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MSU-Kalamazoo
Started by samdaman
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Just random luck, per the PD. On the day of the scramble, Dr. Overton told me it was the worst day of his life.
When I interviewed at Kalamazoo several years back I was pretty impressed. They split their time 50-50 between two hospitals. Everyone seemed happy. It appeared to be a nice place to be.
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Overall, Kalamazoo is a very benign, community-based program with excellent faculty at the two hospitals. Most all residents are satisfied with their training by the end of the three years. The only person I know of who left the program wanted more training in an urban environment; it's not a knife and gun club.
Did it seem like the residents at the program functioned rather autonomously and had many procedures to perform? It seems like that at larger hospitals the level of surveillance is much higher, even on simple things, and you stand in line for your procedures. Any feedback is appreciated. Also, were there a lot of Spanish speaking patients at K-Zoo?
In Kalamazoo, autonomy increases with seniority, as at most programs. In general, if you show that you know reasonably well what you're doing, the attendings let you handle the patients.
Different people might say differently, but my overall impression concerning procedures was that you'll get to do them, but not nearly as many as you would at the urban programs - there's often tension between EM and surgery residents for priority (chest tubes, lines, intubations). In defense of the program, they do have a pig lab every month, primarily for the medical student and rotators, to practice the invasive procedures. And there is a big airway conference each spring that goes over all relevant topics (difficult airways, combitubes, etc.).
There is not a huge Latino population in Kalamazoo, but there are a lot of migrant farm workers (mostly Mexicans) who come through the area. You'll probably see at least a couple each shift, but not as many as in other areas. For example, to the north, Grand Rapids has a much larger Spanish-speaking population. Chicago, of course, does as well.
Different people might say differently, but my overall impression concerning procedures was that you'll get to do them, but not nearly as many as you would at the urban programs - there's often tension between EM and surgery residents for priority (chest tubes, lines, intubations). In defense of the program, they do have a pig lab every month, primarily for the medical student and rotators, to practice the invasive procedures. And there is a big airway conference each spring that goes over all relevant topics (difficult airways, combitubes, etc.).
There is not a huge Latino population in Kalamazoo, but there are a lot of migrant farm workers (mostly Mexicans) who come through the area. You'll probably see at least a couple each shift, but not as many as in other areas. For example, to the north, Grand Rapids has a much larger Spanish-speaking population. Chicago, of course, does as well.
One caveat to my previous post - the premium on procedures that I alluded to above tended to happen in trauma cases, not medical ones. The EM residents pretty much ran everything else unless someone was specifically consulted.
I rotated at K-zoo as a med student last year and have nothing but great things to say about the place! Dr. Overton is definitely the highlight of the program, he absolutely wants to do everything to make it the best experience possible. My impression was that you got solid training there, really nice residents and attendings, and the bonus of lots of flight time. Why didin't I go there if I thought it was so great? I wanted to do county, urban setting and closer to family. However one of my classmates matched there, before the scramble and was really happy. I do however agree with the trauma surgery comment.
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