Does anyone know anything about loma linda's IM residency? the SoCal thread didn't mention anything about it and scutwork.com has 2 old reviews. . .
Loma Linda
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Busy university program. Rotate mainly through the University, the VA, and the County Hospitals. You serve a large and diverse population, including the very poor, and large amounts of spanish speaking only patients. LLU is a tertiary referral center, and level 1 trauma center, with a very proactive ER residency in place (and for people who train at places without an ER residency, you may not appreciate how nice this is). All of the main sub-specialty fellowships are represented - LLU does liver transplant, but I don't think they have hepatology fellowship. I believe they have some kind of night-float system at the University and County hospitals, and the VA is traditional call. I can't speak to research opportunities as I don't remember, but it's a very strong clinical program.
LLU is an institution of the Seventh-Day Adventist church - they folks are not mormons, jehovah's witnesses, or branch davidians ala David Koresh. It's a protestant denomination, with a few doctrines considered generally heterdox to mainstream Christianity (none of which I will bore you with). Treating the whole person, physically, mentally, and spiritually is a goal and emphasis of the institution (but this is not particularly unique to the SDAs, as the Jesuit institutions Creighton and Loyola have a similar goal), treating the poor and missions are a part of this emphasis. A healthy lifestyle is promoted by the SDA church, and as such there is no meat or caffeinated beverages in the cafeteria, but there is coffee pots on all the floors and you can bring and eat whatever you want. Contrary to some rumors I've seen floating around, UNLIKE medical school, you are not asked to sign any lifestyle contract swearing off smoking, alcohol, drugs, premartial sex, etc. You are not required to be Christian or attend any religious services. You may run into attending who pray before or on rounds, you are not expected to participate and are not penalized if you opt not too - these people are more open minded than you might think.
The are is great weather, close to the mountains, and an hour from downtown LA and 45-60 minutes from the beach depending on which beach you go to. Lots of good food, and rent is affordable relative to southern california. There are some HARD neighborhoods surrounding LLU, but the immediate vacinity is nice and safe, and the adjacent community Redlands is really cool.
That's all I can think of, off the top of my head.
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jdh71 did a pretty good job of telling some points. without being too negative (cause i know firsthand what it's like there), some corrections:
good clinical training-in the county hospital it is a county hospital. you don't have to do your own lab draws, but you do have to check and recheck many times to make sure things are ordered, they're going to get done, etc. if you don't follow up, they may or may not get done. so, unless it is fine with your attending for some test not to be done, you have to waste a lot of time following up. and nurses are hit or miss-usually miss, if you're not in icu (it is an open icu). they don't like to do a lot of stuff for you, cause it's "your" job, not theirs. it depends on luck how many months are county you get.
location-i guess you can say 1h to la-if you drive at 2am. basically there will always be traffic during the day, sometimes getting really bad. 1.5h is the fastest unless it is some odd hour at night. as for 45 min to the beach-that is going to a beach in orange county. probably not that quick, cause there is traffic. anyway, the location is not as good as the rest of southern california (we call the inland empire the armpit of socal), but not as horrible as the rest of the US. there is a decent selection of ethnic food, much better than 95% of the rest of america, but nothing like la or oc (other than mexican and thai). as for stuff to do out there-not much, unless you like outdoors stuff like the mountains. but the air is pretty bad, what with all the pollution blowing inland.
redlands is the nicest town in the whole area (rancho cucamonga is pretty nice also, but redlands has more history), and san bernardino is right nearby, and the meth capital. lots of crime there, can be really dangerous. but i'm still alive, but you do read about reports of shootings and stuff. and there was a person from the hospital who got robbed (at an adjunct facility, not on-campus, an employee). loma linda itself should be safe though.
good clinical training-in the county hospital it is a county hospital. you don't have to do your own lab draws, but you do have to check and recheck many times to make sure things are ordered, they're going to get done, etc. if you don't follow up, they may or may not get done. so, unless it is fine with your attending for some test not to be done, you have to waste a lot of time following up. and nurses are hit or miss-usually miss, if you're not in icu (it is an open icu). they don't like to do a lot of stuff for you, cause it's "your" job, not theirs. it depends on luck how many months are county you get.
location-i guess you can say 1h to la-if you drive at 2am. basically there will always be traffic during the day, sometimes getting really bad. 1.5h is the fastest unless it is some odd hour at night. as for 45 min to the beach-that is going to a beach in orange county. probably not that quick, cause there is traffic. anyway, the location is not as good as the rest of southern california (we call the inland empire the armpit of socal), but not as horrible as the rest of the US. there is a decent selection of ethnic food, much better than 95% of the rest of america, but nothing like la or oc (other than mexican and thai). as for stuff to do out there-not much, unless you like outdoors stuff like the mountains. but the air is pretty bad, what with all the pollution blowing inland.
redlands is the nicest town in the whole area (rancho cucamonga is pretty nice also, but redlands has more history), and san bernardino is right nearby, and the meth capital. lots of crime there, can be really dangerous. but i'm still alive, but you do read about reports of shootings and stuff. and there was a person from the hospital who got robbed (at an adjunct facility, not on-campus, an employee). loma linda itself should be safe though.
