I can give you an overview of what I remember, I am a recent grad of the med school and am at an EM program elsewhere, but I am familiar with the program
Last time I checked:
9-10 different sites broken up into three pods, st. james pod, chicago pod, and nw indiana pod.
Each pod has its own pluses and minuses ie. if you want to live downtown chicago pod is nice, if you like the home hospital st. james pod is nice, if you like trauma you get a little more in the nw indiana pod because indiana does not have a traditional trauma system though that might be changing.
Most of the sites are pretty similar, community hospital between 25k-55k visits a year, no trauma 1s, but you see a wide variety of stuff at these locations.
Sites: You get assigned a pod at the beginning of your second year and do 70-75% of your shifts in the pod and the rest outside of the pod. Intern year is a traditional rotating year mostly spent at st james olympia fields or chicago heights (like all other DO programs). When I was in school NW indiana was the most popular pod b/c supposedly you get more procedures there and see more trauma because any trauma in indiana gets sent to the nearest hospital instead of the nearest trauma 1, but that may change in the future as indiana is trying to organize their trauma system. If you don't get the pod you want you can still do some shifts possibly at that pod (20% or so), but otherwise tough luck. Usually 70-80% of ppl got their number one choice, but you won't know the pod until you are already in the program, so if you are not flexible in where you want to be within the program, then it may be a red flag.
Also rumors during my fourth year were swirling around about losing some sites in downtown Chicago and gaining more sites in Indiana, some as far away as Layfette sp?. That would be quite a drive, don't know if they would provide housing if that occurs. All ED shifts are 12 hours, but less shifts per months than at other programs.
Curriculum: Intern year-TRI, I think 2 months in the unit, 2 months of ED, you get 2 months of medicine, which is a big negative for a lot of ppl, and rumors are your medicine months suck because the IM ppl dump busy work on you all day, but again might just be rumor. Residents within the program have said the medicine months your intern year are terrible, so if you don't like ward months maybe a red flag. Otherwise I think the intern year turns you into a more well rounded EM doc, though if that helps you in the real world...I don't really know. Years 2-4: don't know exactly the break down, I'm sure its on the website, but more months in the ED, trauma at Cook, Tox at Cook which are good months. While I was at Cook the MWU seniors on trauma were solid, just as good as any of the other residents who rotate through County. All in all the worst year is by far your intern year, after that things work themselves out. I am pretty sure you have to do a research project.
Faculty: PDs and aPDs are good. The rest of the faculty who I have worked with are hit or miss. Some are solid, others not so much. Not many I worked with liked to teach, but I was only there for a month at one site, so I am sure it varies. Rumors were swirling my 4th year that the PD might leave, or one fo the aPDs might leave and start his own program, but that remains to be seen.
Benefits: Avg Chicago pay, a small book fund, no iPads (at least a year ago), I don't remember if there was free food or parking.
Overall: Solid program, esp. if you want to be in Chicago. There was a lot of unknowns about the futures that the faculty and administration was refusing to answer, which to me was a red flag. Also a lot of driving around the city and dealing with traffic since you have to do some shifts outside your pods. I think overall the residents are decent, the ones I worked with during my audition rotation were not outstanding, but I think have the intern year the way it is they did not get as much exposure early on as three year MD programs, but still it just didn't impress me much. Also, since it was my home program, we all interviewed on a special day and the interview day for MWU grads was terrible. Faculty seemed uninterested and I didn't seemed valued as an applicant, which was disappointing. I don't need someone to shoot flowers up my ass, but I would liked my home program to have shown more interest in its own students. In the end I went allopathic, but I know quite a few people in the program and they were solid applicants and I think will be prepared to practice in the community once done. If you are looking for a academic job away from MWU in the future or a fellowship outside of the DO world I would recommend looking at some MD programs.
Anyways, there are probably many more people out there, especially ones within the program, who would be able to give a more complete review and might disagree with some of my points, but I figured I'd give my own review/opinion since no one else had posted anything. Cheers
