This was hands down my favorite interview day on the trail, even among a slew of 'bigger name' programs. Definitely worth strong consideration, and I believe this will be a program we will be hearing more about in coming years.
IMPRESSIONS:
1. This program's top priority is teaching residents. They purposely do not take fellows for this purpose and emphasize it hugely in their training philosophy. Residents are taught one on one by attendings in clinic and in the OR (2:1 faculty to resident ratio).
2. Top notch faculty. Dr. Quillen, the chairman, is exceptionally well-connected and has a great reputation in the field. Dr. Ingrid Scott, as mentioned above, is a legend in retina and take a strong interest in teaching residents. They have hired on several new faculty in recent years from big name programs that are adding hugely to the curriculum and surgical teaching. The faculty absolutely go to bat for their residents and it shows in their phenomenal fellowship placement history. Icing on the cake is that the faculty as a group were far and away the kindest, most approachable, personable and welcoming people I met on the interview trail.
3. Surgical experience. Residents are taught how to operate initially via a comprehensive surgical curriculum involving supervised time by attendings in the wet lab. This endeavor is being spearheaded by one of the excellent newer surgical attendings from Bascom. Once satisfied with their progress, residents are then allowed to begin operating in a remarkably autonomous way. Again, with there being no fellows, residents are allowed to tackle a huge variety and amount of cases. One of the residents also remarked that in general they allow residents a great deal of independence while operating. As soon as residents are deemed capable and pass the surgical orientation program in the wet lab, they begin operating as the primary surgeon, and if a complication arises they avoid 'switching chairs' if at all possible, preferring instead to talk the residents through the fix.
4. Case volume. Residents get high numbers of phacos and other procedures given the fact that Penn State, unlike programs in bigger cities, has a huge catchment area with no real surrounding competitors. A recent partnership formed with another central PA health system has resulted in an even greater volume. Trauma is high as you are in farm country, so the residents get frequent experience with open globes etc. with no fellows to compete with for OR time.
5. Fellowship placement. Absolutely first rate placement. Approximately 2/3 of grads pursue fellowship. The most recent match included Wills Cornea and Emory Glaucoma, and past years have been full of repeat matches to Wills, Bascom, MEEI, NYEEI, Wilmer, Case Western etc. This is a strong testament to the overall quality of the residents the program produces, as these top-notch programs take Penn State grads year after year.
6. Remarkable autonomy. Seniors spend 8 months running the VA in Lebanon, during which time they function with the remarkable independence the program values (but with an attending available if needed).
7. Possible cons. There are very few downsides to this program. Some will not appreciate the location. Hershey is a lovely little town near the larger towns of Harrisburg and Lancaster, and Philly is a little over an hour away via car or Amtrak. It is in the middle of Pennsylvania Dutch Country with rolling hills and farms, which I found to be beautiful. If you like nightlife it probably is not the ideal location for you. Residents tend to be married and family oriented, which could be a positive or negative depending on your situation. Some will see the lack of fellowship opportunities available at the program as a downside, but with their well established pipelines to the big name fellowship programs I don't see that as an issue.
Overall this is an extremely strong program that gives its residents remarkable focused teaching, high surgical volumes, an extremely high degree of appropriate graduated autonomy both in the clinic and the OR, all in an extremely warm and supportive environment with an exceptional history of top-notch fellowship placement. Absolutely worth a look.
... ( because it's in Hershey.)
