Nassau vs. Brookdale vs. NY Methodist vs. Cook County

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I'm sorry, what do you mean closed? forever? both of them? where to look whether the programs are closed? why?
 
their anesthesia progs are closed. i dunno about re-opening status.

I believe you are slightly misinformed. I'm from NY and interviewed at Cook and Brookdale, so I'm slightly up to date on these programs.

Cook County I interviewed at this year and they seemed to be a workhorse program. Your view of this program depends on how you view workhorse programs in general. Those that say that you learn by doing something a million times over will consider this a solid program. Those that don't will probably steer clear. I didn't think it was nearly as bad as people made it out to be. It doesn't have a very good reputation from my attendings/mentors, but this could possibly be due to hearsay since most of my attendings are NY based.

Nassau closed their anesthesia residency, so you are correct, it is closed.

Brookdale is still open. I think you were mistaken since they didn't go threw the match this year. I interviewed there and it is a very solid program in terms of training, but very high on the work hours per week. I would venture to guess that this program would probably average more hours than just about any anesthesia program in the country. Lots of trauma, lots of call, and lots of cases. Not much in terms of name recognition, but I did a rotation at a place that had an attending that was a recent graduate from Brookdale, and he was very very good. All the other attendings used to joke that after doing a residency there, normal practice is like a piece of cake. The attending told me he had a lot of options when it came time to do a fellowship, but a job offer that he liked right out of residency was too much to pass up. The neighborhood could quite possibly be the worst Brooklyn has to offer. The facilities and ancillary staff are horrible. They take mostly carib grads with really high step scores, and I think they prematched everyone this year.

Methodist does this really weird thing where they don't go through ERAS during application time. They have a separate application that you have to fill and have to exclusively send your letters of recommendation and dean's letter directly to them. This seemed odd. I did not apply, so don't really have an opinion on the quality of the program.
 
All the following info is per my husband who is a CA 1 currently; both of us are from NY and interviewed at many programs around here.

Nassau is closed, you are correct.

I know people in the Cook County program,they work hard but they also feel they receive excellent training. Never rotated but from what I was told they seem to have excellent propositions after residency. Also take work hard with a grain of salt; probably any surgical intern would think those hours leave plenty of time for reading and other things and people used to working 40 hours a week might find it taxing. Depends how much you like hard work/anesthesia.

Brookdale I did numerous rotations at, but not anesthesia. They do take mostly IMGs with super board scores and interview all of them and match their spots before the match. They definitely work hard but I felt leery about this program both from observing it during my surgical rotations and from how the residents spoke about it. I also got the feeling they did a lot of off site rotations for subspecialties as well. But someone more familiar with the program might be better suited for advice.

NY Methodist; is in a good region of brooklyn and appeared to be pretty strong in regional. However the PD was to put lightly, the single most arrogant and malignant man I have met in my entire life. And I am a prior prelim surgery resident, no light comment. He repeatedly told me that 99's on my boards were not enough, he had plenty of those around and made direct comments to me about spots being promised a year or two ahead to people he knew (an associate's son, nephew, etc) as to why spots were so hard to get. He also repeatedly admonished me for being a caribbean grad, questioning the validity of my usmle scores in light of that fact, and kept making comments such as "the party's over" when referring to why I wasn't good enough for an American med school. I met some other attendings who were quite nice but it took a lot for me to sit there and have my dignity attacked. Side note is that they also mostly fill internally with a lot of SGU/Ross grads that have rotations set up at the hospital; found it quite funny why he was attacking me about being a carib grad in that light. Anything else about the program that I knew went out the door after meeting with the PD; single most demeaning experience in medicine since starting med school.



Judging from your previous post, you are an IMG concerned about spots and I would def look at all these programs. They are all in major metro areas so if you like big cities, great. I would lean towards cook county first. If you find the PD of methodist slightly more personable, the program seemed good and in a good part of town. Brookdale like the previous poster said is in the war zone of east brooklyn and I just didnt feel too solid about going there. Good luck, it can be done just apply BROADLY. Dont ignore the midwest they have some solid programs out there
 
As far as Brookdale, I worked there for a few years in the ED and rotated through the Surgery Department as a med student. Hands down located in the worst part of NYC (Brownsville is no joke)! There is a parking garage and a bridge that connects the hospital so you never have to set foot on the ground. :scared:

As far as the Anesthesia program, you'll will be exposed to tons of Ex-laps on previously ASA 1 characters, with abdominal trauma. They get the most penetrating trauma in Brooklyn. The residents also rotate through Staten Island University hospital (This is where you'll get the more interesting cases, as per some of the residents I met while I was there as a Med student also). From what I saw the attendings were mostly from Egypt and personality varied. Case load didn't seem so impressive, but there are a lot of ASA 3 & 4 that come through Brookdale ED, so there are challenges on that front. Some of the presents that graduated in the past got some nice fellowships though (pain at IOWA, Peds in Pitt).

Overall I think it's an average program at best in which you will be up a lot while on call and will make you eligible to sit for the boards.

Good luck man!
 
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