Just to chime my thoughts about UTSW program. I am a current CA 1 here and may be my notes might help some people wondering about the TX programs. It seems to me that public does not have a whole lot of respect for this program currently. I absolutely love this program for different reasons of my own. Let me start with the intern year since you dont have to match seperately for the PGY-1 year. Intern year is like a Transtional year here. They take 15 residents in 1st year and 3-4 as CA-1 year. Intern year is a great year. We rotate through Parkland/Childrens/Baylor and Methodist. Medicine months at Methodist are the best. Methodist serves indigent population, you see plenty of IM stuff. Best part is that call is Q5 and only 12hrs call. Two interns are on each team and each covers 12hrs of the shifts. If you are day intern, you go home at 7pm and come back the next day. You literally spend only 4 nights in the hospital per month. 4-5 months of Q5 12hrs call will beat any program. If you get MICU at Methodist, which I did not, NO CALL for the entire month and you go home everyday between 2-4pm after checking out with the senior call resident. And, pt's are really sick in MICU so you get plenty of procedures to do well as well. Baylor rotations include SICU, Pulmonary consult, CCU and Trauma ICU (new from this year, I did Vascular surgery, which was a waste of month). SICU, you stay late 1-2 a week until 5pm and no night call. Consult month is M-F and every weekend off. CCU at Baylor is Q4 call but you get to see the pt. in ICU after cath or stenting is done. Call days, I never admitted more that 2-3 patients and most of the nights were pretty quiet. Post-call you are out by 9am, after the didactics. Some interns get MICU at Methodist instead of CCU. No idea about the Trauma ICU since I did not do it, but not bad per the interns who did it. Vascular surgery was a complete waste so we opted to replace it with something useful. Parkland rotations include a month of OB (not anesthesia), very easy month since no OR or Clinic for anesthesia interns ( I used to be out by 8am after finishing my rounds and notes). You are like an assistant to the OB intern, who is also on the team and help him with the notes and discharges.They need to go to clinics or OR by 8am, you are basically done. On call days in L&D, you stay until 5pm and basically cover the floor calls since L&D is crazy in Parkland (Busiest delievery center in the country) and OB residents are pretty busy. Childrens month is Q4 and can be the most draining month, especially if you do not like to work with kids. A month of ER ( 18 12 hrs shifts, 10days and 8 nights) and a month of general anesthesia at Parkland (easy month since you are paired with a CA2 or CA3 with no call or weekends) completes the intern year.
CA 1 year has been great so far. 5-6 months of general at Parkland, 2mths of GA at University hospital (Zale and St.Paul), PICU, SICU, Pre-op, 2mths of OB, 1mth of acute pain. Q4 call at Parkland seems very malignant, but believe me except for once in a while, I get anywhere from 4-8hrs of sleep at night. This is because we have 2 CRNA's, 2 CA-1's and a CA2 or 3 for chiefing for the night. We run only 2 OR's after 11pm so cases are assigned in order between 4 people. Trauma 1 can make the night busy but it all depends on the case. Other night we did a Ex.Lap for GSW in less than 90mts. My intern year was not bad but I love my CA1 year. I came to this program because it has everything to offer for training during residency. I have already done few Crani's during my call and when the Neuro resident has a day off. Most of the CA1's are already very comfortable with GA for for B&B cases like Lap. Chole's, Ortho, ENT, Ophtho. I love trauma because it has so much to offer for learning in such a short time, and thats the reason I got certified in ATLS on my own. Parkland will give you plenty of hands-on experience on Trauma cases. Yes, few faculty members are getting off the boat to go to private practice and the hunt for the chairman is still going on, but the things which will never change will be the CLINICAL EXPERIENCE here. I believe that learning is 90% individual and 10% external like didactics and good faculty. If you see one, you will learn more and remember for the rest of your career. Visit the website at
www.utswanesthesia.com and see how didactics program is being overhauled by Dr.Griffin. Didactics was definately weak before but it has improved significantly and will improve much more in next few months. We get paged everyday "Topic of the day" from the ASA keywords to discuss with the faculty and later posted to the website for review (short 2-5mths read from Miller or Yao). Case of the week is posted every week like AAA reapir etc. Discussion forums are there for each class to discuss any topic among residents. Literature review is starting next month, where every month CA1 will present a short 10mt presentation on an pre-assigned topic to everyone.
I have heard CA2 and CA3 years get better when you do your speciality rotations, but can't comment on it yet. I am really enjoying my residency and I think I made a right choice coming here. I also interviewed at Mayo-Rochester, Birmingham, Gainesville, Michigan, Baylor, Cleveland Clinic, Wake Forest and Iowa but decided to come to this program for my own needs. Every stable program is great if it serves your needs. I have plenty of autonomy here and can already choose my anesthetic plan for the patient. Faculty are good and not so good, but thats universal phenomenon. We deal with sick people here at Parkland, which offers a lot. University hospital gives you the private practice experience during CA1 year, ASA 1 and 2 cases, well pre-oped and worked up.
UTSW is a very strong program with some not very favorable words out there. Its the only program in the Metroplex with strong job market currently. I would highly recommend that you should visit this program to see it yourself and meet the residents. One of the current CA1, who went to school here also considered this program malignant and did spread the same word during his interview trail and warned people to stay away (not because he wanted to match here), now realizes how wrong he was.
They will have a chairman soon, because faculty and search committe meetings are becoming very frequent. I have heard that finaces were the main reason for Dr. Johnston's departure, but dept. is back in the black (from -$5 mil. to +$500K in less than 2 years). Old anchors are here and driving this program in the right direction. If anybody has any questions about UTSW, I will be very happy to give my honest opinion. Thanks and good luck to everyone on the interview trail.
