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Good and bad comments alike will be appreciated!
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Tell me about Loma Linda
- Thread starter sean wilson
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Hey I'm a resident there right now, I can tell you I love it, the hours are great, much better than any other So Cal program, I can tell you my friends at USC and Irvine are miserable. Loma Linda has plenty of lectures too, and they really are resident friendly. I strongly think you should consider Loma Linda if you want good hours and good teaching. The reputation in So Cal is also pretty good, probably only UCLA and UCSD have a better reputation. The area's perfect too I commute from the Pomona area, so it's really only 30 minutes to LA from there. Well hopefully this helps, good luck with your interviews!
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sean wilson said:
I'll answer this so that others may refer to it also, as there is not much info on Loma Linda out there. Let me preface this by letting you know that I will be a CA-1 there next year and am currently doing research for the department. Also, I went to med school there so this might seem like a "homer" response, but I'll be as truthful as I can from what I know and what I have heard from the residents.
First of all, location-wise, it is in California, but those that are from here know that this area is not as desired as coastal areas, but it still IS California. There are some undesirable and less safe places to live around here such as San Bernardino, but also safe, nice quiet neighborhoods such as Redlands and Loma Linda. It is close to the mountains for skiing, still about an hour to LA or the OC, and closer to Vegas. It does get very hot and smoggy in the summer, people say it is a dry heat, but 105 degrees is 105, no matter the humidity. The winter is much milder and quite nice as you are able to see the mountains once in a while with less smog.
Second, about the program, I truly feel that Loma Linda is a "hidden jewel" out here in California. It might not have the "big name" as some of the other programs such as UCLA, UCSF, UCSD, or Stanford, but the clinical experience here is excellent and comparable or even better than some of these other places in CA. One of the reasons for the low-profile reputation is that Loma Linda does not have any current NIH grants and until recently has not emphasized research. However, working in the research department currently, I can honestly say that research is an area of emphasis that has gotten much attention. Currently, there are many studies ongoing, and many in the pipeline to get started, which all points to more national recognition in the near future. This hospital is the tertiary referral center for the largest county in the U.S., and the Children's hospital, which is attached to the main hospital, is excellent. Ads around town say this is 1 of the top 50 heart hospitals according to US News & World Report rankings. You get peds experience here early and often, and throughout your residency, unlike many places that I visited. Also, you are able to get this peds experience while at home base rather than being shipped to another childrens hospital, which at some places, are in another state. All other LA/OC based programs send their residents to CHLA except here, if that tells you something. They also have an emphasis on peds cardiac surgery, so expect to get a good share of these complicated cases during the residency. There is an ample amount of trauma here, with nearby San Bernardino being one of the highest crime rate cities, so that will be covered. They do heart, liver, and kidney (but not lung) transplants here, so you will be exposed to those. You also get exposure at the Loma Linda VA where you will do general and also vascular and thoracic cases. You will get outpatient and regional anesthesia exposure in the outpt surgery center (across the street from the main hospital) and at the community hospital (1 mile down the street). To sum up the clinical experience, you get all the cases you need in 1 centralized location. I would rather have it this way rather than going to 6 or 7 different hospitals all over the place to meet ABA requirements (like 1 place I know that I wont mention in name). Also, all the graduates that Ive spoken to feel confident to handle any case due to their experience here.
Lectures here have always been good and have even improved with more structure recently given by well-known and well-respected faculty in the anesthesiology community. There definitely is an emphasis on resident education and most everyone passes their boards without any problems. They actually will put you on academic probation if you do not meet a certain set percentile on the Anesthesia Knowledge Test that all residents take yearly, but also try to help those who might lag behind academically. The faculty here are great to work with, and although everyone has a different style, no one is malignant by any means. Once they work with you and trust you, you will have enough autonomy to be confident, but always there for backup if needed. A couple of years ago, there was a transition period where a few of the popular attendings and chairman left, some to other programs, others to private practice, but the new chairman (who was previously the vice-chairman) has stepped in to bring stability to the department. He has hired several new attendings and brought back several of the ones that left. One of the secretaries mentioned to me the other day that this is the most faculty the department has had that she could remember.
Work hours are definitely manageable. The house staff office here at LLU recently had residents clock-in to see how many hours they were working in all departments. The figure I heard for anesthesiology was approximately 60 hours a week. Some rotations will vary with this figure, some slightly more, some slightly less. The call schedule here is different. There is a staggered late call system where a few people come in at 11AM to start giving lunches to people in rooms already and then send out late people from the day before. So if you had to stay late the day before, you get first priority and are among the first to go home the next day, usually in the early afternoon. Also, there is night call where you do 2 nights (7PM to 7AM) in a row with both of those days off and then you get the entire 3rd day/night off. It seems complicated, but it definitely is better than 24 hour call and the residents all like the system and feel that it is fair.
Many graduates from the program end up in private practice all over the west coast. One disadvantage of being here may be if a certain group that has an overwhelming majority of graduates from one program that is not Loma Linda, you may not get into that group, but overall on the west coast, Loma Linda graduates are well-respected and liked. I believe it is just a matter of making our own network in southern CA. Fellowship-wise, most that want to get the fellowship of their choice. I personally know of 1 doing pain in TX, 1 doing peds in CO, 1 going to do peds at Northwestern, along with the fellowships here in cardiac, pain, and peds.
The program is competitive, being in California, and to my knowledge, has always matched, even during the down years of anesthesia in the 90s. One of the questions often asked is if they favor LLU grads. They take about half LLU grads and half from other places in the match. I know the board cutoff score for an interview here this year was 215, and Ive heard that it might move up to 220 next year. They interview around 100+ candidates for around 12 spots in the match. Hopefully this has been helpful to people wondering about Loma Linda, as there isnt too much about it around. Im glad that I will be here for residency, and we need some P.R. for others to come see and check Loma Linda out.
