New Orleans Programs?

[Bru]

Anyone have insight into the 3 New Orleans programs?

LA New Orleans Louisiana State University Program
LA New Orleans Ochsner Clinic Foundation Program
LA New Orleans Tulane University Program

They are all pretty small but I can't find a lot of information about them. A thread from a number of years ago talked about the Tulane chair but he appears to have left last year. I heard some information/talk that Ochsner is the strongest of the 3 but that's about it.

Anyone got the low down on these three?

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[estes324]

Would have to agree with opinion of others, Ochsner is by far the biggest and strongest of the 3 in Nola.


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[anaesthetic]

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[D P356]

Interviewed at all three a couple years ago. You'd have to ask yourself if you really want to live in New Orleans. Personally, after thinking long and hard I didn't think New Orleans was the place for me, so I ranked accordingly. I did think the programs would have been good for training, however.

I liked Dr Kaye at LSU. They moved to a new hospital I believe. Small program in terms of class size, nice folks.

Tulane was small as well, residents were nice.

Ocshner was nice as well. Good moonlighting.

I believe the programs rotate between each other for trauma/OB/etc. Interview and see where you think you'd fit in the best.

 

[Bru]

I am on the fence about Nola for sure. I have some close friends in the city that are causing me to look more closely at the city and its programs than I would have normally. Ochsner might have be a good option but they tout themselves are a group/private practice experience and I'm leaning more academic at this time.

thanks for the info all!

 

[Crazzle]

Ochsner is by far the largest, strongest and best of the three. You'll get a lot of experience with a wide variety of attendings, most of whom are fellowship trained. LSU actually sends residents to Ochsner for several rotations. With 10 classmates there's a little more flexibility in your schedule too. Moonlighting isn't what it once was but it's still available. As far as the match goes it should be a fairly safe bet since they have so many spots assuming you have good scores and recommendations.

There was fear of LSU losing their program awhile back but that seems to have subsided for now. Very laid back. Tulane is probably the worst of the three, most ancient facilities and whatnot, but that's not saying it's a bad program. You may have a harder time though hitting your numbers at LSU or Tulane. Also, for what it's worth, LSU and Tulane's programs are located in probably the worst part of town, but that is fairly typical of hospitals in general.

New Orleans as a city is a great place to spend a few years. You won't find better food anywhere else in the country. If you already have friends here it'll be that much better.

 

[LonghornDr2013]

Hi everyone

I am currently the chief resident at Tulane. First off, I will be happy to answer any questions people have about Tulane's Anesthesia program. My contact information is:

[email protected].

Feel free to contact me about anything related to the interview and match process for Anesthesia (along with Tulane related questions).

I am very familiar with all three programs in New Orleans (I have friends in all the programs and know the other chief residents in each program). I am only gonna address things about Tulane in this post that have been brought up so far (residents from LSU and Ochsner can talk about their programs).

1. NOLA: Great city to live in. I was born and raised in Texas and never lived outside of Texas until I moved here. Very different from growing up in Houston but in alot of ways I like the laid back atmosphere of the city. There is always a festival or something fun going on. Great food, very nice people, and a unique culture you only find in New Orleans. We have residents from all over the country, and everyone who has trained here enjoyed their time in New Orleans and at Tulane.

2. Size: This year we are matching 5 residents. We are a small program where everyone knows everyone well. We are like a family. We do alot of things together outside of work. Tulane is a Categorical program so you will do all 4 years at Tulane (intern year is 4 weeks medicine, 1 week Anesthesia rotated in 10 cycles, so you get some anesthesia exposure during intern year).

3. Case numbers: I got all my case numbers in my first two years of residency. Currently just short of 600 OB procedures (epidurals and spinals). 41 Heart cases (still have 2 more months of hearts rotations to go), 96 neurosurgery cases, 167 regional procedures (still have one more month of regional to go), 100+ pain clinic procedures, 51 vascular cases, 38 transplant cases, 120 pediatric cases (still have 2 more months of pediatrics to go). Because we are a smaller program, we get first preference on the cases we do each day, which most residents choose to do the more difficult cases that offer more educational value. We have CRNAs cover the rest of the smaller cases so we dont have to shoulder the burden of running the OR.

The residents get to do all lines and procedures for their cases (a-lines, central lines, floating swans, TEE exams, etc); no fellows at Tulane to compete for procedures against. Given the patient population we take care of is much sicker, residents get alot of experience managing multiple comorbidities (most of the time uncontrolled medical conditions) along with the more complex cases


4. Hospital: There are two Tulane Hospitals we do most of our rotations at: downtown and Lakeside. The Downtown Hospital patient population is more the sicker patients in New Orleans (all the hearts, neurosurgery, and more complex cases are done downtown). Lakeside is where you do you OB, regional, and advance pediatrics rotations (along with alot of less complex adult cases). Both hospital have brand new anesthesia machines ( downtown literally got new anesthesia machines this week, Lakeside got brand new machines 2 years ago) so we are using the lastest equipment in the ORs

5. Matching for fellowship: I just matched at Texas Heart for cardiac anesthesia fellowship (it was my #1 choice). I applied to the top 15 cardiac anesthesia programs and got interviews at 13 of them ( including Duke, Cleveland Clinic, Hopkins, Emory, Stanford, etc). We match very well for fellowship in all fields (pain is the most popular people match into). The list of where everyone has matched in last 5 years is on our website if you want to take a look (it will also be shown on interview day). Most people who go to fellowship from Tulane match within their two top choices. Because of our small class size attendings know the residents very well and write very personalized strong rec letters (most places I interviewed at talked about how strong the rec letters were)

In all, I am very happy with training at Tulane for residency. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a strong clinical anesthesia training.

Anyways, I am happy to answer any other questions people have about Tulane. Feel free to contact me at the email above.