OHSU information

[futurepsychdoc]

Hi all--

So, as the ROL deadline approaches, I wanted to see if I could gain any additional information about OHSU.

Strengths: I just loved the program, loved the director (who's unfortunately leaving this summer ), location, and the residents all seemed very nice. They also have every fellowship.

My perceived weaknesses include: the PD leaving, no inpatient child unit, small(er) inpatient unit, non-diverse population, geographic isolation. Seattle and San Fran are far!

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'm super-panicky these days!

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[Doctor Bagel]

So I'm an OHSU person. All the stuff you said, both pros and cons, are true. Our PD is leaving, and we don't know who the new PD will be. I'm assuming they'll make a good choice, but it definitely leaves some uncertainty. Now, the PD is leaving just because he got his dream job elsewhere (not as a PD somewhere else), so it's not an indication that the program has issues. Also the chair and associate/assistant PDs are all staying, so that's some stability.

But we are really nice. I've worked with lots of different faculty on call and in the wards, and everyone's been great. Portland's great, and training at OHSU is the best way to go if you want to work here after graduation.

So cons:

No inpatient child -- very true. It seems like lots of people still go into child from here, so I don't know how big of an issue it is. Lack of ethnic diversity -- also true. Now, I do think we get lots of diversity in our general patient population, though. The patients at the university ward are very different from VA patients, and we also get to spend 3 months at the state hospital.

Small inpatient ward: I honestly don't see this as much of an issue. Each resident handles up to 7 patients (10 sometimes!), so it feels like plenty. And there's no shortage of psychopathology in the university ward. The unit being small (and a general shortage of beds in the state) is bad for patients in that it's not atypical to spend days in the ED waiting for a bed, but I don't see it as being an educational disadvantage.

Geographic isolation: I don't strongly feel this. Seattle is about 3 hours away, and a flight to SF or LA is one to two hours. The ocean and the mountains are also within an hour's drive, and Vancouver's not too far away either. If you want to be close to lots of big cities, though, that's not Portland.

As a resident, I'll throw in my pros and cons:
Pros: really nice people, strong emphasis on public psychiatry, diverse inpatient experiences, Portland!, lots of flexibility in 3rd and 4th year, accessible leadership, lots of autonomy early on (this might change and is good or bad, depending on who you ask), accessible faculty, really good/friendly IM department (this makes your ward months much better), strong need in the region for mental health providers, interesting psychopathology (I think I'm going to feel pretty prepared for life after completing this program)

Cons: maybe too much autonomy in first year(again, this is going to change), lack of ethnic diversity, Portland has a perpetually bad economy (not so great for SOs looking for jobs), a little more call than other programs (again, this will change some -- I think it'll be good for future classes, but my class might have some badness because of this), change in leadership, less support than is ideal from the university (and the university and department aren't flush right now)

 

[Cinnameg]

Hi all--

So, as the ROL deadline approaches, I wanted to see if I could gain any additional information about OHSU.

Strengths: I just loved the program, loved the director (who's unfortunately leaving this summer ), location, and the residents all seemed very nice. They also have every fellowship.

My perceived weaknesses include: the PD leaving, no inpatient child unit, small(er) inpatient unit, non-diverse population, geographic isolation. Seattle and San Fran are far!

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'm super-panicky these days!

I'm also from OHSU (as is probably apparent given my stated location . . . we just have the one medical school here after all). I'm an MS4, not a resident, but I can comment about Portland. You will LOVE IT HERE. Portland is not at all "isolated." We are actually a city and we feel like a city. We are in the middle of a large metropolitan district. If you're from NYC or LA, then Portland is going to feel like a small city, but we are on the major west coast corridor and almost every 4th license plate I see is from California or Washington. Our airport is a major hub for international flights, especially to Asia, and we're a major shipping port also. I've lived here and also in the California Bay Area, and Portland feels a whole lot less isolated than, say, Palo Alto or Oakland, which you actually had to leave to find good cultural life. In Portland you can afford to live right in the middle of the city. Nike, Intel, Keens, and Adidas are all headquartered here, in addition to Tektronix. We have large art, food, music, and EtOH festivals all the time and they are very well-attended/crowded. We have a ton of galleries and starving artists. We consistently are ranked by various magazines and news organizations extremely highly for food, wine, and public transportation. We are in the middle of a well-renowned wine country, after all, which was mispronounced by a waiter at a fancy NYC restaurant I went to as the Will-ah-MEH-tay valley. PETA ranks us as #1 for vegetarians and vegans. Our food cart laws and brewing laws make us the very best city in the country for creative outdoor dining and microbrews. We have more bookshelf space, microbreweries, and coffee shops (and, randomly, strip clubs) per capita than any other city (or at least that was true earlier this decade, can't find the source now) and we have the largest bookstore this side of the Mississippi river. My husband, who is also a Portland native and is helping me with this post, says we're highly rated in the blues scene, but I don't actually know anything about that. My husband and I are involved in ballroom dance, which is big here, and there are tons of parks and outdoor spaces to take our dog.

The disadvantages of Portland are kind of hard to think of, but here's what we came up with:
- No club scene. Or, at least, really not much.
- Rainy. In my opinion, this is probably better than months of snow on the ground, but California certainly has better weather.
- Fewer very good, well-known universities than other metropolitan areas, especially cities on the east coast. We have a lot of small colleges, one (Reed) that is nationally known, but generally speaking the most educated people in Portland got their degrees somewhere else.

So . . . in conclusion, if you rank OHSU lower it should be because you have specific issues with the program, NOT because of Portland. I can't speak very well to the pros and cons of the program. I know it's a bit VA-heavy and that the interns tend to be overworked generally when they are on the non-night-float VA side. I also know that our university side consult service is bashed by every single department at OHSU, much more so than it should be and much more so than it seems to be at other universities where I've done away rotations. Other than that, and what's already been stated about about the PD leaving, I can't think of any issues with the program.

Good luck!!! Hope this helped!

 

[futurepsychdoc]

Dr. Bagel and Cinnameg,

Thanks SO much for the thoughtful posts. I really appreciate your information---VERY helpful with the ROL deadline looming.

Perhaps I'll get the chance to work with you guys next year.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Red Beard]

In terms of "diversity," I think that this is less an issue in psychiatry training than in, say, IM. As long as you have enough patients to see, you will see the same mix of psychiatric issues no matter where you do your residency, unlike IM where you will see more of the rare stuff working at say Mass Gen vs. BF-Nowhere University Medical Center.

 

[notdeadyet]

In terms of "diversity," I think that this is less an issue in psychiatry training than in, say, IM.

Given culture's impact on psych issues, I would guess exactly the opposite. I think having a diverse patient base would be at least as important or even more important than in most fields in medicine.

OHSU seems to recognize that more than most places. Portland may be a 78% white town, but the psych program seems to devote a lot of energy to respecting the diversity of the patients they have. The Intercultural Psychiatry Program being one that comes to mind.

 

[Cinnameg]

Given culture's impact on psych issues, I would guess exactly the opposite. I think having a diverse patient base would be at least as important or even more important than in most fields in medicine.

OHSU seems to recognize that more than most places. Portland may be a 78% white town, but the psych program seems to devote a lot of energy to respecting the diversity of the patients they have. The Intercultural Psychiatry Program being one that comes to mind.

Also, Portland may not be very racially diverse, but the patients seen at OHSU are not exactly representative of the city as a whole. OHSU provides care to a lot of lower socioeconomic status patients, and that is a more racially and culturally diverse group than you would see at, say, a symphonic performance or a rock concert in Portland. On almost all the services I've rotated on, half the patient list at any time is non-white.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Hi all--

So, as the ROL deadline approaches, I wanted to see if I could gain any additional information about OHSU.

Strengths: I just loved the program, loved the director (who's unfortunately leaving this summer ), location, and the residents all seemed very nice. They also have every fellowship.

My perceived weaknesses include: the PD leaving, no inpatient child unit, small(er) inpatient unit, non-diverse population, geographic isolation. Seattle and San Fran are far!

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'm super-panicky these days!

With application season starting soon, I'm feeling the need to update my impressions. Caveat -- I've just started 2nd year so my overall perspective is somewhat limited. Other caveat, I tend to complain a lot online and did go through a stage where I wasn't too happy with the program. Good news, though, is that things have changed, and I think we're a better program now. Also, a lot of my negativity last spring stemmed from a series of just plain unfortunate events in the program (lots of change -- see below) and my just going through some spring intern burnout.

So, positives.
1. Location -- this is an easy one. Most people like living in Portland. I heard someone complaining about it here because there are too many dogs and too many bikes. So if you hate dogs and bikes, maybe you should stay away. And yeah, it rains. But we've only had one day where the temperature got above 90 the whole summer, which is pretty awesome in my book. If you've coming from a coastal area, it's affordable. It's expensive compared with the south and midwest, though.

2. People -- we're still pretty nice. Residents get along and aren't competitive with each other. The overall culture is laid back, which I like. Attendings are generally supportive and friendly. People try to help each other out. The staff's nice, and we have pretty good nurses and social workers on our inpatient units.

3. Change -- We had a lot of this last year, which was a little unsettling. But I think it's energized the program, and the program has honestly shown flexibility and openness in listening to resident opinions. For example, we had a lot of complaints about communication last year. Now we're getting a weekly email from the department about events/happenings/discussions. Didactics are improving, and the call schedule is better. When I did my review last year, I also mentioned getting lots of autonomy in the university inpatient unit, which was both a good and a bad thing. There's now a full time attending in the unit, which has apparently improved the educational quality of that rotation (and reduced resident stress).

4. Philosophy -- I heard one of the residents describe the outgoing PD as having a vision of the program as a place where residents can grow into the psychiatrist they want to be. We have a lot of flexibility starting 3rd and 4th year, and there are a lot of different paths you can go on from here.

5. Psychotherapy -- so far, I'm liking it. Admittedly I'm only in the half day a week stage now, but we're getting a lot of support and good didactics around it. We had some issues with out outpatient university clinic, and the program really stood up for the clinic and for psychotherapy training.

6. Inpatient psychiatry -- I've learned this is not my thing, but we get good training here. If it is your thing, great. I'll begrudgingly say it's probably good for me, too. Maybe this is a neutral for me.

Neutrals/Things I'm not certain of

1. C/L -- haven't done it yet. We rotate at both the VA and the university, and the rotation is pretty different depending on where you are. There used to not be any C/L based didactics, but one of the C/L attendings is adding that in. The C/L people seem to be pretty into teaching.

Cons:

1. Call -- it's better, but we still have a decent amount of it as 2nd years. I've talked about out call revision stuff on other threads. The process was admittedly somewhat stress inducing for those of us in the primary call pool, but the end product is acceptable. We do 6 to 7 weeks of nightfloat and are on call about 2 out of every 4 weekends. Weekend call is either a 24 hour Saturday call, a Friday/Sunday "sandwich" (overnight Friday and a 12 hour shift on Sunday) or just a Friday or Sunday.

First years do weekday short calls (about 2 a week) and every other Sunday. Second years should do about one Saturday and one "sandwich" the first month of a 3 month block (which first years are getting credentialed and all). After that, we do about one Saturday and one Friday in a 4 week period. We also do a few short calls -- I think I have 3 in this 3 month period. 3rd years do an overnight call about every 6 weeks, and 4th years are only in the backup call pool. So we're not San Mateo, but it could be worse.

2. Didactics -- also improving. It seems like this has been a long time complaint of residents with things finally starting to change. Traditionally first year didactics were mainly done by 4th years, but more faculty have been recruited to teach. We also had a neuroscience class that caused a lot of complaints, and that course is being heavily modified. 2nd year psychotherapy didactics are quite good. I can't really comment on 3rd and 4th year didactics.

3. Size/logistic concerns -- we've had some ongoing issues with resident absences, and we're small enough that it can really burden some residents. We're a midsized program covering 2 hospitals, which leaves us small enough to be exposed to problems when a 1st or 2nd year resident can't work. I honestly don't know how this plays out at other programs.

 

[MonsterHospital]

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[MiddleRoad]

If I'm not mistaken, most OHSU residents come from out of state with typically 2 or less per year coming from the home medical school. A resident who knows the specifics can comment about whether that was true this year. You should definitely apply, but make sure you find out why the program is a good fit for you (in addition to focusing on Portland as a great place to live).

Good luck!

 

[Doctor Bagel]

If I'm not mistaken, most OHSU residents come from out of state with typically 2 or less per year coming from the home medical school. A resident who knows the specifics can comment about whether that was true this year. You should definitely apply, but make sure you find out why the program is a good fit for you (in addition to focusing on Portland as a great place to live).

Good luck!

Yeah, I don't know of any bias at all against out of state or out of region folks in OHSU's recruiting. Away rotations can always have benefits in checking out programs and meeting people, so I'd think about doing it. Otherwise, yeah, Portland is an awesome place to live.