OHSU anyone?

[Chewbacca Jung]

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I interviewed at OHSU and loved the place, but I’m not too clear on the program. They did not really have that all-encompassing propagandous orientation that I have grown accustomed to most programs giving. And while I find that kind of refreshing, it leaves me without a cohesive sense of what exactly they think of themselves. This is particularly important for a program that seems pretty evenly split between university hospital and VA (joined at the hip--no less--by the most amazing sky-bridge ever to span two hospitals). I’m looking for Identity. I get the sense that it’s a sort of do what you want kind of program—particularly in lieu of the fact that some residents are taking time out to do things like acupuncture… They do have some strength in the community psychiatry sector and their transcultural clinic is pretty cool—both of which I am heavily interested in. I did not find any glaring problems, and I’m even placing it in my top two picks—if not #1, but I just wondered what other people thought of their experience there.

Am I crazy that I like the rain and the overcast skies?

 

[atsai3]

I did not find any glaring problems, and I’m even placing it in my top two picks—if not #1, but I just wondered what other people thought of their experience there.

FWIW, one of my co-residents was a medical student at OHSU and had a hard time deciding between our program and theirs. She would have been happy at either. Sorry this is such a vague endorsement, but again take it FWIW.

When I was interviewing, I would have liked to have interviewed there although simply because of the location I didn't think I was going to rank it highly. However, OHSU got back to me too late for me to be able to package it with the rest of my west coast interviews, so I cancelled. Too bad, though. I've read a lot about the transcultural psych presence there, which is something that interests me.

-AT.

 

[Chewbacca Jung]

Thanks for the comments atsai3.

I thought I would try to revive the quandary before it became lost on the second page. Coming, from a school on the east coast-ish, I'm having a hard time finding out "the word" about programs on the other side of the divide. And I would really like to know more about Oregon.

It felt like a great learning environment. There appeared to be a lot of well known and very qualified faculty who have chosen to live in portland, and work at OHSU, forsaking the larger, more competitive Boston, NY, and DC areas, because, for various reasons, they were unhappy in those environments. I think it's a similar phenomenon to both New Mexico's and Dartmouth's programs.

Anyway, does anybody else have anything to add? Any dirt? Any Praise?

 

[DebDynamite]

Well, I can't tell you anything about the program itself, but I lived in Portland for 2 years and it was just a wonderful city to live in. For the short term anyway. I loved the west-coasty feel of the place and the farmers markets, the ease of getting around the town(Max, bus, bike), and they have great restaurants. It's not the biggest, baddest night life scene, but I didn't care about that at all. Powell's and McMinniman's and the seafood were enough for me. It was always beautiful too- all the bridges and the rain making everything glisten and (at least appear) clean.

Why I left (granted I'm from Memphis):
1. The weather is grey and gloomy too many months outta the year! It was nice to see grey for a few days but after a while I was dying (every winter). Even the the full spectrum light bulbs didn't help.
2. The climate (see above) was just too cold for me. Too damp.
3. Most of the people are white (well, compared to the culture I'm from). It was kinda like white- bread central. I'm white, but it was strange to me.

But it was a wonderful place to live, for a while. Sorry I don't know anything about the program.

 

[Still Kickin]

Hey all - I am getting pretty "interviewed out" and am thinking about cancelling my OHSU interview. I was wondering if anyone could give me any feedback about OHSU.

I've mostly been interviewing on the West Coast (but no U Washington - didn't get invited). Is OHSU a similar "caliber" of program as say, UCLA or UCSD? (If it's in the same category, I've probably had enough of those interviews, don't necessarily need another - UNLESS their atmosphere/orientation is drastically different from the various UC programs...)

If it's NOT in the same category as the UC's, would anyone know of other West Coast programs that are of a similar "caliber"? (Again, decision to cancel would be based upon on how many interviews I've already had at similar programs...)

(Add to this that I really want to stay in CA so even if I really like OHSU, it's going to be further down on my list as a "backup" plan...) (But I might list it higher than some of the lowest-tier CA programs that I'm really not very excited about...)

Thanks for your help!

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Hey all - I am getting pretty "interviewed out" and am thinking about cancelling my OHSU interview. I was wondering if anyone could give me any feedback about OHSU.

I've mostly been interviewing on the West Coast (but no U Washington - didn't get invited). Is OHSU a similar "caliber" of program as say, UCLA or UCSD? (If it's in the same category, I've probably had enough of those interviews, don't necessarily need another - UNLESS their atmosphere/orientation is drastically different from the various UC programs...)

If it's NOT in the same category as the UC's, would anyone know of other West Coast programs that are of a similar "caliber"? (Again, decision to cancel would be based upon on how many interviews I've already had at similar programs...)

(Add to this that I really want to stay in CA so even if I really like OHSU, it's going to be further down on my list as a "backup" plan...) (But I might list it higher than some of the lowest-tier CA programs that I'm really not very excited about...)

Thanks for your help!

My entirely second-hand information is that it is a very friendly, collegial program which is probably quite a bit more laid-back than the CA programs you mention. You might like it--but I can understand the interviewed-out feeling.

 

[billypilgrim37]

In terms of pure prestige, I'd put OHSU along with UCI and UC-Davis, an excellent program that doesn't have the reputation of UCLA, UCSF, or even UCSD. It's probably more similar to UW than to the UC programs. I have an incredibly positive view of UW, so I mean that to be a really good thing.

 

[whopper]

OSHU, interviewed there for forensic fellowship.

However you're not interested in the fellowship. You're interested in the general psyche residency.

Can't tell you too much since that's not what I was looking into, but I can tell you the hospitals have good facilites, the people there are very nice (most of them hippies or children of hippies), there's a lot of hippie culture there (e.g. a lot of Jamba Juices, birkenstocks, camping stores).

The atmosphere was laid back.

I have heard a lot of good things about the residency. Unfortunately, I wasn't keeping notes since I wasn't going for that.

Only thing I can tell you that might be of interview interest was I missed 2 interviews during my time there because they had me drive to so many locations that were hours away from each other. They scheduled me in a manner that really didn't leave me much time to find parking, and the hospital campus of the main location is huge, you're bound to get lost. There were also 2 hospitals with the same name but had differing locations, and my interview directions weren't real specific with which was which. They told me a bunch of things that turned out not to be true-like go to parking lot X, and the attendant will be waiting for me and let me park. I get there, only got 10 minutes to get to the next interviewer and the attendant doesn't know what I'm talking about and leads me to a place that's 10 minutes away & will take 10 more minutes to park because there's another attendant there telling me he didn't know why the other guy lead me there. I drove to one place for an interview 2 hrs away, and the guy wasn't there. Turned out he was on vacation.

I don't think you'll encounter that problem because the forensic fellowship interview process was probably not as organized as their general residency program. As bad as the above sounds, I noticed this problem in several other forensic fellowships. A general psyche program will have a few to several dozen interviewed, a fellowship may only have a handful and as are result aren't as organized. I noticed other people being picked up by taxi organized via the residency program, while the fellowship, well they pretty much left me on my own. Reason why I bring this up is if you do interview there, just look into the parking situation ahead of time. I doubt what happened to me will happen to you, but better be safe than sorry.

The hospital is located on a very steep hill, so steep that I hear that during the winter, the staff have to sometimes be transported up a ski lift like elevator. Hey cold weather does not allow you to take time off. At my place of residency, the hospital would pick up employees using a hospital SUV.

Tangential thought but the hospital being on that steep hill/mountain, filled with dark roads because of the heavy forestation, reminded me of a recurring nightmare I had as a kid. When I went for the interview, it was pretty much spot on with how my nightmare appeared. Was wondering if there was some type of Jungian thing going on with it.

 

[Still Kickin]

Thanks for the input, everyone!

 

[IAmAUser]

.

 

[freaker]

The hospital is located on a very steep hill, so steep that I hear that during the winter, the staff have to sometimes be transported up a ski lift like elevator. Hey cold weather does not allow you to take time off. At my place of residency, the hospital would pick up employees using a hospital SUV.

One thing that's worth noting is that Portland RARELY gets enough snow to amount to anything. This winter was an obvious exception, as they got pelted in a rare ice storm that just shut the city down.

 

[whopper]

At my school/hospital there is a nice psych ed where I did an elective that I really enjoyed. At ohsu though, not only is there no psych ed, but patients are admitted from ed to psych by ed docs

Pretty much all psyche inpatients require patients be medically cleared before admission. That means an ER doc will check them out.

To answer your question, where I did residency, after the ER doc saw the patient, they were then either transferred to the crisis psyche unit, or would physically be transferred to inpatient, but only after they were evaluated by a certified psyche evaluator (forgot the name of what they were called in NJ).

The patients in the latter category were only those that were considered pretty much full blown in need of inpatient and didn't need more evaluation. and were from an ER from a different hospital (e.g. someone psychotic & attacking people).

How this relates to your question, is that this mangement style was based on state laws. The laws of Oregon may differ in how psyche patients are admitted.

I thought the crisis center was a good thing because ER docs at least from my experience in NJ often times couldn't tell what was right for admission & what wasn't. However if the laws are different in Oregon, I'm sure (or at least hope) the ER docs would have better evaluation skills on their decisions on who gets into psyche inpatient. One thing I didn't envy about ER docs was that no matter what department received their transferred patient , that dept didn't seem happy to take the patient.

 

[Poitiers2]

Am I crazy that I like the rain and the overcast skies?

Nope. 🙂 Some of the most fun I've had on a beach has been in the Pacific Northwest on a rainy day. It's just incredibly beautiful, with the mists rolling up over the mountains and hovering over the stormy waters. You have little rivers forming through the sand... And many an occasion to puddle jump.

Really, the Oregon coast, especially along the south up from Redwoods, is just immaculate. Perhaps the most beautiful I've seen. There are more than a few amazing hikes. I love the ferns growing everywhere. And the rain makes it the perfect place for a cup of coffee.

I like Oregon, too. It's definitely going high on my rank list. Maybe the people are a bit too liberal for my tastes, but I can get away from that in the forests when I want, anyway. 🙂 Oh yeah, the summer months can be immaculate, too. Just perfect! 👍 Nice little sunshine break.

 

[dakinibean]

Has anyone developed a sense of the call schedule at OHSU? During my interview, I only noted that it seemed reasonable. However, looking at the numbers right now, it seems that q5 24 hour shifts at the VA (with the option to take them from home) for seven months our first year, or q4 call at OHSU might be a bit heavier than at other programs.

I noted that the residents seemed pretty tired of call by the second year (this might be true everywhere), but that they were happy to be "done" by 3rd year.

Did anyone else take better notes?