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Hi! I recently interviewed at NY Methodist but I wasn't that impressed, I was wondering if anyone had heard anything about this place. Thank You!
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NY Methodist
- Thread starter HAM2
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According to a med school acquaintance of mine who was a resident there, they have great clinical exposure, decent machines, and elective rotations through MSKCC. Their didatics can be improved, however. Overall, he was very happy with the program.
He also said that they have a "propensity" to select people of Egyptian decent- Now I'm not sure if he was half-joking or not, but he is also Egyptian-American.
He also said that they have a "propensity" to select people of Egyptian decent- Now I'm not sure if he was half-joking or not, but he is also Egyptian-American.
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Thanks Cancer Doc! That is good to know, it makes me feel better about it. I mean everyone I interviewed with was very nice and they seemed satisfied but I missed some things and wasn't sure about it. Well, I'm not egyptian... but we'll see what happens!
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rads residency going bust has nothing whatever to do with radonc.
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well if the problems that led to rads closing are as you say systemic ones, youre right.
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I'm currently at NY Methodist. I would say the program is a mixed bag.
The Good Things:
1) Patient Population - You will simply never get a more diverse population than here.
2) More than adequate Gyn exposure. I've lost track of how many Cesium LDR insertions and Iridium HDR insertions I've done.
3) The residents. The quip about the program taking Egyptians used to be true, I can confirm. But the program takes only US Medical grads, and none of the current residents is Egyptian. Of the 5 main attendings, 4 ARE Egyptian, which gives the place a wierd vibe until you get used to it. You have been warned. All the residents support each other pretty heavily.
4) Peds rotation at MSKCC, and opportunity to take additional outside electives
5) If you want to experience more of a private practice environment, this is as close to a community program as you get in Rad Onc. You also get a fair amount of autonomy fairly early on, but more on that below.
6) We have all the ususal stuff - IMRT, CT-simming, HDR and LDR brachy, Mammosite, Stereotactic procedures, etc.
7) Located in a trendy part of Brooklyn, located close to Manhattan
8) The program is very stable, and non-malignant
The Bad Things:
1) The attendings also rotate at other hospitals during the week, but you don't. This means that you are at NYM, a patient issue comes up, and you may have to grab another attending who may be quite busy at the time. This is very hard when you are a junior resident.
2) Some of our technology is out-of-date and needs updating badly. We operate a 4MV Linac from the 70's for palliative cases, our conventional sim is practically a museum piece that is completely broken now with no hope of replacement parts, we have a first-generation single-slice CT sim and our scans run on a computer that is ten years old and very slow. We have tried to convince our chair to get a Varian Trilogy to replace the older of our two main Linacs, but he doesn't believe in electronic portal imaging.
3) My biggest gripe is the frank lack of professionalism from our attendings. They are never on time for anything, leaving our front-desk staff to dream up excuses to the patients for why they are waiting for so long (up to 3 hrs in some cases). They will delay patient care to take personal phone calls, and many other instances that I don't have the time to enumerate of lack of professionalism.
4) No protected research time. If you have any pretensions to going into academic medicine, DO NOT come here. Our hospital library sucks, big time.
5) Some recent residents HAVE had issues passing the boards. Partly this is because we receive little formal didactic teaching from the attendings. The weekly didactic lectures are given by the residents themselves. While this can be a great way to learn a subject, you really want to learn from the experts, not the trainees.
6) New York can be a very difficult place to live for a young family. The hospital does rent apartments to its residents, but they are not much below the local going rate.
7) Overall, the department is disorganized
8) The program is very stable, yes, but that's because the same guy has been chair of the department for 38 yrs. He will only leave when they cart him out in a pine box. This means that certain things are done a certain way, just because that's the way they've always been done. Needed changes take forever, if they happen at all. We residents have developed somewhat of a fatalistic attitude towards things ever changing for the better until there is some shake-up at the top. Our attitude literally is "It's only four years, it's only four years..."
As you might have guessed, I have not been entirely happy with my experience here. While I'm happy to have matched into Rad-Onc, this place seems a step-down from the level of education that I received at a well-respected medical school. I have already attempted to transfer once, and am debating whether its worth it to try again. This place will work for some, but I don't think I was a good match for the place.
The Good Things:
1) Patient Population - You will simply never get a more diverse population than here.
2) More than adequate Gyn exposure. I've lost track of how many Cesium LDR insertions and Iridium HDR insertions I've done.
3) The residents. The quip about the program taking Egyptians used to be true, I can confirm. But the program takes only US Medical grads, and none of the current residents is Egyptian. Of the 5 main attendings, 4 ARE Egyptian, which gives the place a wierd vibe until you get used to it. You have been warned. All the residents support each other pretty heavily.
4) Peds rotation at MSKCC, and opportunity to take additional outside electives
5) If you want to experience more of a private practice environment, this is as close to a community program as you get in Rad Onc. You also get a fair amount of autonomy fairly early on, but more on that below.
6) We have all the ususal stuff - IMRT, CT-simming, HDR and LDR brachy, Mammosite, Stereotactic procedures, etc.
7) Located in a trendy part of Brooklyn, located close to Manhattan
8) The program is very stable, and non-malignant
The Bad Things:
1) The attendings also rotate at other hospitals during the week, but you don't. This means that you are at NYM, a patient issue comes up, and you may have to grab another attending who may be quite busy at the time. This is very hard when you are a junior resident.
2) Some of our technology is out-of-date and needs updating badly. We operate a 4MV Linac from the 70's for palliative cases, our conventional sim is practically a museum piece that is completely broken now with no hope of replacement parts, we have a first-generation single-slice CT sim and our scans run on a computer that is ten years old and very slow. We have tried to convince our chair to get a Varian Trilogy to replace the older of our two main Linacs, but he doesn't believe in electronic portal imaging.
3) My biggest gripe is the frank lack of professionalism from our attendings. They are never on time for anything, leaving our front-desk staff to dream up excuses to the patients for why they are waiting for so long (up to 3 hrs in some cases). They will delay patient care to take personal phone calls, and many other instances that I don't have the time to enumerate of lack of professionalism.
4) No protected research time. If you have any pretensions to going into academic medicine, DO NOT come here. Our hospital library sucks, big time.
5) Some recent residents HAVE had issues passing the boards. Partly this is because we receive little formal didactic teaching from the attendings. The weekly didactic lectures are given by the residents themselves. While this can be a great way to learn a subject, you really want to learn from the experts, not the trainees.
6) New York can be a very difficult place to live for a young family. The hospital does rent apartments to its residents, but they are not much below the local going rate.
7) Overall, the department is disorganized
8) The program is very stable, yes, but that's because the same guy has been chair of the department for 38 yrs. He will only leave when they cart him out in a pine box. This means that certain things are done a certain way, just because that's the way they've always been done. Needed changes take forever, if they happen at all. We residents have developed somewhat of a fatalistic attitude towards things ever changing for the better until there is some shake-up at the top. Our attitude literally is "It's only four years, it's only four years..."
As you might have guessed, I have not been entirely happy with my experience here. While I'm happy to have matched into Rad-Onc, this place seems a step-down from the level of education that I received at a well-respected medical school. I have already attempted to transfer once, and am debating whether its worth it to try again. This place will work for some, but I don't think I was a good match for the place.
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