The onus is on you the resident to want to do fiberoptic intubations, get the equipment ready and suggest it to your attending. That is the only way you will get good at them. I don't think you should rely on the staff to suggest you do a fiberoptic intubation. But as staff I see everyone always wants to use the Mac 3 pretty much exclusively which is really unfortunate and detrimental to training.

P

 

[Libertas]

kidney transplants and whipples aren't a very complicated case anesthetic wise... frequently CA1 cases. Especially robotic whipples....break out a book! When people say transplant, I think they usually mean livers/hearts/lungs.

Agree about the fiberoptics, too. Most of the time attendings want to use the glidescope unless its a horrendous looking airway or known to require a fiberoptic in the past; but that being said its easy to ask to do an asleep fiberoptic for practice on any random patients that don't even necessarily have a difficult airway. I think sometimes you just have to figure out which attendings like to do fiberoptics (my program has a few that pull the trigger pretty easily) and then just push them a little on a marginally looking airway. Or, use your non OR months (Pre op clinic, pacu etc) to troll the schedule for first start cases with difficult airways and ask the attending if you can help out.

(Neither a Tufts nor Jefferson resident)

 

[Doctorbob1485]

Thanks for everyone's responses I appreciate it. It helps to clear up a few questions I had.
That makes sense about fiber optic intubations but I know Jefferson has to split their awake fiber optics with the ENT service, which is kind of a turn off. I will take your word for it that whipples aren't too difficult from an anesthesia perspective but I haven't read too much about it yet because I'm still trying to familiarize myself with the basics of anesthesia. When I asked about transplant I ment liver mostly. Thanks for the help

 

[JonnyG]

Thanks for everyone's responses I appreciate it. It helps to clear up a few questions I had.
That makes sense about fiber optic intubations but I know Jefferson has to split their awake fiber optics with the ENT service, which is kind of a turn off. I will take your word for it that whipples aren't too difficult from an anesthesia perspective but I haven't read too much about it yet because I'm still trying to familiarize myself with the basics of anesthesia. When I asked about transplant I ment liver mostly. Thanks for the help

We do not split our awakes with ENT service. They only do them for tumors of the throat. We do plenty of awakes. Jefferson is a spine center. It has a huge ENT and Orthopedics service. There are usually 3-4 whipples a day. By the end of residency, no one is struggling to fill their heart numbers. They do a fair number of liver transplants (50-60 per year), which our reserved for CA3s. I finished last year and felt I had excellent training. Trauma is the only weak thing about jefferson, but gunshots and knife wounds are easy after you have done a few. Just resuscitation. Our regional is excellent. most of my resident mates were averaging close to 300 blocks plus spinals and epidurals. We do have to drive 45 mins to our peds site at a major childrens center. it was good experience but hated the commute.

Work 60-65 hours. one call a week or so. I had a nice work life balance. Ca3 year has good moonlighting opportunities.

 

[Doctorbob1485]

We do not split our awakes with ENT service. They only do them for tumors of the throat. We do plenty of awakes. Jefferson is a spine center. It has a huge ENT and Orthopedics service. There are usually 3-4 whipples a day. By the end of residency, no one is struggling to fill their heart numbers. They do a fair number of liver transplants (50-60 per year), which our reserved for CA3s. I finished last year and felt I had excellent training. Trauma is the only weak thing about jefferson, but gunshots and knife wounds are easy after you have done a few. Just resuscitation. Our regional is excellent. most of my resident mates were averaging close to 300 blocks plus spinals and epidurals. We do have to drive 45 mins to our peds site at a major childrens center. it was good experience but hated the commute.

Work 60-65 hours. one call a week or so. I had a nice work life balance. Ca3 year has good moonlighting opportunities.

Thank you for clearing that up. It alleviates the few reservations I had about the program.