Preliminary surgery university program vs community program

[RC2018]

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Going to radiology, prefer preliminary surgery over preliminary medicine.
Is it better to do the prelim surg at big name university programs or community programs?

 

[parcus]

I have the exact same issue for my prelim choices. IMO a surgery prelim at a university program is likely better, but not surely. At least for me, nothing gets me more frustrated than doing dumb **** for my patients because the attending has decided he didn't need to learn anything new after he got out of residency. No amount of extra free hours can make up for that. Besides, at least in my experience talking to residents, university programs tend to have less scut work and more interesting things than community programs. And, IMO, the more scut work, the more likely things are disorganized => the less likely people are to care about ideal patient management. But, I know a community programs that is just as good or even better than some university programs, so it is much more important is how you felt about the culture of the place during your interview.

 

[doc05]

No. Don't do a prelim surgery year. It's all scut (especially at a university program) and a waste of your time.

Do a transitional year, or prelim IM at a nice program.

 

[parcus]

No. Don't do a prelim surgery year. It's all scut (especially at a university program) and a waste of your time.

Do a transitional year, or prelim IM at a nice program.

I stand corrected. Most of surgery prelims are worse. However, I interviewed at the good ones from what i read. Anyways, some people consider writing notes scutwork (especially surgery residents), so you might end up doing lots of “scut” in medicine as well.

 

[ddjamb]

Are you guys saying that surgery prelim is same as being a medical assistant or a Scribe? for one year, you will report vitals, ask patients if they had a bowel movement and writing notes? I really wanna know what is expected from a surg prelim intern.

 

[gutonc]

Are you guys saying that surgery prelim is same as being a medical assistant or a Scribe? for one year, you will report vitals, ask patients if they had a bowel movement and writing notes? I really wanna know what is expected from a surg prelim intern.

No...you get yelled at a lot more as a surgery prelim than you would as a scribe or MA.

But otherwise, yeah...pretty much.

 

[TraumaLlamaMD]

Our prelims cover cases just like our categoricals - may be a function of having NP help with floor work and a fairly busy OR. Regardless, I wouldn’t say they get any more scutwork than the non prelim interns.

A chunk of intern year in any specialty is going to be gathering and reporting information until you learn enough to know what to do with that information.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

It really depends upon the program.