NYU/Rusk Residency

[espfactor]

I just thought that I would start this thread for people matching next year. There are more threads about specifically NYU than any other program and with the reputation, those questions could be addressed. I will be starting there in 3 months. As I know more, I'll put it here. I have heard how malignant it is and it makes me nervous since I didn't find this out until after I matched. Hopefully the changes I have been hearing about will be enough...if it's not, I will tell others so no one else will have to be lied to. Ask away!!!!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Buster Douglas]

I'm sure stumpjumper and karaoke will be better able to speak on these topics...

But it seems to me, the tales of the Pre-Moroz Era (25 patients per resident & working until 7pm daily) have become an infrequent occurrence. The in-patient days sound pretty typical, 8am-5pm w/ the occassional late admission, and call sounds reasonable (PGY-2: 4-5 calls/month, PGY-3: ~2 calls/month, and PGY-4: ~1 call/month). "5 to 7 hours of sleep on call. No notes post-call, no rounding post-call, just sign out and go home 8am the next morning."

I, too, was skeptical about ranking this program highly, at first, because of rumors of in-patient overload, but after rotating within programs in the city and hearing of recent changes (cut/addition of beds) that have been made throughout NYC, I think I made the right choice. I'm curious to hear what others have to say.

 

[Bionic Man]

Okay we all hear why NYU is malignant based on number of patients, work hours, and call schedule. But as I recall RIC you get 150 beds to watch over all by yourself with 4-5 calls per month (not to mention 11 months of inpatient during the first year), Spaulding you get 165+ beds to watch over, Q5-6, plus two months of MGH which is Q4 and brutal in general, and Mt. Sinai, you get 100 beds to watch over all by your self, and similar calls. All programs you sometimes stay till 7pm. But no one is calling these programs malignant, except there was a post on scutwork about Mount Sinai saying it was worse than internship year. That post was so provoking that I think they took it down for that reason. So is there something else??? I'm not dissing the other programs at all as I regard them all very highly, but there's something in the equation that is missing. Also note that Kessler's combined situation adds up to 138 beds or something around that.

On top of it all, Rusk is now down to 45 beds + 22 peds beds. Bellview is now the least favorite rotation but there are more residents allocated there now. Are the residents just mistreated? Is there "negative politics" going on there? Does the smell of C Diff permeate the wards? Okay no hate mail please, I'm just trying to figure it out. Thanks.

 

[axm397]

But as I recall RIC you get 150 beds to watch over all by yourself with 4-5 calls per month (not to mention 11 months of inpatient during the first year)

At RIC, we do get 150 beds to watch but our call frequency is only 10 calls per 6 months during our PGY2 year, and about 5-6 calls per 6 months our PGY3 year, and 2 for the 1st 6 months of PGY4 year and none after that.

We do 10 months of inpatient during the first year but have one half day a week of clinics for the 2nd half of PGY2 year so it ends up counting as a little more than 9 months of inpatient during our PGY2 year. (Totally different for categoricals as they do 3 months of RIC inpatient months during their PGY1 year)

Just to clarify.

 

[SCIronMike]

Wow, I had no idea you guys covered that many beds on call. At UC Irvine, we are moving into a brand new rehabilitation unit which only has 14 beds (down from 19 beds). In our PGY2 year, we take call from home, a week at a time (Thursday through Thursday), once every 5th week. While on call, we cover the 14 beds at UC Irvine plus the 10 beds at the VA.

 

[Bionic Man]

The more accurate details, the more precision we can get as to the NYU "situation." Not to be so dramatic but I'm sure that those going to NYU really wanna know.

 

[havevih]

Please don't anyone bite my head off for this, I am new here and just starting my 4th year of med school and applying for residency now. I am starting the search process and been reading all the great stuff here about different places and much thanks for everyone's great info...but I have some info for y'all...

I know why no one ever posts anything for NYU...my roommate from med school who is now about to start her residency at Rusk next week. She just got her call schedule for the next 6 months. There is a 3 month stretch where she works 14 out of 16 weekends, some weekends she is q2 days (friday overnight and then goes back in on sunday for overnight) The chiefs scheduled her and everyother R-2 for particular rotations to work only either fri, sat, or sunday, and the only weekday call she got fell on a holiday. The only week day calls are by the 3's and 4's. Her only weekend off falls on her vacation week. She can't moonlight at all. Apparently they wait until they have you before they spring the bad news on you. This isn't word-of-mouth, I saw it for myself. She and 2 other residents that she spoke with over email are plenty pissed. Other residents are equally mad but afraid to say anything...since I am not a resident there, I figure people should know the truth. And the best part is she and the 1 of the other residents starting next week found spots at other programs today that they might take and leave Rusk to simmer in their own lies.

If this program hopes to keep up more than appearances and reputation, I hope this changes because from what I've seen being an intern is only tolerable once...

 

[espfactor]

I'm here and I am gonna stay...Dr. Moroz is the man, and I am confident in my choice...i retract my negative statement...this program is cool and would recommend it...

 

[espfactor]

deleted

 

[zipitydoda]

It's all good

 

[Ligament]

My condolences to you guys. Hang in there. PM&R is a great specialty once you are done with residency.

 

[Llenroc]

My cousin is starting his residency this year in another field.

What he told me about the interview process is that these guys will spend an hour talking about the new sushi bar that was put in the cafeteria, and another hour talking about the room where Herbert Hoover stayed one night, but no time talking about stuff you actually give a **** about like how early you have to come in and what the call schedule is *specifically* like. It's awkward just to bring up those questions.

I think you guys should go over to Scutwork.com, and post your experiences there. That's a resource that's read by a lot of people. I'm personally taking into strong consideration the opinions there to base my own application decisions, as those glossy brochures they send out are completely worthless.

 

[stumpjumper94]

Its surprising to see such dissatisfaction before even starting the program but I can see where this comes from based on just the call schedule they received. Overall, it is true that pgy-2's do take the majority of weekend calls giving the pgy-3 and pgy-4 year a very satisfying experience as you take minimal calls during the month with post-call days off. The thing is that you rotate through 4 possible different rotations during the pgy2 yr and they are all different in experience. With regard to weekend calls...

Hosp for Joint Disease: No one even mentioned of this one where the schedule is lighter and it is essentially home call (I guess that person has no reason to complain).
Bellevue: The weekend schedule at Bellevue is not as frequent and the calls overall tend to be uneventful. Daytime work is minimal and sleeping throughout the night occurs more often than not.
Rusk: Overall, Rusk is the harder of the 4 b/c you're covering more beds including peds and the pts tend to have more needs. The least favorite of the rotations among residents. You're usually working intermittently throughout the day and nights can be good or bad. When I was here I had some bad weekend calls due to sick pts.
Cardiac: Cardiac unit (22 beds), calls are usually uneventful, RNs are very good, you have some work in the am and the rest of the day and night is usually free. Rest is not an issue. I'm usually pretty bored and at times play basketball on the court right above the bldg or call a fellow resident on-call to grab something for lunch or dinner.

Overall, rounding on pts not required and progress notes are not written on the weekend. Call switches are available amongst the residents (roughly 14 each class) and is usually not an issue if you need a certain day off. Yeah, I'm not going to say that the pgy-2 year was just a walk in the park. There were taxing times and I did work hard and I am glad the pgy-2 year is over but as with any other big academic program, you are going to work harder. I knew that going in otherwise I would have gone to a smaller easier program. Here at NYU the smiles definitely get bigger with seniority. The pgy4s had a blast.
The NYU/Rusk PM&R website went live about a month ago and is still being worked on but it is almost complete. Hopefully this will qualm a lot of the false speculation on the message boards. Its pretty comprehensive and the smiles in the candid pics are for real... not Photoshop. There's plenty more pics from social stuff outside the hospital but for now it'll be just the official events.
www.med.nyu.edu/pmr

 

[yellowandred]

I will be starting my PGY4 year at NYU tomorrow. I remember the terrible feeling of seeing that call schedule for PGY2 year. My first thought was to try to go somewhere else to avoid it. I never actually explored that option and I can attest to the fact that things improve greatly with each year. I also think Dr. Moroz is committed to changing the program for the best. One thing to remember about the Rusk call schedule is that the calls are now so light compared to before. PGY2s will also spend likely only 1 or 2 three month block there total because of the large switch over to Bellevue. Being a PGY2 at Bellevue now is a great thing, while it was very call heavy with few to no weekends off in the past. PGY2s will likely spend 2 blocks there, possibly 3 in their fist year. The VA rotations do not even have in house call, only pager call and each resident spends 6 to 9 months at those sites (covering between 0 - 5 inpatients by pager). HJD also has home pager call that is very benign. If you do explore switching programs make sure it is only to go to a really good one. NYU residents have done extremely well at matching at good fellowships, especially in spine and sports. I have found it to be a great resource as a fellowship applicant having nine seniors who have matched and interviewed for fellowship. I had a lot of inside information to help me with the process that would be very hard to find in a small program or a program with few who matched with fellowships. They even put on a dinner with Allergan at the beginning of the year to outline the application process for us and that is something our class will continue for the juniors. I just wanted to give a senior point of view. I completely agree with the frustrations over the schedule. Just remember that you are not going to be run into the ground during those calls, and once you have completed them things will continue to get better and better. I have often wondered if I should have ranked another program at the top of my list, but I have yet to speak to another rehab resident who LOVES their program enough to convince me so. I wish the new residents the best of luck and be sure talk to as many PGY3s and PGY4s for advice throughout your time here. That is something that really helped me.

 

[Karaoke]

For those in the entering class of PGY2s, my advice to you is not to focus so much on the call schedule. Focus instead on making the most of your inpatient floors experience, learning what you can, running the units like a well-oiled machine, and teaming up with your fellow PGY2s at the end of each day so that you can all get out at 5pm on time every afternoon and enjoy the long summer daylight of NYC. Focus on the fact that you get plenty of outpatient clinic time as first-years when you're at Bellevue and HJD, including exposure to EMGs and injections.

Try not to dwell on the strict number of calls, but instead realize that you'll get at least 5 hours of sleep 99% of the time and still get to go home the next morning and do whatever you want without having to "sleep it off" the whole next day. You cover 70 beds, tops, and if you learn to tuck them in at night and make friends with the night shift nurses, you might get more sleep on call than you do at home, like I do.

Take advantage of the fact that with a new program director who is young and energetic, you have an unusual opportunity to effect changes for the better (as the two classes above you have done already). And realize that you'll survive (as I have) and move on to a better PGY3 year, and eventually as seniors take call only once a month and never on the weekends. Consider it an exercise in delayed gratification, if it motivates you to look at it that way.

Above all else, don't feel so sorry for yourselves before you've even set foot in the hospital. There are better rotations and there are worse rotations, and you'll all take turns doing all of them. The Rusk rotations (including cardiopulmonary rehab) are the toughest, but you'll also go to Bellevue and HJD and Brooklyn VA and Manhattan VA. Wide range of patient populations, so your experiences will really run the gamut. It's just that PGY2s take their lumps at the beginning of the journey.

 

[Sanchik]

as someone who is doing internship now and going to rusk nextyear i am starting to regret my choice. i'll basically be doing 2 internships and hearing colleagues who are going to other programs with smaller classes but having less call is hard. with such a large class, q5 call is ridiculous. i did know what i was getting into, but didn't realize how painful time away from my family on those calls was going to be. saddest thing is that i ranked nyu #1.

 

[Karaoke]

as someone who is doing internship now and going to rusk nextyear i am starting to regret my choice. i'll basically be doing 2 internships and hearing colleagues who are going to other programs with smaller classes but having less call is hard. with such a large class, q5 call is ridiculous. i did know what i was getting into, but didn't realize how painful time away from my family on those calls was going to be. saddest thing is that i ranked nyu #1.

Sanchik, I'd again like to urge folks to exercise restraint with regard to
feeling too sorry for yourself before you've spent your first couple weeks
in the program. It's not as bad as the panicky messages above suggest:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=5370724#post5370724

Sure, PGY2 year is the hardest year at NYU, but that's true in a lot of
programs. The first-years are q6 (not q5) for about 9 months, and other
programs have similar schedules -- Harvard and Emory, to name a few.
And if it's free time with your family you want, your frequent post-call
days will give you plenty of time with them because you won't need to
catch up on sleep because it's *rehab* call and you get a good deal of
sleep. Unless you're at one of the especially cushy transitional programs
for internship right now, your PGY2 year at NYU will be *way* better
than intern year.

The reason for the frequent call despite the large class size is the fact
that PGY2s are spread out over four locations and not just one or two.
One is a MSK-specialty hospital (pretty cool); one is a cardiopulmonary
rehab unit (pretty unusual experience); one is a private hospital; and
one is a public hospital. As a PGY3, you will also spend time in two
different VA hospitals (mostly outpatient), so that's yet another distinct
population you learn about. So the silver lining is that you will get
exposure to a wide range of patient populations as a PGY2.

I'm not gonna tell you it's not hard, but there are ways of looking at
it that make it a little bit less bad. You'll work a lot but see a lot, which
may be a hard pill to swallow right now as you're slaving away as an
intern somewhere. But just know that you are going through the worst
year of your career right now, and next year will be better. Don't give
up hope, my friend. You've picked a good field and a good program to
learn at, so the future is looking up.

 

[Sanchik]

thanx,
i rotated there and liked it, but the though of calls is hard. but i just take it one day at a time and hopefully other pgy2's can tell us that's not so bad. s