I am currently a CA-2 at Yale. I think our residency, residents, and attendings, are fantastic. I could not be happier to be at this program. Since day 1 of residency, I have had nothing but great cases and experiences with attendings and residents, both in and out of the hospital.
First and foremost, this is my training, and in that respect, Yale is second to none. I have done plenty of very large cases, using varied and new techniques, with the sickest patients in the state. We have so many attendings.....(Barash, Rosenblatt, Hines, Marschall, Ehrenworth, Ruskin, Rosenbaum, Sinatra, Braveman, Perrino, Rafferty, the list goes on....) who literally wrote the textbooks, still practice, but more importantly, still teach us and still are active in teaching themselves and staying up on the latest advances. I was just at the ASA and Yale had more people presenting (basically everyone above and at least ten more, just attendings, not to mention residents), in the press (google "Bondoc"), people giving refresher courses, PBLDs, etc, than I would have imagined. We were visible everywhere. So research is excellent and abundant. Every department here is excellent.....peds, cardiac, pain, thoracic, OB, neuro......with the exception of regional, with that being totally reworked in this past year, where residents now feel much better from what I hear. so as you can see, I like it.
And, like Don said above, look at the list of fellowships our ca-3's matched into. I would guess any program in the country strives to have a list like this, so i dont need to comment on that any more.
None of our residents "directly complained" (as the original poster suggested) to the residency house staff office from what I understand (and I sat on the RRC committee). And whenever I, or my coresidents, have had a problem, no matter how big or small, Dr Schwartz, Hines, and anyone else, come running and try their best to fix it. Granted, if faculty salaries are not high enough (I truly have no clue), I would assume that has nothing to do with the residency, people come to Yale because it is Yale.....I understand most people reading this might say its New Haven, why would people come there.....but that is how academics work, Yale looks good for anyone, even Dr Barash!
I am firmly one to believe that this is residency, and we should be working hard, seeing cases, etc, and yet the department is trying harder than ever, and suceeding, in hiring so many CRNA's, just so that we have even more time to read, even more time to just do beneficial cases. They were able to give me basically the whole week for the ASA, without a problem. Granted to be honest, we need to be here because we have so many big cases and CRNA's arent really allowed to do any big cases here (which they are at other programs), but I think that is a good thing, not just for residents and education, but for our profession.
Lastly, and equally as important as anything above, I have so much fun here. I love most of the attendings (dont get me wrong, like anywhere else, there are attendings I dont love, but that is not the nature of the program or anesthesia, that is human nature). I have such a good time with my coresidents, and already have great memories of this place.
So, we have a phenomenal clinical experience, excellent research opportunity, great teachers, good friends, supportive leaders, and get whatever fellowships or jobs we want. So to the original poster, if you have heard these things you mention, they are untrue. IF you have alterior motives and want to come to Yale, you are just doing yourself a disservice. And also, you mention the PD Dr Schwartz knows all of our posting names on this.....this is my first post, so this is untrue. I always look on this board, but never post, but think this program is a must see for anyone and have no doubts I have made the right decision coming here.
Feel free to send me a message, but come here and interview and see for yourself. Because you are all smart enough to get to the end of medical school, so the best advice i can give you is......dont take anyones advice too seriously. i love it here, but thats just me.
