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- Jan 15, 2014
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I finally saw FAU (Florida Atlantic University) yesterday, this interview season has been very busy for me and I didn’t write a review about any of the programs that I interviewed in. But since I couldn’t find any review of FAU IM residency, I decide to give you an idea about the program.
So I flew from Chicago (the windy city) and it was -17 F and I am wearing my usual 4 layers with my nice grey wool coat on top. And as I come out of Fort Lauderdale airport doors, I feel this warm air hitting my face and in my head I said “ohh, this must be heaven”. It was 74F out there; a weather shock was just an awesome start for my day…. Anyways I am down to one shirt now, which feels pretty “freshy” after a tough winter at the windy city. So my plane got in at 2pm the day before my interview so I rented a car and drove to the campus. Well this is a brand new residency program so they held the interview at the medical school itself instead of the hospital. So I wanted to go and see the campus and well, I had enough time to explore the neighborhood as well. The campus is newly built with all kinds of facilities… a nice soccer field (I love soccer), football stadium, baseball stadium, gym… you name it. You will see college kids running all around which made me enjoy feeling a senior again. Neighborhood is basically fancy restaurants and of course the FAU student housing.
On my way to the hotel I found the coolest Italian restaurant and they had “real” Italian people speaking Italian. Well I knew it was Italian because I know some Spanish and it didn’t sound familiar, plus every other word ended with “ino” or “ito”. Okay, Enough about experience in this beautiful tropical city.. On to business....
The day started out with Dr. bernardo Obeso the PD giving us a presentation that answered everything you wanted to know about the program. He was very enthusiastic about starting this residency program and gave us an energetic speech that made us want to unquestionably sign the contract and start working for him to build this program. He is very charismatic which made me even more motivated to join the program after his speech. He brilliantly addressed the worries of having no senior residents and was very honest and realistic.
Then it was the time for the individual interviews. It was more of a conversation than anything else. They read through the file already and wanted to know me as a person. All of them have a good record on education before, some of them were already PDs somewhere else .
Then it was time for the tour. We were accompanied by the program coordinator. She is super nice and brilliant. She wanted to tell us everything she knows about the hospitals. Although she does this tour 3times a week for the last 3month, she was very effective in giving us a lot of information about the hospitals. She made sure to engage everyone in the conversation so that everyone feels welcomed which is a plus for her. She was not just doing her job as a coordinator (trust me, I've seen many coordinators who don't give a heck) but she was really welcoming us in every way possible.
We started with the cancer institute, which is newly built, loaded with all kinds of technology out there. Some of the machines are only found in one or two places in all US. I was inspired by the “wall of hope” which is a wall that is full of drawings were done by healed cancer patient. Then we saw the cardiac institute, which is, attached to the main hospital. They do have a post cardiac rehab unit for patient who need to be monitored but don’t qualify to be kept at the main hospital. We also talked about the neuroscience institute, and let me tell you, they are so proud of it. It will open in march and they say it will be another state of art.
Simulation Center…. This was awesome. They have manikins who can pretty much die and rise again. They program it to whatever they can imagine.. Different cardiac arrests, pneumonia, tension pneumothorax.. “you name it, they make it”. They also have manikins to train students on genital and breast exams, are those really good?... I don’t know…Then at the end of the day we had lunch and a closing speech by the PD.
My overall impression:
Pros:
1- It’s a brand new program & affiliated with University of Miami, they want to make a name for themselves. Do they have what it takes? They already made a good name for the hospitals ( Boca Raton is Top ranked by many magazines). Many older experienced physicians are already there because they want to eventually retire in florida area.
2- Funding, Funding, Funding… They do have a lot of donations man. You will see names of pple who donated everywhere; even the elevator was donated by some rich guy. They are constantly building new centers, buying the latest technology although it’s actually a community hospital.
3- Faculty that have this drill down to a science, you will be trained by attendings who been doing this for long time. Everyone who interviewed me had a very thick C.V and most of them been teaching for more than 15years.
4- No graduation in this place ! which means that if your learning curve is faster than someone else’s, your level of autonomy can be earned more quickly and is not based on your PGY level alone.
5- Simulation center that is open for residents and med students to learn techniques and procedures whenever they need.
6- A Big Cancer institute, and Cardiac center… which is a big deal for me because I am thinking about Heme/onc fellowship. Will they open a heme/onc fellowship at FAU? Probably not in the next 3-5years but it’s a very solid center that can make you ready for big named fellowships.
7- Floridaaaaa… I am from Egypt man and I don’t appreciate the -25 F here in Chicago. I can take a vacation for skiing every once in a while but not to live in the windy city.
8- No calls, No night float. There is a 1 month of night medicine ( which I don’t know how that really works)
Cons:
1- At the tour we didn't see the medical floor,they showed us all the highlighted buildings but I think it would be even better if we saw the medical floors just to get an idea how the hospital looks like.
2- NO reputation. which could be an issue for those who want to get big names on their CV. For me, I am a FMG who would work my a** off to make a name for my self so FAU is a very good place to do that since they have tools to allow you to do that.
3- NO SENIOR RESIDENTS… some may say it's a pro,some may say it's a con. I now think it's bad side is bigger than it's good side though.
Reasons NOT to come to FAU (God I feel I am doing something wrong when I say that):
1- Don’t come If you are not a social person. Everyone there is like one family. They are all excited about this program.
2- Don’t come If you are not a hard worker with a positive attitude. They need “energetic” residents to give them ideas to build a strong residency program. So if you are going to bi**h and put the responsibility on others, then don’t come.
3- Don’t come if you can’t handle NOT having a big name on your C.V. for the next 5years. Don’t get me wrong, It’s a university program and everything, but has no reputations YET. So if you don’t want to share in building the history of this program then this isn’t for you.
4- Don’t come here if you already made your rank list and doing the interview just for a safety net (I certainly didn't come for this reason, but it is honestly the reason I visited some programs). You could find yourself falling for this place, and it will totally ruin all the hard work you put into your ROL!!!
So I flew from Chicago (the windy city) and it was -17 F and I am wearing my usual 4 layers with my nice grey wool coat on top. And as I come out of Fort Lauderdale airport doors, I feel this warm air hitting my face and in my head I said “ohh, this must be heaven”. It was 74F out there; a weather shock was just an awesome start for my day…. Anyways I am down to one shirt now, which feels pretty “freshy” after a tough winter at the windy city. So my plane got in at 2pm the day before my interview so I rented a car and drove to the campus. Well this is a brand new residency program so they held the interview at the medical school itself instead of the hospital. So I wanted to go and see the campus and well, I had enough time to explore the neighborhood as well. The campus is newly built with all kinds of facilities… a nice soccer field (I love soccer), football stadium, baseball stadium, gym… you name it. You will see college kids running all around which made me enjoy feeling a senior again. Neighborhood is basically fancy restaurants and of course the FAU student housing.
On my way to the hotel I found the coolest Italian restaurant and they had “real” Italian people speaking Italian. Well I knew it was Italian because I know some Spanish and it didn’t sound familiar, plus every other word ended with “ino” or “ito”. Okay, Enough about experience in this beautiful tropical city.. On to business....
The day started out with Dr. bernardo Obeso the PD giving us a presentation that answered everything you wanted to know about the program. He was very enthusiastic about starting this residency program and gave us an energetic speech that made us want to unquestionably sign the contract and start working for him to build this program. He is very charismatic which made me even more motivated to join the program after his speech. He brilliantly addressed the worries of having no senior residents and was very honest and realistic.
Then it was the time for the individual interviews. It was more of a conversation than anything else. They read through the file already and wanted to know me as a person. All of them have a good record on education before, some of them were already PDs somewhere else .
Then it was time for the tour. We were accompanied by the program coordinator. She is super nice and brilliant. She wanted to tell us everything she knows about the hospitals. Although she does this tour 3times a week for the last 3month, she was very effective in giving us a lot of information about the hospitals. She made sure to engage everyone in the conversation so that everyone feels welcomed which is a plus for her. She was not just doing her job as a coordinator (trust me, I've seen many coordinators who don't give a heck) but she was really welcoming us in every way possible.
We started with the cancer institute, which is newly built, loaded with all kinds of technology out there. Some of the machines are only found in one or two places in all US. I was inspired by the “wall of hope” which is a wall that is full of drawings were done by healed cancer patient. Then we saw the cardiac institute, which is, attached to the main hospital. They do have a post cardiac rehab unit for patient who need to be monitored but don’t qualify to be kept at the main hospital. We also talked about the neuroscience institute, and let me tell you, they are so proud of it. It will open in march and they say it will be another state of art.
Simulation Center…. This was awesome. They have manikins who can pretty much die and rise again. They program it to whatever they can imagine.. Different cardiac arrests, pneumonia, tension pneumothorax.. “you name it, they make it”. They also have manikins to train students on genital and breast exams, are those really good?... I don’t know…Then at the end of the day we had lunch and a closing speech by the PD.
My overall impression:
Pros:
1- It’s a brand new program & affiliated with University of Miami, they want to make a name for themselves. Do they have what it takes? They already made a good name for the hospitals ( Boca Raton is Top ranked by many magazines). Many older experienced physicians are already there because they want to eventually retire in florida area.
2- Funding, Funding, Funding… They do have a lot of donations man. You will see names of pple who donated everywhere; even the elevator was donated by some rich guy. They are constantly building new centers, buying the latest technology although it’s actually a community hospital.
3- Faculty that have this drill down to a science, you will be trained by attendings who been doing this for long time. Everyone who interviewed me had a very thick C.V and most of them been teaching for more than 15years.
4- No graduation in this place ! which means that if your learning curve is faster than someone else’s, your level of autonomy can be earned more quickly and is not based on your PGY level alone.
5- Simulation center that is open for residents and med students to learn techniques and procedures whenever they need.
6- A Big Cancer institute, and Cardiac center… which is a big deal for me because I am thinking about Heme/onc fellowship. Will they open a heme/onc fellowship at FAU? Probably not in the next 3-5years but it’s a very solid center that can make you ready for big named fellowships.
7- Floridaaaaa… I am from Egypt man and I don’t appreciate the -25 F here in Chicago. I can take a vacation for skiing every once in a while but not to live in the windy city.
8- No calls, No night float. There is a 1 month of night medicine ( which I don’t know how that really works)
Cons:
1- At the tour we didn't see the medical floor,they showed us all the highlighted buildings but I think it would be even better if we saw the medical floors just to get an idea how the hospital looks like.
2- NO reputation. which could be an issue for those who want to get big names on their CV. For me, I am a FMG who would work my a** off to make a name for my self so FAU is a very good place to do that since they have tools to allow you to do that.
3- NO SENIOR RESIDENTS… some may say it's a pro,some may say it's a con. I now think it's bad side is bigger than it's good side though.
Reasons NOT to come to FAU (God I feel I am doing something wrong when I say that):
1- Don’t come If you are not a social person. Everyone there is like one family. They are all excited about this program.
2- Don’t come If you are not a hard worker with a positive attitude. They need “energetic” residents to give them ideas to build a strong residency program. So if you are going to bi**h and put the responsibility on others, then don’t come.
3- Don’t come if you can’t handle NOT having a big name on your C.V. for the next 5years. Don’t get me wrong, It’s a university program and everything, but has no reputations YET. So if you don’t want to share in building the history of this program then this isn’t for you.
4- Don’t come here if you already made your rank list and doing the interview just for a safety net (I certainly didn't come for this reason, but it is honestly the reason I visited some programs). You could find yourself falling for this place, and it will totally ruin all the hard work you put into your ROL!!!
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