Hey everyone, one of the first year residents in the program posting here since I used SDN heavily to look at programs when I was interviewing. After being halfway through my first year here I feel very strongly about this program and I love being here. The amount of procedures (intubations, central lines, chest tubes) that I've gotten while here so far has been very surprising to me. While working at holy cross we are practically the only residents and procedures are ours to have. At Jackson in my first (and only month there so far), I did a thoracentesis (which I hear is rare), a few paracenteses, and arthrocentesis (at Jackson and Holy cross). I haven't been a resident elsewhere, but given this experience so far in my first 6 months I feel comfortable saying we are a procedure heavy residency. I'll also break down the rotations a bit more and our lifestyle in this post.
Most important:
Our class: We have the most down to earth, hard-working, and fun group of residents I could've imagined. Everyone has incredible interests, fun-loving personalities, and we all go out together. More important than going out, we all have house parties together and attendance is mandatory. Speaking for everyone in my class who won't have time to contradict me before I post this, we all love it here.
Our PD's: Dr. Freeman is our PD and Dr. Supino is our APD. These guys want us to succeed! They are constantly on top of everything going on with our learning and we have town halls where they hear our feedback and change things appropriately so that we can get the best training possible. They continuously order things we need in the ED so we can learn to use equipment like nasopharyngoscopes, slit lamps, and various other things. I highly respect each of them and how much dedication they're putting into our program.
Meal plan: We eat real good. Probably one of the highlights here; great fresh sushi. $1375 at Jackson per year. $10 each day at UM hospital (great cafeteria). Holy cross you eat free pretty much.
Living in Miami: Miami is Miami. There is something always going on here, whether it's appreciating art while holding a deep pensive posture during Art Basel, or sucking in your gut while you take a crazy face photo with everyone on the beach, there's a lot that Miami has to offer. I'll stop here before I get off track...(just google "Miami")
Holy cross hospital community EM experience: This rotation is a gem. At first I was discouraged with the 45 minute drive each way, but I honestly love working here so much I'm ok sucking it up. Reason being is whenever I come here, I know I'm going to either intubate, throw in a central line, do reductions (shoulder, elbow, etc.), or something else. I even did intravenous cardiac pacing while here which is a very rare procedure. My classmates have done peds intubations here, peds chest tubes, and a host of other things. Patients are actually really sick here! Especially when the snowbirds come down. This is an intense and busy hospital. You will become good and fast. You will have lots of autonomy. The volume can be high so sometimes you're seeing multiple patients, doing your own workups and presenting to attendings. Always an attending present to help you. I had no idea how much I would like this rotation. I just study EMRAP on the drive up and down, so it helps me get that out of the way.
Schedule: 9's during the day; 8's at night. My hours were pretty good. My first month hours were 155 total and 18 shifts. Of course the driving adds, but I'm not factoring those.
Attendings: The attendings here are community docs who are hustlers and are great at what they do. Very down to earth and fun people to work with.
Jackson: I've only done one month of Jackson EM so far. I felt like I got a good amount of procedures, again (thoracentesis which is rare as well as other basic procedures like lines, arthro, etc.). Patients are sick. This was my first month on so I was mainly trying to figure out what the hell happened to me being on a beach in Thailand, but Jackson was a good experience. I'm looking forward to being there more now that I have some Holy Cross shifts under my belt. Lots of arrests, running codes, Stemi's, strokes.
Schedule: Hours here are definitely much busier than Holy cross: Our official revised schedule is Interns: 190 hours/mo, 2nd year 180 hours/mo, 3rd year 170 hours/mo. You're only on Jackson 2 months your whole first year. We figure this balances out with the holy cross hours.
VA: It's good to experience the VA for a month, really shows you how variable EM is practiced in different environments. You also get a lot of autonomy here.
Jackson Trauma: Great rotation. You are in the Resus bay and not on the floor writing notes and babysitting patients. I feel very lucky to have a month here and then continued involvement throughout our residency. Some of my classmates got upto 5 chest tubes during the rotation. I got 1-2 chest tubes and did cardiac massage on an open thoracotomy patient. Programs come here to rotate in their third year for a month before going off as attendings and I'm amazed at how little trauma experience some programs get. The surgeons are actually very friendly with us and you can have as much responsibility as you want, you run primary survey, do the FAST. You see the patients as they come into the door or pick them up from the helipad, you're really getting a lot of responsibility and autonomy.
MICU: This rotation had good hours (7-5), but I feel is one of our weaknesses during first year, mainly because it is so fellow dependent. Many residents got a good amount of central lines and others didn't, all depended on your fellow and when in the year you have the rotation. You will get plenty of central lines in general, but I just didn't feel challenged on this rotation. Our faculty is very receptive to this and usually change things based on our feedback. The attendings are very good here.
Jackson Peds: On this rotation now. I think we get a ton of peds experience. This is a very busy peds ED and since it is Jackson, we see a lot of complicated sick kids, like ones with transplants and severe complications. We also see a lot of healthy viral kids which I think is very valuable to see. Attendings are great here.
Ortho/OB/Ultrasound: I have not done these rotations yet.
Anyways, I haven't typed this much since my first progress note in med school inpatient medicine. So I'll stop here for now. I could go on and on about how much I love this program. There are lots of great programs out there and I hope you find one that fits you. Good luck with your decision and I hope you get into the program your heart desires. If not, I'll throw out a quick plug for Costco, they have great wholesale deals on Kleenex tissues. And also wine. Good luck.
Feel free to reach out by email if you have real questions and I will try my best to reply and help, even if you are deciding between other programs:
Karl "then a dot" Yousef
Then an "at" Jhsmiami
"Another dot" then put org
^Excuse the difficulty, SDN won't let me post my full email.
