I'm currently a CA-2 at Ohio State and plan on doing mainaly regional anesthesia after residency. I will tell you that our regional program is top notch.
We do tons of U/s guided nreve blocks and get excellent training in continous catheter nerve block placements. We recently purchased the best U/S machines for this technique.
We also have a ton of Old school regional docs that teach with the "old" nerve stimulator technique.
If there was one area where our program has excelled....it would be regional.
Concerning time off..... There is not a program in the nation that comes close to our schedule. We get 4 weeks Vacation time + 1 week of conference time (most at skiing conferences in vail/park city). That's 5 weeks. We also get 4 days off for thanksgiving and 5 days off for Christmas or new years. Thats almost 7 weeks off without adding 2 weekends free a month on the call schedule, and noncall months. TRUST ME, all good anesthesia programs will train you to be good anesthesiologists. But, having the extra time off to spend with your family or studying makes a WORLD of differance.....I had Duke, Wake forrest, and colorado in my top three untill I interviewed here and actually TALKED to residents.
We do however work pretty hard when we are here. We have a high volume OR schedule and average 60-65 hours/week and do all types of cases, including Liver /Lung/Heart transplants.
We have 3 graduates this year going into pain mangagent. (Loyola, Texas tech, Ohio state). A resident last year to Duke for pain mansaenent. Our current Chief this year is going to harvard for critical care.
If you are interested in RESEARCH or possibly critical care, You could possibly look for better programs. Not that we don't have adequate exposure or opportunities in this area.
NO program is perfect.... but I think we have it prety good!!!!
