LIJ is a solid program, I complain a lot because life as an intern sucks- and while I love to be busy, I'm very selfish when it comes to my minimum acceptable personal time, which I find is very much lacking this year. This week I worked 83 hours in the CCU. While it hasn't been too bad, and I'm learning a lot, it kills me not being able to just take off for a weekend when I want to and do something fun. I feel kind of removed from the action and energy of NYC out here in Long Island. Today I'm post-call, and planned to go into the city to meet friends, but I'm just too tired to bother with the commute. I really miss having a life.
One resident in psychiatry here did an intern year at St. Luke's in medicine, and she says it was a killer program. She's a psych resident, so to some degree I take what she says with a grain of salt, she worked a lot of ward months and routinely was in the hospital past 8pm on non-call days.
Regarding Cabrini- read the reviews at Scutwork.com. They accurately reflect what I've heard from people who know residents there. Both the medicine and surgery internships are a joke, you won't learn much, and if you're serious about anesthesia, you need to understand sick patients on more than a superficial level.
St. Vincent's (transitional or prelim medicine) is probably the best 'lifestlyle' program in the city. It's probably a good balance between lifestyle and learning.
I'm very happy with where I'm at. I hate internship, but I know I'm getting a good experience, and the people I work with are first class. Having caring and dedicated colleagues is critical to enduring stressful calls, and mitigating the misery of our schedule. I live in Great Neck, a wealthy LI suburb. The food is pretty good here, and it's a nice quiet little town. I'm only a ten minute drive to work, and a five minute walk to the LIRR, which will get you to Penn Station in about 25 minutes.
