current CA-1 at CCF so i'll give some info as to how residency is here...
1. work hours hours as a CA1 range from 50-60. I personally have never gone beyond 62 hours. If i am precall, i have gotten relieved as early as 2pm to as late as 5 with avg 330pm. On most rotations during intern year I worked under 60 hours with the exception of our toughest rotation in the coronary icu where i worked slightly over 70 hours. I think this is very fair and contrary to what had been traditionally a workhorse program.
2. department wide-didactics occur weekly on wednesday mornings as grand rounds in addition to education day (thursdays) where all CA-1 through 3 get 90 minute lectures based on textbook chapters.
3. intern year is spread out over PGY1 and pGY2 to decrease monotony of being in the ORs. This is a popular aspect especially among residents simply because our intern months offer less call/less hours than our anesthesia months. (e.g.our lone internal medicine floor month is 9-5pm without weekends or call!! and our lone surgery month is 6-6pm without weekends or call!) in summary, I doubt you will find a better intern year elsewhere. One month I worked literally 22 hours in a week.
4. relationship with colleagues: with CCF being such a large program, it's a little bit harder to get to know your colleagues, staff and residents alike, but I think everyone gets to know each other over the course of our first 2-3 years. our program is certainly not one where you will go over to your attendings house for dinner but some residents will occasionally play golf with staff or staff will host parties at their respective home. in other words, i think the relationship is great and improving for whatever reason
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5. case selection: i know from lurking on sdn that case selection or cases going to crnas has been an issue at Cleveland clinic but I have never had an issue with this, nor do I know any residents who have experienced this. we typically have so many sick patients that this is not a problem. in my first months as a CA-1, i had the opportunity to do my own kidney transplants
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6. regional: we spend one month as an intern, as CA-1, and Ca-3 doing regional for a total of 3 months. its nice to have the opportunity to do femorals, interscalenes, axillary blocks, epidurals, spinals as early as I did.
7. family atmosphere vs single: i think this CCF supports both lifestyles, with enough residents to absorb manpower issues when taking maternity leaves. I think half or more residents are married/engaged/have kids which leaves approx 40% single. for those that want to explore nightlife, living downtown is a good place to start since most people downtown are single as well.
8. crnas: I believe there are almost as many crnas as there are students. the relationship is cordial.
9. leadership: our chairman David Brown is very approachable and active in improving our department. he meets with residents once a month so that we can voice our opinions (aka whine) and provide feedback. in addition our chair of education Dr.Kimatian (prev PD from penn state) is very proactive in making our residency a strong program, and he meets with a resident run eduction committee to discuss issues/agendas on a monthly basis. our PD is somewhat newer to academics so his role is expanding. I'll admit that our residents dont know him as well as our old PD but he has done a great job thus far.
10.intraop teaching: this is highly staff dependent. unfortunately some staff leave the OR as soon as you intubate and you wont see them for more than 2 minutes, while some staff will bring you articles, readings or discuss topics. definitely hit or miss
11.location: cleveland is still cleveland. being someone from california, it's hard to deal with this much snow at first and anything below 50 degrees was cold for me. some might handle it better than others. however, cleveland had more to offer than I initially thought. there's jet skiing, parasailing 2 hours away, beaches as close as 30 minutes, and places to snowboard from what i hear as well. this is in addition to all the major events that a normal city has to offer. in other words, there's definitely more than enough stuff to do as long as you can find the time to do it
in summary, I'm happy I ended up here and I think it'll stay that way...I hope
. I'm surprisingly pleased with the education I've received and thus have great expectations for this program esp in the next few years. I think CCF has the potential to be a truly elite program with its rare clinical volume. academics/education is definitely on the rise. i hope this helps anyone considering being surrounded by Browns fans on a daily basis
