My First Two Weeks as an OMFS Intern

[JPSIntern1]

My first week at JPS, I thought was going to be a whirlwind, and it didn’t disappoint. I didn’t know how it was going to work being on call every other night, having just a little bit of time to sleep. There was really no time for anything other than OMS. A lot of interesting times and big things I wasn’t prepared for from dental school such as sewing up people’s faces and in general being awake 36 hours. It was definitely fun. I knew from discussing with other residents during the process of applying I knew I was going to have long hours. You just can’t get ready for it unless you do it.

I didn’t realize how much trauma there would be. JPS is a Level 1 trauma center, but it’s still a different animal when you have someone bleeding on a table and you’re the one to take care of them. It’s a lot more in-depth and you just get thrown in real quick. So there’s a lot of questioning, “Am I really ready for this?” but then your residents are here and they pick you back up and say “Hey, you can still do this, this is how you start about it.”

For the first couple of weeks, I was working well over 80 hours. Is that about average from what other’s in OMS have experienced?

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[Mr.Scalpel]

Congrats. Please keep sharing your experience throughout the program

 

[Rickytickytavi]

How many weeks have you been at JPS now? Since July, or later?

 

[JPSIntern1]

How many weeks have you been at JPS now? Since July, or later?

Since July

 

[Rickytickytavi]

Since July

Can you tell us how it's changed since then? Still Q2 / 120 hr? What are your duties as an intern

 

[JPSIntern1]

Can you tell us how it's changed since then? Still Q2 / 120 hr? What are your duties as an intern

It's not Q2 much anymore. Normally is about call 1-2 times per week. So roughly 80 hours sometimes up to 100. But I take care of patients in the clinic where we have tooth clinic, TMJ clinic, and maxillofacial oncology and reconstruction clinic. Tooth clinic is extracting, alveoloplasty, small biopsies, new Pt exams, and IV sedation work ups for the fifth year parkland resident. TMJ is working directly with Dr. Warner dx and treating myofacial pain, TMD, Botox injections to muscles of mastication, and OR work ups for arthroscopy or total joints. MORS is where we do more biopsies of cancer- FNA, punch, excisional, incisional and so on. That clinic has a ton of OR work ups where you order labs, schedule and so on.
Also there is trauma clinic were we follow pts who have had ORIF mandibles, orbits, zygomas, leforts, pan facial, etc. and also OR work up for the usual mandible fx and such.

When on call it's in house and you get lots of soft tissue stuff, infections, facial fx, head and neck cancer, and even some ENT stuff like Peritonsilliar abscesses or bleeding noses.

And of course when on call you also manage all in house(hospitalized patients) so any nursing questions come to you. Most call days you don't really sleep. And if it's during the week you go straight into one of the clinics and work it until 5ish. So it's easy to be up 36 hours working before you get to head home.

Overall super intense but fun.

 

[oms321]

The first week was really the most intense for me. The number of hours you work really depend on if you get any sleep or not during your call periods. It could add up to a lot of hours. That was a big shock to me at first.

But yeah, it’s totally different from what I expected. The broad scope here is like Dr. Stella says, it’s like drinking from a fire hose. You have to take it one step at a time. I know I’ve only skimmed the surface, but everything in oral surgery is thrown at you at once over here, rather than getting spoon-fed.

 

[avangusva]

JPS is one of the best non-cat years someone can do. Do you guys still do the orthognathic work-ups? Model surgery?

 

[JPSIntern1]

JPS is one of the best non-cat years someone can do. Do you guys still do the orthognathic work-ups? Model surgery?

Yep we sure do. All five interns have done 5 each now. It's a great learning experience.

 

[crackberry]

There was a huge paradigm shift for me coming from dental school (restorative, hygiene, endo) going into OMFS (tooth clinic, managing inpatients, and working as a hospital intern). We have a lot of responsibilities but also a lot of privilege to be doing the work we are doing at JPS. The Parkland/UTSW upper levels have given us a huge leg up on getting acquainted with the hospital and staying afloat (and not drowning.) Dr. Stella expects a lot of hard work from us but he rewards us a lot with a good resident/attending environment. Everyone is relaxed and supportive here but can turn up their game when things get busy and tough. Overall, an A+ experience in my book.

 

[dentalegyptian]

I agree with @JPSIntern1. I'm also at the same internship and in my first week I had worked more hours than I ever have in my entire life. It was very intense and eye opening. I also couldn't believe how fast we jumped into the proverbial "deep end" with all the trauma we were dealing with and how fast the Parkland residents were training us to get in there and get hands on and involved with what was happening.

 

[JPSOMSInterns]

Yeah, I felt like I was just drowning with so much to learn, but every day I saw complications that I wouldn’t know how to handle normally. The hospital really relies on our team and they respect what we have to say, and so you rise to the occasion. -- "D"

 

[blahblah1985]

Hello JPSOMSInterns
Did your internship make your application stronger and get you more interview invites?

 

[JPSOMSInterns]

Hello JPSOMSInterns
Did your internship make your application stronger and get you more interview invites?

I can't say if it made my application stronger, but I know it made it different from last year (when I was a dental student). An internship probably doesn't cover up any red flags that programs use to weed out applicants i.e. mediocre CBSE or poor grades, but it is perhaps a badge/testament to being a hard worker hopefully.

 

[Mr.Scalpel]

I can't say if it made my application stronger, but I know it made it different from last year (when I was a dental student). An internship probably doesn't cover up any red flags that programs use to weed out applicants i.e. mediocre CBSE or poor grades, but it is perhaps a badge/testament to being a hard worker hopefully.

Good luck on Monday JPSOMSInterns