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Does anyone have any insights into this program?
Rush University Emergency Med Residency
- Thread starter Frisky Crouton
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Meh, Chicago's probably going to have plenty of sick patients to go around.
It's been a while since I lived in the area, but my guess is that this will be more like a fancy community EM residency than most of the other residency programs in the city. So if you want to practice community EM and you want to train in Chicago, this could probably make a good fit.
It's been a while since I lived in the area, but my guess is that this will be more like a fancy community EM residency than most of the other residency programs in the city. So if you want to practice community EM and you want to train in Chicago, this could probably make a good fit.
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I’m currently an intern at Rush and happy to answer any questions.
I did med school at Rush and had no intentions of staying for residency, but the opportunity to help build a new program was appealing to me. The other thing that drew me in was that everywhere I went for EM aways and interviews had cool, hilarious, smart people, but Rush has a disproportionately high share of the coolest, smartest, and most hilarious ED attendings that I’ve worked with anywhere.
As an applicant I spent a lot of time thinking about the minutiae that might separate one program from another. Now that I’m on the other side of that, I can say most of the things I thought were going to matter, don’t.
At the end of the day, the people who end up filling our next class will be the adventurous types who are excited to help build a new program, and those who find themselves drawn to our faculty and current residents.
Obviously geography ends up being hard to ignore in most cases as well.
The rest of the stuff (curriculum, patient mix, benefits, etc) is pretty irrelevant if you’re afraid of new programs, don’t vibe with the people here, or don’t want to be in Chicago.
I did med school at Rush and had no intentions of staying for residency, but the opportunity to help build a new program was appealing to me. The other thing that drew me in was that everywhere I went for EM aways and interviews had cool, hilarious, smart people, but Rush has a disproportionately high share of the coolest, smartest, and most hilarious ED attendings that I’ve worked with anywhere.
As an applicant I spent a lot of time thinking about the minutiae that might separate one program from another. Now that I’m on the other side of that, I can say most of the things I thought were going to matter, don’t.
At the end of the day, the people who end up filling our next class will be the adventurous types who are excited to help build a new program, and those who find themselves drawn to our faculty and current residents.
Obviously geography ends up being hard to ignore in most cases as well.
The rest of the stuff (curriculum, patient mix, benefits, etc) is pretty irrelevant if you’re afraid of new programs, don’t vibe with the people here, or don’t want to be in Chicago.
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whatre your hours??
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When I was making my rank list I thought a lot about 9’s, 12’s, number of shifts per month, etc. I can tell you once you’re an intern the things that actually matter for quality of life are how many hours you work per week, and how many days off you get per month.
Our ED months, we work 17 shifts, get two weekends completely off, and I average 50 hours a week.
On our weekends on, we do work 12 hour shifts which can be rough, but we made the decision as an intern class to do it that way to have two protected weekends completely off every month.
It’s something that we could collectively change (go back to 9 hour shifts on weekends, work 19 shifts, and only get one weekend off per month) if next year’s interns had a big problem with the 12’s, but I have to tell you the weekends off are glorious.
Our ED months, we work 17 shifts, get two weekends completely off, and I average 50 hours a week.
On our weekends on, we do work 12 hour shifts which can be rough, but we made the decision as an intern class to do it that way to have two protected weekends completely off every month.
It’s something that we could collectively change (go back to 9 hour shifts on weekends, work 19 shifts, and only get one weekend off per month) if next year’s interns had a big problem with the 12’s, but I have to tell you the weekends off are glorious.
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as an intern you were averaging 50 hr a week? thats not too bad
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Yeah it’s a really good work-life balance here. I think I’ve only had one 60 hour work week in the ED and it was because I switched shifts around to take a trip, so the next week was like 37 hours. My duty hour log is mostly 40-50 hour weeks, with the balance 50-57 hr weeks.
Trauma, L&D, and MICU are a different story, 60-80 hr weeks. 2 of our intern off-service months (ortho and anesthesia) are super cush, 40 hours or less and no weekends. 4 weeks of vacation. No complaints from me on our schedule or work hours.
Trauma, L&D, and MICU are a different story, 60-80 hr weeks. 2 of our intern off-service months (ortho and anesthesia) are super cush, 40 hours or less and no weekends. 4 weeks of vacation. No complaints from me on our schedule or work hours.
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wow thats great. was it like that in the ED at all places or just rush? sorry for all the questions i just got accepted to the rush md program but residency hours and lifestyle are a big factor to me if i attend
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No apologies required. Our work-life balance is better than most, but there are other programs that work 50 hrs/week.
That being said, I wouldn’t base your decision on where to attend med school on the work hours of the ED residents.
I attended Rush Medical College, and my experience as an ED resident is very different than my experience as a med student. The other 11 of my colleagues came from other medical schools where some had different experiences, and other had similar experiences.
Go where you know you should for med school, whether that’s Rush or someplace else. If, four years from now, you want to come to Rush as an EM resident, we’ll take you if you’re a good fit. It won’t matter if you went to Rush or another good school.
That being said, I wouldn’t base your decision on where to attend med school on the work hours of the ED residents.
I attended Rush Medical College, and my experience as an ED resident is very different than my experience as a med student. The other 11 of my colleagues came from other medical schools where some had different experiences, and other had similar experiences.
Go where you know you should for med school, whether that’s Rush or someplace else. If, four years from now, you want to come to Rush as an EM resident, we’ll take you if you’re a good fit. It won’t matter if you went to Rush or another good school.
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Pre-Interview Social: Pretty chill time at a bar across the street from Rush. Only 2 interns showed up but there are only 12 residents total, because of this the program also invited junior attendings to come out and hang with us which I thought was really cool and a unique experience. All the attendings I met introduced themselves by their first name and honestly half the time you didn’t know who the attending was or who the interns were (which was a big plus in my book). Pretty standard apps and drinks for 2 hours and was over pretty quickly. No one stayed later.
Interview Day: Went into the interview day a little nervous about the whole new program thing. This was the only newish program I applied to and I’ll be honest if it wasn’t in Chicago I would have skipped over it entirely, but wow I was really surprised by how much I liked it. The entire day was very chill and personable and all the faculty are very young and have self selected themselves to be a program to start a residency program. The PD addressed concerns about it being a new program from the get go and everyone recognized that this was probably the biggest concern on all the applicants minds. I think they made a pretty convincing argument that there are bonuses for a new program as well as negatives. A lot of emphasis was placed on the fact that the PD has to listen to resident feedback as they’re very much a part of shaping the curriculum and interns were able to give multiple examples of how they’ve changed the program already including shift length, weekend hours, etc. PD was super personable and seemed to have been recruited just to run this program answered any and all questions about the program and how they plan on doing things in the second and third years of their program (as there was only an intern class at the moment). Otherwise applicants went on a tour of the brand new hospital and everything was beautiful and modern as one might expect from a 4 year old hospital and then interviews themselves were 4 15 minute interviews at the same time as lunch (you ate on your breaks) which was a nice adjustment so you were out by noonish. All the faculty were very honest with what they foresaw for the program with big strengths in admin, sim and resources. Rush is a powerhouse academic center with a lot of already established and well known residencies and faculty seem ready to provide those resources with the residents.
Curriculum: One of my favorite parts of Rush is their statement that you will be 1:1 with an attending (though currently this is extremely easy as there is only 1 class of residents) and no graduated responsibility. PD said they’re trying to keep this with other years but you may have an occasional offserive person with you but never another EM resident (including the visiting PGY2s from Cook County). Otherwise Rush has a lot of what you might expect of a 3 year program. No floor months, 6ish weeks of vacation, elective time in 2nd and third year with 3 months of trauma (1 each year) over at Cook County. Rush is a level 2 trauma center but they stated they still do chest tubes etc. occasionally and residents get more than enough procedures over at cook and with the addition of Mt Sinai as a site I’m not worried about this at all. Other notable aspects include 2 months of Community EM over in Aurora (about 1 hour west of Chicago) which no one has gone to yet, but there is talks of providing residents housing there to decrease the amount of commute during those months. Residents currently do 17 shifts a month which is a mix of 9s during weekdays and 12s on weekends with each resident getting 2 golden weekends a month and stated they work an equal mix of days, evenings and nights. Residents stated they only get food budget if they work a 12 hour shift and parking is easy and cheap. Residents primarily work in the high acuity pod 75% of the time and 25% in lower acuity with no time in fast track, but was unsure how this would change once there are more residents.
Hospital: Hospital itself was brand new. Everything was pristine and ER uses Epic and was told they’re getting Dragon in the near future. Was told that ancillary staff was amazing and that they never wait for orders or have to do any IVs or push people to XR. Rush is all about efficiency, it is a blend of academic and community and it shows. Sim center is huge, state of the art and residents stated they use it 2-3 times a month. Disaster/Mass casualty preparedness is huge as Rush as well and they are the center for a response in Chicago so their lobby can change into a 200 bed hospital or something in 20 minutes which I thought was pretty sweet. Apparently there’s a lot of need for residents who are interested in that kind of stuff because a lot of the faculty do a lot with it.
Overall walked away ranking Rush much higher than anticipated and while I’m still somewhat nervous about being a guinea pig for a new program they’re checking a lot of boxes for me with 3 years, 1:1, and lack of graduated responsibility with a beautiful and amazing hospital to boot. Plus residents get to do trauma at Cook which is arguably one of cook’s greatest selling point for almost as long as the cook residents do, but graduate a year sooner and have more resources at their disposal. I have no doubt that this will quickly become a residency to beat in Chicago, especially if everything we were told on the interview days remains true once they are dealing with more than one class. In 5-10 years I bet Rush is at the top of everyone’s Chicago list.
Interview Day: Went into the interview day a little nervous about the whole new program thing. This was the only newish program I applied to and I’ll be honest if it wasn’t in Chicago I would have skipped over it entirely, but wow I was really surprised by how much I liked it. The entire day was very chill and personable and all the faculty are very young and have self selected themselves to be a program to start a residency program. The PD addressed concerns about it being a new program from the get go and everyone recognized that this was probably the biggest concern on all the applicants minds. I think they made a pretty convincing argument that there are bonuses for a new program as well as negatives. A lot of emphasis was placed on the fact that the PD has to listen to resident feedback as they’re very much a part of shaping the curriculum and interns were able to give multiple examples of how they’ve changed the program already including shift length, weekend hours, etc. PD was super personable and seemed to have been recruited just to run this program answered any and all questions about the program and how they plan on doing things in the second and third years of their program (as there was only an intern class at the moment). Otherwise applicants went on a tour of the brand new hospital and everything was beautiful and modern as one might expect from a 4 year old hospital and then interviews themselves were 4 15 minute interviews at the same time as lunch (you ate on your breaks) which was a nice adjustment so you were out by noonish. All the faculty were very honest with what they foresaw for the program with big strengths in admin, sim and resources. Rush is a powerhouse academic center with a lot of already established and well known residencies and faculty seem ready to provide those resources with the residents.
Curriculum: One of my favorite parts of Rush is their statement that you will be 1:1 with an attending (though currently this is extremely easy as there is only 1 class of residents) and no graduated responsibility. PD said they’re trying to keep this with other years but you may have an occasional offserive person with you but never another EM resident (including the visiting PGY2s from Cook County). Otherwise Rush has a lot of what you might expect of a 3 year program. No floor months, 6ish weeks of vacation, elective time in 2nd and third year with 3 months of trauma (1 each year) over at Cook County. Rush is a level 2 trauma center but they stated they still do chest tubes etc. occasionally and residents get more than enough procedures over at cook and with the addition of Mt Sinai as a site I’m not worried about this at all. Other notable aspects include 2 months of Community EM over in Aurora (about 1 hour west of Chicago) which no one has gone to yet, but there is talks of providing residents housing there to decrease the amount of commute during those months. Residents currently do 17 shifts a month which is a mix of 9s during weekdays and 12s on weekends with each resident getting 2 golden weekends a month and stated they work an equal mix of days, evenings and nights. Residents stated they only get food budget if they work a 12 hour shift and parking is easy and cheap. Residents primarily work in the high acuity pod 75% of the time and 25% in lower acuity with no time in fast track, but was unsure how this would change once there are more residents.
Hospital: Hospital itself was brand new. Everything was pristine and ER uses Epic and was told they’re getting Dragon in the near future. Was told that ancillary staff was amazing and that they never wait for orders or have to do any IVs or push people to XR. Rush is all about efficiency, it is a blend of academic and community and it shows. Sim center is huge, state of the art and residents stated they use it 2-3 times a month. Disaster/Mass casualty preparedness is huge as Rush as well and they are the center for a response in Chicago so their lobby can change into a 200 bed hospital or something in 20 minutes which I thought was pretty sweet. Apparently there’s a lot of need for residents who are interested in that kind of stuff because a lot of the faculty do a lot with it.
Overall walked away ranking Rush much higher than anticipated and while I’m still somewhat nervous about being a guinea pig for a new program they’re checking a lot of boxes for me with 3 years, 1:1, and lack of graduated responsibility with a beautiful and amazing hospital to boot. Plus residents get to do trauma at Cook which is arguably one of cook’s greatest selling point for almost as long as the cook residents do, but graduate a year sooner and have more resources at their disposal. I have no doubt that this will quickly become a residency to beat in Chicago, especially if everything we were told on the interview days remains true once they are dealing with more than one class. In 5-10 years I bet Rush is at the top of everyone’s Chicago list.
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Great post. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience, and I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it and were mostly impressed. Sorry more of us didn’t make it out to dinner.
Just for the sake of transparency, we get 4 weeks of vacation per year (though our ortho/procedure and anesthesia months are sort of like vacations).
Dragon is up and running. In addition to Sinai, we’ve also added an additional community site to the second-year curriculum that is in the city (read: not as far as Copley, though we’re still scheduled to go there as well), and reportedly has a high average acuity and high procedure volume.
Thanks again for the post. If we can fill our next class with people who are as positive as you are, we’ll in great shape. Best of luck, hope you have an ideal match!
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The minimum size of an ACGME EM residency is 18 (6 residents x 3 years). Is this a DO residency? I thought it was MD.
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12 per year, only interns so far but will be 24 then 36 total.
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Oh, s/he (don't know the person) was speaking of the interns only. Roger that. Carry on!
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I'm not saying Rush residents don't have a good life, but let's not get carried away. EM residents aren't suppose to have more than 60 clinical hours per week, and most work less. 60hr/week is 20 x 12 hour shifts per month. My program is 20 9s which averages to 45hr/week.
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Never heard that about the 60 hr thing but makes sense.
I guess I could have done the math instead of looking back at my duty hours. We’re scheduled for 13x9 + 4x12 which is 41.25 hrs/week. With my extra screwing around in the department, leisurely charting pace, and didactics I end up logging 45-50 most weeks.
I would assume that’s fairly typical for EM, and honestly some of the 40 hour weeks are still more exhausting than I would have guessed. I like having mostly 9’s with the last hour protected, and I love having 2 weekends off every month, but I don’t think I’d feel much worse if we switched to 20x9. It would just be 2-3 fewer days per month to sip bourbon and binge watch TV.
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The EM RRC says 60 hrs/week clinical, and 72/week overall.
EmImgOrChildPsych
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Are there any USIMGs at Rush? Was wondering if I had a chance...Sounds amazing
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Does this program have a Step 1 cut-off/screen?
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Not at this point. But last year the number of applications we received was bordering on absurd for our committee to review, so at some point we will have to implement some sort of screening process. It’s not likely to be based solely on a hard cutoff for Step 1 score, but that may end up being a factor.
I will say that in my own application cycle 2 years ago, I applied broadly (meaning I applied to waaaay more programs than I should have because I was concerned about the rising competitiveness in EM) and didn’t hear a peep from a handful of programs that had “no Step 1 cutoff” or had stated cutoffs well below my score. Obviously you don’t want to waste your money applying to programs with a stated cutoff above your score, but looking back I think I focused too much on programs that published no cutoff or low cutoffs, thinking they might be less competitive, and that ended up being incorrect (n = 1) and a waste of mental energy.
I collected a lot of friends on my away rotations who had nominal Step 1 scores, visa sponsorship issues, and other things that seemed like it was going to be really difficult for them to match, and they all ended up at one of their top choices. The biggest factor was that they were awesome humans. They also leveraged their away rotations, payed attention to regional bias, and focused on institutions where their faculty mentors had connections.
My year, the NRMP stats suggested that you needed 12 interviews to have a 95% chance of matching, but looking back on my experience and that of many in my cycle, if you have 1 institution that really wants you, you have a 100% chance of matching. In some ways it’s a luxury to have more than one place to choose from, but I actually found I hated choosing the order of the top 4 on my rank list. I wanted to train at all of them. Point is, it’s less about volume than it is about connecting some place, and I found that has more to do with aways, faculty connections, and the ever-mysterious “fit” than Step scores, publications, or any other accolades.
