Malignancy At Univ Of Maryland?????

[Monitor]

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Anyone an Attending, Resident, finished an Interview or a Student at U of M Medical Center? The review on Scutwork makes this place sound like a prison. 😱 Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[VolatileAgent]

you are a prisoner no matter which residency program you go to. if you're lucky, at best you might get into a "club fed" type program.

 

[Lonestar]

This is so on the money.

Guys and Gals, listen to Volatile Agent. The previous statement made is most sensible one I have heard on this board. No matter where you go, you will work!!!! More at some places than others, but in reality you are there to work. I have way too many friends at other places and we regularly discuss our programs. Another advice: Don't put all your faith in the rating system on scutwork; just use it as a guide. There are plenty of disgruntled people in just about every program in this country. So, your goal should be to just get into a program. And then the hazing begins.

well, let me get back to playing PS2 games.

 

[zeusdoc]

Residency is a time to learn and work. Somehow I think people forget that..."Oh, I'm going into anesthesia, therefore it must be easy." No residency program is or should be cush, and if it is, you're probably not learning and being tested like you should be.

Yeah, we all see that MDA's enjoy a great lifestyle, but it's usually a few years AFTER residency. We all have to "put in our time" and work in order to get where we want to be. Use those 4 precious years to learn on someone else's license, not your own. Otherwise, you'll get to the real world and realize the buck stops with you.

 

[jc237]

I got an invite from them too and of course the natural thing to do is to check out Scutwork. Man, those reviews were brutal. Yes, you might say that to be a good attending, you need to work hard during residency. I totally agree. But no thanks, not that hard.

 

[redstorm]

I got an invite from them too and of course the natural thing to do is to check out Scutwork. Man, those reviews were brutal. Yes, you might say that to be a good attending, you need to work hard during residency. I totally agree. But no thanks, not that hard.

The above post is false.. you dont need to kill yourself during residency to be a good attending.. you need to pay attention to all the cases you do.. its not that hard.. most programs in anesthesia they need the residents for labor which is unfortunate

 

[redstorm]

If i had to do it over again i would pick a program that has all attendings and NO CRNAS and you are one to one with an attending.. this maximizes your learning

 

[foxtrot]

If i had to do it over again i would pick a program that has all attendings and NO CRNAS and you are one to one with an attending.. this maximizes your learning

I completely agree with this statement. You really get more learning when there are no CRNA's intertwined with residency programs because the attendings have to be in the room because there is no one else to break you out. I think it is difficult to find programs where there are no CRNA but if you can find programs where CRNA's don't have a lot of interaction with residents, I think it would be very beneficial to one's education. I am at a program where there are alot of CRNA's who break the residents out. And for some reason it just encourages the attendings to be apathetic (i.e. they don't have to come around that often since they know the residents will get breaks and lunches). Now maybe that is just the way attendings are where I am but I do think that programs with very little CRNA interactions are the way to go in terms of acheiving the best residency education.

 

[Etomidate]

Maryland sounds a lot like NW and WashU - solid programs with good names but unhappy residents. Although both of those programs have CRNAs.

 

[2ndyear]

I don't see the one on one resident with attending thing working out in the current academic environment. Are there enough staff to run rooms one on one with residents? I doubt this happens much. Ideal? sure. Reality, no.

 

[Monitor]

What about this quote? "Residents have been asked to “give some more time to the program” out of force/threat and had to do an extra 3-6 months to 1 year in order to complete their residency after their third year." WHAT THE HELL IS GIVING MORE TIME 😱 😱 Is that failing your residency?

This is so on the money.

Guys and Gals, listen to Volatile Agent. The previous statement made is most sensible one I have heard on this board. No matter where you go, you will work!!!! More at some places than others, but in reality you are there to work. I have way too many friends at other places and we regularly discuss our programs. Another advice: Don't put all your faith in the rating system on scutwork; just use it as a guide. There are plenty of disgruntled people in just about every program in this country. So, your goal should be to just get into a program. And then the hazing begins.

well, let me get back to playing PS2 games.

 

[redstorm]

I think first of all that the fact that they have no crnas means the chairwoman has made strides in fostering a physician environment, rather than dumb down anesthesia and hiring crnas so they can say they are better than you when they feel comfortable in their environment; so she should be applauded for this really.

The residency that I went to had a university based and a large private hospital. We spent 50 percent of our time in each.. The private hospital had 50 attendings we were all one on one with out attendings.. This may sound like you are under their thumb more, but i really did feel i learned more. It got you closer to the attendings, we got personal with them and I thought i really learned the nuances of anesthesia there. Meanwhile, back at the university it was constantly tension between the residents crnas and attendings. The attendings were not paid that much so they were unhappy, the residents were unhappy because the attendings were not competent( they had trouble putting epidurals in for cases) and they were unhappy because of their situation. and the CRNAs who would think they ran the department because they were there the longest plus the attendings were not that strong so it gave the crnas more ammunition It was really an awful enviroment to be in.. I really feel i would be a sub standard anesthesiologist if I did not rotate at the large private practice place.. So be very critical of the programs you look at.. I would welcome a close relationship with the attendings.. Maybe even a private practive based residency if they exist.

a thing about didactics: You dont want didactics.. you want to be able to discuss anesthesia.. whether it be with your attending your resident colleagues or conferences. screw sitting in a lecture hall during residency. this will do NOTHING for you unless its a forum where you are discussing cases ..

 

[VolatileAgent]

a thing about didactics: You dont want didactics.. you want to be able to discuss anesthesia.. whether it be with your attending your resident colleagues or conferences. screw sitting in a lecture hall during residency. this will do NOTHING for you unless its a forum where you are discussing cases ..

ummm... methinks you don't understand the purpose of a residency program. you definitely DO want didactics. you want a collegial atmosphere where you can discuss - in a group - what you've read. what you don't want is a couple of different attendings who maybe haven't taken the board in 7 or 8 years giving you different accounts of "what's important to know" based on their own personal predilictions.

lecturing ends (or at least it should) well before the end of medical school. but, you get even further separated from "lecturing" in residency. so, you gotta read, you gotta show up to your lectures, you gotta be prepared to discuss what you read. that's what 'didactics' in a residency program is (at least a GOOD residency program). and, trust me, you definitely want that, unless that is you don't care about passing the boards. without didactics, there's little impetus for residents to pick up a book. don't believe me? ask the board pass rates when you interview. if they actually give you an honest answer, you can believe that this highly correlates with how strong of a didactics program the place you're interviewing at has.

 

[redstorm]

ummm... methinks you don't understand the purpose of a residency program. you definitely DO want didactics. you want a collegial atmosphere where you can discuss - in a group - what you've read. what you don't want is a couple of different attendings who maybe haven't taken the board in 7 or 8 years giving you different accounts of "what's important to know" based on their own personal predilictions.

lecturing ends (or at least it should) well before the end of medical school. but, you get even further separated from "lecturing" in residency. so, you gotta read, you gotta show up to your lectures, you gotta be prepared to discuss what you read. that's what 'didactics' in a residency program is (at least a GOOD residency program). and, trust me, you definitely want that, unless that is you don't care about passing the boards. without didactics, there's little impetus for residents to pick up a book. don't believe me? ask the board pass rates when you interview. if they actually give you an honest answer, you can believe that this highly correlates with how strong of a didactics program the place you're interviewing at has.

how about heavy didactics.. little case variety.. pick one

 

[VolatileAgent]

how about heavy didactics.. little case variety.. pick one

don't you mean heavy didactics with little case variety? is the choice little didactics with wide case variety vs. heavy didactics with little case variety? why can't you have both? and, define "heavy". i have one two-hour 'lecture' once per week and morning report (1/2 hr at most) three days a week. there's also grand rounds once per week (1 hr). so, that's 5.5 hrs/week total, on top of what reading i do at home to prepare. i assure you this has no impact on my OR time. you're creating a false dilemma. you don't really have to choose between the two. you should find a program that provides both, like mine. and i'm still only at the hospital on average about 55-60hrs/week.

 

[davvid2700]

I think he is right.. judging from the amount of money i spent on review courses to study for the boards.. and these courses were not empty.... the residency system are doing something wrong.. I spent nearly 10,000 dollars on review courses time off etc to take boards.. They teach you things in vaccuum, and dont teach you how to think.. Judge for yourself after you figure out what is necessary to pass the boards and most certainly your residency program wont tell you.. even if you have a board examiner as a faculty

 

[Crash cart]

The original question in this thread had to do with anyone's personal experience at Univ. of Maryland. I am very interested to hear about this topic seeing as I am also considering this program. If you do not have SPECIFIC information about this program, please post your general thoughts about residency, didactics, etc... elsewhere. Can anyone meaningfully contribute to this thread?

 

[davvid2700]

I interviewed there and I thought they were really weird and deceiving.. one of the interviewers asked me about post op pain and how i would treat it and stuff.. really not an interview question.. anyway they sent me a letter 2 weeks later saying I would not fit into the program . it was a blessing in disguise because that program looked like it was gonna behell

 

[colchicine]

I interviewed there last year...
The impression I got is that it's a descent program and I got the feeling that I would be strong coming out of there.
It has a good reputation and the chairman is famous in the anesthesia world
The PD is a very smart lady. A great anesthesiologist from what I've heard.
However, she does expect you to put in a lot...Basically I knew I would be working very hard there. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing...After all you're in residency training...you're there to work hard. The more you put in during residency, the stronger of an attending you will be... I'll admit the one bad thing associated with this is it will be hard to read when you put in so many hours at work. This is probably why their board passing rate is around 70/75%, which I'm sure is below national average (however I'm not sure of the exact numbers...does anyone know ???)
Now, some of the residents were unhappy and were honest about it...they were complaining of working too hard, however, one of the third year resident who was applying for pain said you could get any fellowship anywhere you want coming out of there due to the program's reputation....
The program would let you interact with a lot of residents without any faculty being there which I think is a great think. A lot of other programs won't let you see as many residents in private...
As far as the hospital . It's a beautiful, newly renovated hospital and the OR's are state of the art. So at least, if u're gonna be putting all these hours, the environment will be nice...
However, I didn't get the feeling that the program is malignant....that said, I might be wrong...I only spent a day there...
And also, I had never heard any resident telling me about doing an extra year...
I ended up ranking this program somewhere in the middle to "low middle" of my list...one of the reason being I wasn't too crazy about living in Baltimore...
I ended up matching somewhere else that was higher on my rank list...

Hope this was helpfull

Good luck to all of you applying this year !!!

 

[VolatileAgent]

The original question in this thread had to do with anyone's personal experience at Univ. of Maryland. I am very interested to hear about this topic seeing as I am also considering this program. If you do not have SPECIFIC information about this program, please post your general thoughts about residency, didactics, etc... elsewhere. Can anyone meaningfully contribute to this thread?

who died and left you in charge?

 

[Frank Rizzo]

I interviewed there last year...
The impression I got is that it's a descent program and I got the feeling that I would be strong coming out of there.
It has a good reputation and the chairman is famous in the anesthesia world
The PD is a very smart lady. A great anesthesiologist from what I've heard.
However, she does expect you to put in a lot...Basically I knew I would be working very hard there. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing...After all you're in residency training...you're there to work hard. The more you put in during residency, the stronger of an attending you will be... I'll admit the one bad thing associated with this is it will be hard to read when you put in so many hours at work. This is probably why their board passing rate is around 70/75%, which I'm sure is below national average (however I'm not sure of the exact numbers...does anyone know ???)
Now, some of the residents were unhappy and were honest about it...they were complaining of working too hard, however, one of the third year resident who was applying for pain said you could get any fellowship anywhere you want coming out of there due to the program's reputation....
The program would let you interact with a lot of residents without any faculty being there which I think is a great think. A lot of other programs won't let you see as many residents in private...
As far as the hospital . It's a beautiful, newly renovated hospital and the OR's are state of the art. So at least, if u're gonna be putting all these hours, the environment will be nice...
However, I didn't get the feeling that the program is malignant....that said, I might be wrong...I only spent a day there...
And also, I had never heard any resident telling me about doing an extra year...
I ended up ranking this program somewhere in the middle to "low middle" of my list...one of the reason being I wasn't too crazy about living in Baltimore...
I ended up matching somewhere else that was higher on my rank list...

Hope this was helpfull

Good luck to all of you applying this year !!!

I interviewed there last year also, and pretty much agree with everything colchi said. It was actually only one of two non-midwest programs I interviewed at. The lure of shock/trauma drove me there. Low middle on my list as well.

 

[loveumms]

I am a third year at U Maryland and seriously thinking about a career in anesthesia - and like the OP I went to scutwork to read about the program too since I would ideally like to stay in Maryland.

First off, like many of the posters I would have to say (not through experience but from interactions with my residents) that residency pretty much sucks everywhere. Residents are overworked, underpaid and stressed. I'm sure that residents at every institution have something negative to say about their program.

That being said I was really surprised about the review on scutwork. I only rotated on anesthesia for one week during surgery (and am planning on doing a sub-I next year) so my experience is somewhat limited. I worked with a few different residents during that week. One was very unhappy, but I think it was more because she was in her last year and was feeling the pressure of having so much responsibility compared with the previous years. All the others I worked with were relatively happy. They felt like its a good program and they are going to come out confident in the skills they learned during residency.

One of the residents I worked with spoke very highly of the program. He put it like this: if you want to finish residency and know you are a good anesthesiologist then you have to work hard ... some programs are 'easier' in that they allow more time for self-reading and personal time but to him putting in the hours during the residency was better then not feeling comfortable in his skills at the end.

I cannot really speak for the attendings per say because I didn't have too much interaction with them during my one week but, from what I did gather they are interested in teaching. Of course, while on my surgery rotation I tried to hang with the anesthesiologists in the OR and they were for the most part friendly and readily answered my questions (of course I'm a student so it might be different for me then the residents).

Hopefully this helped a little. I would be more then happy to answer any specific questions if I can - you can PM me if you want.

 

[Crash cart]

I'll admit the one bad thing associated with this is it will be hard to read when you put in so many hours at work. This is probably why their board passing rate is around 70/75%, which I'm sure is below national average (however I'm not sure of the exact numbers...does anyone know ???)


How can a program with a 70 - 75% passing rate on their boards have a good reputation?

 

[Etomidate]

How can a program with a 70 - 75% passing rate on their boards have a good reputation?

I think you'd be real surprised to see the board pass rates at some of the top programs. Many of these big guns require long hours, which translates into little time for reading, which translates into poor performances on the boards. And some of the lesser known programs who require less work hours have pristine board pass rates.

One example is that Illinois Masonic usually has the highest board pass rate in Chicago. Reason: lots of time to read.

It's all about finding that balance between clinical training and time to read. Not very easy to do.

 

[UMSOMGASSER]

I am a 4th year student at UMMS going into gas and can comment a little on the program. I have finished my OR and ICU rotations and have seen most of what the program offers.

The faculty here are very strong and as noted, the PD is one of the smartest docs I have worked with in any specialty. The OB, Cardio, Pain, and ICU faculty are also all excellent. The main complaint I heard from residents was that they don't know when they are going to get out on non-call days (ranging from 5-7) and have very little time for reading. Almost every complaint was something along the lines of "man, I have friends at other programs and they don't work anywhere near as hard as us." None of them ever complained about feeling underprepared to practice when finished.

The lack of CRNAs means that residents cover all of the rooms and the ORs are pretty busy. That being said, you will be very well educated and prepared when you come out of this program. If you are looking for a program that gets you out by 4:00 on all non-call days, then this program is not for you, but if you want good exposure to every kind of case imaginable, this is a decent program. All told, certainly there are better programs than here, but this is not as bad as the scutwork review makes it out to be.