Question for stanford residents

[reallyanon]

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I am really interested in Stanford and it seems like a great program. I have a couple of reservations about the program which I would really appreciate if people might take the time to address:
1. Private patients- it seems that there are a ton of private patients and different attendings that you have to work with on general medicine wards. When I was watching rounds, it seemed like the interns were always splitting off to talk with different attendings and it seemed that they missed a large portion of the teaching that the university attending was doing. is this something that is a big deal/do you feel like it has a negative impact? This is different from the institution that I come from that has a hospitalist model with one attending so I am just trying to figure it out.
2. Patient diversity- I didn't get to see Santa Clara valley but I've heard that it's an awesome hospital. that being said, they have their own residents and I have heard that you don't get to rotate down there as you might like as a stanford resident and as such are exposed to fewer low SES ptnts and advanced disease progression.
3. Cards match- it seems like the vast majority of people that match in cards do so at SU. Clearly Stanford has an awesome cards program, but do residents stay by choice or is it difficult to get into a similarly high powered program outside of the institution?
Clearly some of the nicest/smartest residents and also one of the best if not the best PD in the country.

 

[VCMM414]

I am really interested in Stanford and it seems like a great program. I have a couple of reservations about the program which I would really appreciate if people might take the time to address:
1. Private patients- it seems that there are a ton of private patients and different attendings that you have to work with on general medicine wards. When I was watching rounds, it seemed like the interns were always splitting off to talk with different attendings and it seemed that they missed a large portion of the teaching that the university attending was doing. is this something that is a big deal/do you feel like it has a negative impact? This is different from the institution that I come from that has a hospitalist model with one attending so I am just trying to figure it out.
2. Patient diversity- I didn't get to see Santa Clara valley but I've heard that it's an awesome hospital. that being said, they have their own residents and I have heard that you don't get to rotate down there as you might like as a stanford resident and as such are exposed to fewer low SES ptnts and advanced disease progression.
3. Cards match- it seems like the vast majority of people that match in cards do so at SU. Clearly Stanford has an awesome cards program, but do residents stay by choice or is it difficult to get into a similarly high powered program outside of the institution?
Clearly some of the nicest/smartest residents and also one of the best if not the best PD in the country.

I am not a Stanford resident, but I thought I would chime in.

1. I am coming from a program with a large county hospital experience. The majority of our attendings are hospitalists, and we have one attending per gen ward team. Even then, our pt census would sometimes get so large that one intern would break off to do work while the other rounds with the attending. I guess I am just saying that this is not a phenomenon unique to having multiple private attendings.

2. All of your months at Santa Clara Valley are spent on general medicine wards. 2 as an intern, and 1 each as a resident (but only if you want it). This is the same as my home program, where residents do 2/1/1 gen med months at the county hospital. The biggest difference is that at Stanford, subspecialty and ICU months will definitely be at VA or university hospital. I am not sure how I feel about this.

3. I agree that most cards matches are at Stanford. From what I've been told, Stanford is a pretty imbred place, at all levels (college, grad school, med school, faculty, etc.). This is not unique to the IM residency program. The non-Stanford matches are at MGH, Duke, Cornell, etc. though, so I guess they do fine overall. You have to also consider that Palo Alto and the Bay area in general is a pretty attractive place to live for many. Still, I wonder why there are not more cardiology matches at UCSF?

Reallyanon, did you do a 2nd look? I don't remember team rounds being a part of the interview day. I would have been interested in seeing it though.

 

[MGoBlue13]

To add another question onto this thread- what is the social life situation at Stanford? I loved the program, but am concerned as I am a single guy who would like to have a dating life during residency. I'm not looking for clubs or the like around palo alto, but are there other young single people there?

Thanks!
M

 

[MGoBlue13]

bump... anyone? I'd really appreciate your help.

-M

 

[scrub monkey]

i can try to answer a few of these questions.

at stanford, the medicine teams will have 2 attendings. the university attending and the private palo alto medical foundation attending. the university attendings are excellent and will run teaching rounds regularly. the pamf attendings are also very good. most of them trained at top medicine programs, and most will incorporate some teaching into their rounds. the number of patients for each attending tend to be about 50:50. the university attending will get the indigent population, as well as the complicated transfers. the pamf attendings will have insured pamf patients, that tend to be more bread and butter medicine patients.

as for the other private attendings, they work with a team called team s, that is run by 2 upper level residents (no interns). that team is set aside purely for the different private attendings. the medicine teams may admit these patients on evenings and weekends, but will drop off the patients to the team s residents immediately afterwards.

santa clara valley is a great hospital for training. most residents will get a couple months there as an intern, and a month as a resident. also a number of the subspecialty months will include time at santa clara valley. while we do spend more time at the va and at stanford, i think we still see a very diverse population of patients.

cards is strong and very popular here. many people stay here because they want to stick around. but i think most of the residents have their choice to go anywhere they want. at least for the last few years, residents that wanted to go elsewhere have matched at:

mgh x 2
duke x 3
cornell
u wash
cleveland clinic
usc

all of the current chiefs probably could have gone anywhere they wanted. but i think they all wanted to stay at stanford. i don't blame em.

as for the question regarding social life for singles, there are a good number of singles in the program. while palo alto is not as bumpin' as nyc or sf, the single folks do seem to go out pretty regularly. lots of young grad students and young professionals in the area. there's also a lot of brewhaha up in sf, which is about 30 minutes away. a good number of the residents in the program are married. but the singles do find each other, and will go partay (with some of the married folks too) pretty regularly.

hope that helps. good luck with the match!

 

[VCMM414]

Lame question. What's the parking situation like at Stanford, SCVMC, and the VA? What is the monthly parking fee?

 

[scrub monkey]

parking is free at valley and at the va.

at stanford, premier A permit parking will cost you about $550 for the year. it's costly, but worth it if you tend to run late. basic C permit parking costs about $200 for the year - farther parking lots. you can use your $1000 educational stipend to pay for parking.