ophtho residency

[Rudy Guliani]

what's ophtho residency like, in terms of hours, amount of work, % time in surgeries/% in clinic, etc etc? thanks

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

what's ophtho residency like, in terms of hours, amount of work, % time in surgeries/% in clinic, etc etc? thanks

This is a cut & paste from www.scutwork.com. I encourage you to browse the the feedback there, and I encourage other residents to write feedback. It's truly free "advertising" and feedback about your training programs.

Typical work load is Mon-Fri Clinic from 9 AM - 5 PM.

PGY-2 Call is Q5Days with coverage of all weekends and holidays. About 20% of the call will be busy. We see a good number of traumas. Iowa City is small, but we cover the whole state of Iowa and surrounding states. We get some surgical experience on call and during the VAMC. I did parts of cataract surgery with the attending at the VAMC as a first year, lid laceration repairs, temporal artery biopsies, and laser surgeries.

PGY-3 - Call is about 2 times monthly and only during M-Th. Very light load. I averaged 1 day/week in the OR and 4 days/week in clinic.

PGY-4 - Call is Q4Days as senior backup for the first call. Good surgical experience during call. My schedule as a fourth year is 2 days in the OR/week and 3 days in clinic.

Teaching

Faculty are outstanding. Many are well-published. All are interested in teaching and working with residents. The faculty here are a big bonus to the program. Teaching occurs daily at 8 AM during Dept. Morning Rounds. We also have specialty clinic rounds after clinic to review patients. There are also afternoon conferences. Saturday lectures are given by the faculty during a 2-3 hour block on Sat. AM between Sept. - June. It's a great time to discuss basics and cutting edge developments. We have good didactics at Iowa. In recent years, 80% of the graduates have gone to Fellowships at Iowa, Bascom Palmer, Cleveland Clinic, and MEEI. Over the history of our program, 50% have gone to Fellowships. Iowa trains physicians for academics AND private practice. Surgical volume here is excellent with residents performing: 140-170 Cataracts over 100 plastic procedures over 100 retina and anterior segment lasers 30+ cornea procedures including refractive surgery 25-30 strabismus procedures 20+ open globe repairs glaucoma surgeries is variable with residents performing 5-15 filtering procedures.

Atmosphere

What do you think about the camaraderie among peers, attending-resident relationships? Outstanding! How is the physical environment of work area? New facilities with good support staff. What is the percentage of foreign medical graduates in the program? Zero or very low. Most importantly, do you currently have a life outside of work? Yes... of course. Iowa is an extremely resident friendly program.

Conclusion

What stands out in this program compared to others? Strong didactics and designed for resident friendly environment. What are the drawbacks? Parking and Iowa City is small. Would you feel prepared once finished? Absolutely. The job offers are abundant for Iowa grads. Would you choose this program if you had to reapply? Yes. This was my number one choice. What do most of the graduates end up going into? (Prestigious fellowships?, practice?...) 50-50%.