I figured since someone started the thread for this purpose, I might as well post something. I never want to sound like I'm trying to "sell" anything, but so far pretty much everything has been positive aside from having a little too much time on my hands after work and not being familiar with the hospital system yet.
Been here for about three weeks now on my two month outpatient rehab block (versus msk block versus different inpatient blocks) Everyone's down to earth, (most attendings are on a first-name basis) clinics are well-run with lots of teaching with adequate time to look up things and read if necessary, and everyone seems very helpful for me as I am still trying to learn the system (having done my internship elsewhere.)
So far, the rotating clinic schedule that UC-Davis has done with outpatient (i.e. different half-day clinics each day) has challenged me, but kept me on my toes and made things interesting. I switch from general adult/peds to SCI, neuromuscular diseases, botox/spasticity, NCS/EMG, baclofen pump, post-polio, and amputee/gait.
Clinic load isn't overwhelming which is nice. Dictating, EMR, and PACS systems are all pretty nice as I can access everything from home.
Procedure-wise, I've done a couple of botox injections, baclofen pump refills, and some electrodiagnostic studies. (finished my first full study last week) I still have a long way to go with understanding all the physiology, diagnostic, and technical points of electrodiagnostics, but we seem to get lots of exposure (1-3 halfdays a week) at times with weekly lectures on related topics. I know it's early and all, but I think it's nice to learn about these side-by-side with other rehab topics as they can be inter-related in one way or another. It definitely makes me bone-up on my physiology, anatomy, a little physics, and my diagnostic skills in learning about how these studies fit into the grand scheme of things.
Neuromuscular diseases is also something we get a lot of here. It's not up to me to say whether there is a "too much" exposure of something in a program, but it's definitely a strength and a big research interest here as they have the MDA association. Very interesting and academic. I do enjoy working with a whole team of people on these patients.. everyone from social worker, research coordinator to the pulmonologist and physical therapist.
The only thing that would have made the transition easier would've been had I done my internship here, but so far it has not been a tough transition by any means and since I'm the only resident of my class (out of 3) that did not complete my internship at Davis, they accomodated my schedule to start on outpatient to learn the system before turning me loose on the inpatient wards (starting Sept). Can't wait to do rounds again!