Programs you ranked and why

[24858]

Hello,
I am interested in learning about peoples rank lists. It would be interesting to me to find out your top five rankings and why you ranked a specific program number one to five. If you could give any pluses or minuses to the specific programs that would be good. And could you also include info regarding your 4th year em experience. That is, did you get to do many procedures, how was the experience in general?
Thanks a lot,
Tim

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[jonwilli]

There has been multiple threads about people's rank list, and as you can probably tell from them, most of us are all over the board about why we chose a specific program from autonomy, patient volume, location and family, etc. There has also been some threads about different EM rotations in the 4th year. If you have a question about a specific program, specific state or region (northeast vs texas, etc), feel free to ask!! You can also check out scutwork.com as most of those are written by medical students who rotated at that particular program in their 4th year. let me know if i can provide any specific info--my rank list was mainly made up on location +/- a few other things.

 

[waterski232002]

1) University of Chicago
Pros- 3 yrs, sick pts, lots of ICU months, love chicago, near fam & friends, required flight, international flight opportunities, can moonlight even in 1st yr
Cons- ???

2) Northwestern
Pros- lots of ICU, love chicago, near fam & friends, cush program, residents look very happy
Cons- 4 yrs, pts not very sick, not as much resident autonomy

3) NYU Bellevue
Pros- NYC!, lots of autonomy, sick pts
Cons- 4 yrs, lots of scut, poor ancillary staff, do your own IVs/EKGs/Blood draws, residents looked tired

4) Brigham and Women's
Pros- sick pts, very academic, lots of resources, lots of sim time
Cons- less pt autonomy, busy!, residents looked very tired, surgery trolls steal all abdo pain pts in ED, some pts are seen in waiting room by attendings before you see them

5) Cook County
Pros- some sick pts, lots of autonomy, busy, all 8 hrs shifts, love chicago, near fam & friends
Cons- lots of GOMER's, some scut, lacking resources, not much exposure to community EM

 

[24858]

waterski232002 that was an excellent post thank you for your time and effort.
If anyone would like to contribute I am sure there are many others who would love to her your feelings/reasons/insight to your rank list.

 

[USCDiver]

I can give you my list, but my reasons are going to be something like "#4 MCG - liked it better than #5, but not as much as #3."
So here's my list....

1-Christiana
2-Palmetto
3-Orlando
4-6....I forget exactly...Duke, MCG, Maryland, not necessarily in that order.

Reasons are too multifactorial and based on intuition to try to quantify.

 

[DrQuinn]

1) USF Tampa
2) Univ of MD
3) Univ of FL
4) Metrohealth/CWRU in OH
can't remember the order of the rest.

I liked 1-9 on my list, would have been happy at any of them.

ROL are EXTREMELY variable as the above poster mentioned. I mean, part of my ROL was based on the fact that I didn't want to drag my then-fiance' to certain parts of the country. I mean, I woulda ranked Denver #1 based solely on the fact of ERMudPhud but the altitude sickness would have killed me before I started internship. So I didn't rank it. So you shouldn't go there.

Q

 

[USCDiver]

I mean, I woulda ranked Denver #1 based solely on the fact of ERMudPhud but the altitude sickness would have killed me before I started internship. So I didn't rank it. So you shouldn't go there.

See I did a similar thing... I didn't rank ECU because I wasn't granted an interview here. And now their stuck with me for 3 long years...muhahahaha!
Oh, so um, you shouldn't go there.

 

[deleted52758]

my rank list
1. cook county
2. umich ann arbor
3. henry ford
4. detroit receivin
5. resurrection

i ranked county first because i rotated there and such a good time. people talk about a gut feeling right away, and i got that with county. i know thats not scientific or reassuring as someone who is applying next year, but seriously, thats probably how the majority of us make these crucial decisions. ann arbor was two because its a cooler city then detroit. i liked henry ford and detroit receiving, and had those two programs been in a better city, i probably would have ranked them higher. those two programs demonstrated an acuity that i didnt see in most other places. i spent an afternoon at henry ford, and the people were extremely sick there. it couldhave been a bad day though! not really a huge fan of res, but hey at least its in chicago.

 

[waterski232002]

my rank list
1. cook county
2. umich ann arbor
3. henry ford
4. detroit receivin
5. resurrection

i ranked county first because i rotated there and such a good time. people talk about a gut feeling right away, and i got that with county. i know thats not scientific or reassuring as someone who is applying next year, but seriously, thats probably how the majority of us make these crucial decisions. ann arbor was two because its a cooler city then detroit. i liked henry ford and detroit receiving, and had those two programs been in a better city, i probably would have ranked them higher. those two programs demonstrated an acuity that i didnt see in most other places. i spent an afternoon at henry ford, and the people were extremely sick there. it couldhave been a bad day though! not really a huge fan of res, but hey at least its in chicago.

How was the acuity at Henry Ford & Det receiving compared to cook county? Do they see as many non-sick pts as cook (people using the ED as a clinic)?

 

[spyderdoc]

I ranked Yale because some hot RN gave me the googly eyes. After I got there, she was long gone....Musta been a traveller, or perhaps a figment of my imagination....

 

[FlemishGiant]

LAC+USC
Pro's: Great pt population, fantastic volume, trauma is nuts and an overall fun, crazy place to work. Also in LA. Come out of there a EM Monster.
Con's: 2-4yr program, facility is old, but new one being built

UT-Southwestern
Pro's: The nices County ED I've ever seen, very balanced place w/ lots of excellent peds exposure, happy residents, great ER director and PD, strong off service rotations.
Con's: ER doesn't run the trauma and only has airway responsblties, LA is more fun than Dallas

UC Davis
Pro's: Great County ED, lots of vol, strong research base, 3 years
Con's: Sacremento was a little too small for me

LSU-Charity Hospital
Pro's: Place is a MADHOUSE (one of the residents got KO'd there a few weeks back by a pt, multiple shootings IN the ED itself), lots of everything in advanced stages. Great training. Fun place.
Con's: 4 year program, facility is OLD, New Orleans, although a fun city, kind of gets old after a while (per the residents)

Soooo as you can see I guess I was all about a county ED in a big city. Since I'm originally from So Cal location had a lot to do w/ it (most of my family/friends still live down there) too.

Good luck,

 

[Andy Kahn]

1. UT Southwestern - loved the program when I rotated here. Huge volume in Parkland and Children's EDs which are connected (with the resident's lounge located btwn them). I really liked that you could live 3 minutes away in a nice, safe area and not have to fight traffic on the freeways b/c there are plenty of bars, restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations in the neighborhood (Uptown - www.uptowndallas.org, Turtle Creek). It was great walking to the bars on McKinney Ave last night since the weather is so nice now. It is nice to have 15 co-interns to call up and see who is free to go hang out. The ED nurses also hang out with the residents after shifts. Parking garage is next to the ED and there are always spaces... usually I can get a spot on the first floor on the side by the ED so I wake up at 6:30, brush teeth/put on scrubs, leave the apt at 6:35, and drive to the garage and park at 6:40. I walk into the ED at 6:45 with time to spare. It's nice having the Mavs, Cowboys, Rangers, Stars (when not on strike), and some Big XII games to choose from here.

I am hoping for better ultrasound. One of our faculty is completing her u/s fellowship at Christ right now so that should help. I also would like to change a few of the intern rotations (VA), but the majority of rotations are at Parkland/Children's (UTSW med ctr) so there are only a couple of months that you have to drive on the highway. It would also be nice to have some skiing and/or surfing here.

2. Christiana Care - Wanted to try out life in northeast. Private program with lots of funding and support. Good mix btwn the hospitals in Newark and Wilmington. Good volume overall. My best friend lives in Baltimore. Residents (very active in EMRA)/faculty seemed really cool.

Was 1 hr from Philadelphia/Baltimore so didn't want to live in a smaller city. Plenty of blunt trauma from I-95 but didn't know how much penetrating. Still lured by the book/traveling to conferences $ and nice facilities. Cold... burr.

3. UT Houston - My brothers are both in college at Rice in Houston. Thought it would be great to live in the same city with them. I was also very familiar with the area since I went to med school in Galveston. Lots of volume in Houston. Worlds largest med center. May expand more rotations to LBJ hosp. New program director from Cook Co. A great radio station: Sports Radio 610.

Based out of Memorial Hermann and not at the county hosp (Ben Taub). Had lost accreditation a while back (which has been resolved with change of faculty, etc). Houston is humid.

4. Indianapolis - Very high volume btwn Wishard (county) and Methodist (private). Heck, they have a monorail that connects the 2 hosp! Nice downtown area. I like the Colts and Pacers. Faculty were very nice and seemed to have great plans in place to provide great training. Great moonlighting opportunity in the fast track at Methodist (good $ with some help if u happened to need it from faculty in the adjacent ED).

Midwest didn't seem like the ideal location for me. Cold winters.

I can't remember the remaining order. Seemed like the Phily and Chicago programs had you rotate at 3 different EDs (except Christ) so you couldn't live close to all of them and would have to fight traffic. I also might not have survived the winters.

 

[deleted52758]

How was the acuity at Henry Ford & Det receiving compared to cook county? Do they see as many non-sick pts as cook (people using the ED as a clinic)?

its hard to say, but i would imagine so, knowing how much nonsick patients we see at cook. but i only shadowed the PD while he was in cat 1, which is their semi-icu/er. those folks were sick!

 

[pseudoknot]

LSU-Charity Hospital
Pro's: Place is a MADHOUSE (one of the residents got KO'd there a few weeks back by a pt, multiple shootings IN the ED itself)

This is why I love this forum...

 

[waterski232002]

LAC+USC
Pro's: Great pt population, fantastic volume, trauma is nuts and an overall fun, crazy place to work. Also in LA. Come out of there a EM Monster.

I want to be an EM Monster!

 

[irrka]

Ok. so i think i just decided that i might want to do EM. If anyone is starting at Metro/CWRU and wouldnt mind having a completely clueless person harassing you through August about the whole process, I could seriously use some help Thanks!

 

[turtle md]

During interviews, there was not one place that stood out, either for the program or the location. So when I went to make my ROL, I came up with a list of how I would design my ideal residency. Then I checked to see which programs had the most components, and ordered them accordingly. Basically, since my gut couldn´t decide, I let my analytical brain do the work.

 

[waterski232002]

Pick the city or cities you want to live in and go from there....

 

[FlemishGiant]

Agree w/ Ski, it pretty much comes down to where you want to live. And if you want to be a Monster...
Seriously, save a very, very few places, we are lucky in that there are no truly BAD EM programs. Wherever you go you will most likely get fantastic training. So it comes down to a matter of where you want to live while you get this training.

Good luck,
FG

 

[skeezixdoc]

I agree that most EM residencies are basically the same. There are pluses and minuses for each type of program and location.

The thing that I see occuring in EM is the typical medicine version of who's sport team is the best. The big city folks think only their version could possibly be worth doing, while the community based think they're the ones who really learn EM.

While I'm only beginning this particular process I've had 20 years as a commercial diver and running a ship repair company. I've worked in the high volume big city and the slower rural areas. The work was always the same, but the nuance you pick up in each arena is what makes you good at what you do. This training is only the base, and if we want to be great at this EM thing it will be the way we continue to learn as you go on from these next 3 or 4 years.

I agree then that each individual should try for a program that gives them the base they either feel the most comfortable with, or the one that shakes them up from their comfort zone the most. In the end I think it comes down to the individual and their desire to be good at what they do.