I'm new to posting in the forum. I have limited time to post. So it won't have the fancy boxed out quotes.
As a corollary to the prior post, I am a soon-to-graduate Stanford resident. Thus, it will be extremely biased; and I won't be able to directly compare to the experience at UCD. As another disclosure, I will be going to an ACGME pain fellowship.
It was a roller-coaster of a three-year experience. As you may or may not have heard, we were on the brink of being on ACGME probabtion. But with the strong work of new leadership (as of 2008), motivated residents, and the full backing of Stanford GME ... we are fully reaccredited by ACGME this past year.
It is a completely revamped program from when I started, and when I first started perusing Studentdoctor.net. Any reviews you may have read pre-2008, is not the Stanford program it is now. The program takes 7 per year. It's large enough, where you won't feel isolated or lonely. At the same time, it's small enough that you don't feel like a cog in the machine.
In terms of the mix, I thought it was evenly mixed inpatient to outpatient. At first, these forums scared me into thinking it was inpatient heavy. But as I went to AAPM&R and AAP meetings, the mix was right on par with all the other big programs. The inpatient balance is definitely front-loaded. The county hospital (Santa Clara Valley Med Ctr) gets you acute TBI, stroke, and SCI patients. At this hospital, there is a step-down unit run by PM&R -- and yes, that meant vent and trach management. We tended to get the acute SCI patients 2-4 days from injury. The other inpatient hospital is the VA, where we are the only west coast VA that treats active duty polytrauma wounded warriors. We get 3-8 new wounded warriors a month from blast injuries leading to TBI, fractures, soft tissue wounds, etc. The other patient mix at the VA are stroke, TBI, and joint replacement for the older vets. VA also has a separate SCI unit. By senior year, you have just 1 inpatient rotation at the VA. Procedures at all hospitals include Botox, bursa, and joint injections.
Outpatient exposure starts the PGY2 year (1 block) but is back-loaded toward the senior year. The VA PM&R gets you general MSK and pain. County hosp gets you TBI, stroke, SCI, baclofen pumps, EMG, and Botox. VA SCI is self explanatory, but it is a major SCI hub in the VA system, which allows you to utilize resources that other places cannot even fathom. Stanford Sports gets you amazing MSK both general population and Stanford Varsity athlete exposure, opportunity to volunteer at sporting events, and EMG. Stanford Spine is a busy clinic but you learn so much about axial spine and large joint care; this clinic also gives you the opportunity to do 1d/wk fluoro injections as a PGY3; and a gazillion neck/back/hip/shoulder fluoro injections as a PGY4 (2d/wk). Stanford Spine also does EMG. Peripheral joint injections are done in all MSK clinics. There is only 1 dedicated EMG rotation at the county hospital. But you get plenty at the VA and Stanford clinics.
Education has also been completely redone. We get protected teaching Wed from 8am-12pm. All attendings do their own work during that time. Of course, you may have to help out with some morning work on certain inpatient rotations after didactics, depending on how busy that service is. The curriculum rotates on an 18m schedule. Time in the gross anatomy lab is also included. Each hopsital also has noon conferences that focus on common diagnoses at the respective institutions.
And as another comment on broad exposure this program has, we send residents to all aspects of PM&R fellowships and private practice. Last year there were 2 sports, 1 pain, and 3 SCI. This year we're sending 2 to private practice, 2 SCI, 1 TBI, 1 peds, 1 Sports, 1 pain.
As you may glean, there is a lot of traveling with this program. But when you live in sunny Silicon Valley, it was actually a bonus for me. And if you're the entrepreneurial type, there's so much venture capital, start ups, and incubators; you'd be like a kid in a candy store. It's also the suburbs, and so parking is never an issue. And despite the suburbia feel, with all the silicon valley types, there's always something to do around town -- not to mention San Francisco being 30 min north and beaches (e.g., Santa Cruz, Monterey, Half Moon Bay) 30-45 min west. Stanford benefits are amazing and they throw money at us. On top of an amazing base salary, we get two yearly bonuses (January and August). They cover all health (inc vision and dental), life, and disability insurance at no extra cost to us.
Areas I'd like to see improve over the next several years include Pediatrics and P&O. But overall awesome time here in the bay.
One of the only drawbacks that I can directly comment on Stanford vs UC Davis, is that skiing is much closer to UCD than Stanford. I'm used to doing day trips for skiing, and driving 4 hours to the mountain and at times up to 8 hours coming back (due to blizzards, traffic, etc) ... was a bit taxing.
Hope that helps for prospective applicants wondering about us. I don't check this forum much ... maybe I will now. But if you have any other questions, please PM me.
