have several friends at hopkins and several residents at penn now who were at hopkins. worked very hard. great training. but unequivocally treated like crap. all the time.
i told myself i would stay out of the hopkins related part of these discussions, but this is a load of hot garbage. who do you know at hopkins right now that says they are "unequivocally treated like crap?"
on normal OR rotations, we are relieved or finished with cases between 4-5pm; average 4-5 calls a month on OR rotations with two weekends off a month. 50hrs/week.
cardiac is q4 home call (for after hours or weekend emergency cases), naturally our days are longer (5am-6pm), but post call day, if we don't get called in, we come in at 10am and help turn over cases, see the inpatient pre-ops for the next day, and leave by 3pm. if we do get called in, we don't come in at ALL. since it is home call, each resident takes one saturday and one friday-sunday. two weekends off a month. 60hrs/week.
two weeks of OB night float during our residency, otherwise OB day shift is 7a-7p with three residents (only one has to stay late to sign out to night float, the others are gone by 3p). will have one 24 hour saturday shift, and a 12 hour sunday shift. two weekends off a month. 50hrs/week.
pain clinic is 7a-5p weekdays, 1-2 weekend OR calls, no weekday calls. two weekends off a month. 50 hrs/week.
ICU is admittedly rough; q3 call. no full weekends off; however, on our pre-call days, we round with the team, help out with any procedures, and go home. weekends we only come in if we are on call; and we treat fridays as a weekend, so you get 4 days off during the month. 70 hrs/week.
we have two full days off (thursdays) each month with no clinical responsibility. no ICU, no OR, no OB, no pain clinic. instead of clinical medicine, you get a full day of sim lab, anatomy lab, oral board review, and lectures based on a curriculum that is set up for the whole year - each day basically corresponds to a 1-2 chapters in Barash. last week, it was based on autonomic nervous system physiology and pharmacology. on these days ALL clinical sites are covered by CRNAs, attendings, and fellows; as you can imagine this is a HUGE commitment, and shows the importance of education. the day runs from 7am-4pm. if you are on call that day, you don't report to where you are on call until 4pm; if you are not, you just go home. this school day, as we call it, is TREMENDOUSLY popular amongst the residents, obviously, as i think it is an amazing way to get ACGME required didactics -- otherwise, you are stuck with two undesirable alternatives (which is what you fill find at the vast majority of programs): early morning lectures (meaning you have to come in even earlier to get your room set up) or afternoon evening lectures (when you just want to go home anyway).
for conferences, if you get a poster accepted, you get to go to the conference. not just the day you are presenting, but the whole conference. and it is all paid for. hotel/flight/food. i got over $1500 reimbursement for this past ASA in new orleans. we sent 11 residents, and every dime (except for a few bar tabs, which we felt guilty submitting) was reimbursed. each resident is allowed two conferences a year in this fashion if they get research accepted.
weekday calls on OR rotations start at 3pm. so you have the whole day off before you come in for call. and you are relieved from the OR at 7am, have a 30-60 min post call conference where you discuss the cases from the night, and you are out the door by 8am.
two two-week blocks of vacation per year; and 5 days additional either at christmas or new years (we put in requests, and usually it is a 50/50 split so everyone gets what they want). we get a thursday call before our vacation, and a monday call after our vacation, so time off is maximized. 5 non-clinical days during your CA-3 year for interviews/moving/etc.
now tell me how this is being "unequivocally treated like crap. all the time."??
as someone said before, there are a lot of good programs, all of which will train you very well; in addition, there are probably even a shorter list that will help you in a future career in academics. i do believe hopkins falls in that shorter list, but there are many others that do as well, including penn.
i won't lie and say baltimore is a better city then philly, because it is not (i lived in philly and much preferred it to baltimore). however, as far as the program itself goes, i think penn and hopkins are similar in terms of opportunities you have when you finish, and as detailed above, we are treated quite well, actually. something tells me you are either just talking trash on hopkins because you feel like it, or you are simply misinformed; i'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume it is the latter.
