Hey guys.
I'm actually a first year med student at Touro-Nevada, so I can give you some true insider information about our school.
First of all, right now at least, we have the exact same cirrculum as our Mare Island campus. We basically have an integrated systems based approach during the first two years. Right now we're taking Intro to Biochem and Tissues, OMM, Gross Anatomy (and evil Embryology), Physical Diagnosis, Public Health, Intro to Clinical Medicine, and Neuro. We're actually in the middle of block exams right now, so everyone is a little spent. But, I'd like to tell ya'll a little about our warehouse in the desert.
Our faculty and staff are absolutely fantastic. Our dean, Dr. Forman, is a DO rheumatologist. He was last at TCOM, as a Dean of Student Affairs (I think). He's an incredibly nice, funny, down to earth guy who sincerely wants the best for us and for the school. He brought several professors with him from TCOM, including the fantastic Dr. Leppi (aka The Lepster) who is one of our Gross Anatomy profs. He loves Hawaii (his wife is from there) and so we wear Hawaiian shirts in his honor on Thursdays. Our OMM faculty is incredible as well. Dr. Jones is the head of the department. They somehow managed to steal him from PCOM. He's published quite a bit about OMM and has worked intensively with several leaders in the OMM field. He's also incredibly intelligent and wry. He and the rest of the department make OMM a pleasure to learn. Our clinical staff (who teach us Physical Diagnosis, Intro to Clinical Medicine, etc) are absolutely fantastic. They're all practicing DOs, from various medical fields. They're very welcoming, have a great sense of humor (our PD labs are nothing short of a comedy routine - the professors take turns playing doctor and patient and then evaluate each other's "acting" performance), and genuinely some happy to educate us about how to practice medicine in a holistic, humane way.
Our histology professor, Dr. Miller, is a gentle soul who provides us with wonderfully detailed notes (though my opinion may change after his exam tomorrow!) and our Biochem professor Dr. Aziz (who last taught at Hopkins) is a very, very cool guy (he's around our age) and also a practicing MD. He knows exactly what we've gone through, and tries to make his lectures as clinically relevant as possible. He's a great guy - we just wish we could invite him to our parties without getting him in trouble!
The staff (pretty much everyone is from New York - their accents are fantastic!) is so nice, very welcoming. They love for us to drop in and say hi and they know most of us by name. Our admissions director, Roger Corbman, is (with the exception of the estemed Dr. Haight from Mare Island) the coolest AD in the country. He's an incredibly funny guy who loves to joke with us about everything under the sun. He knows everyone's name, even though he wasn't the one who interviewed us. I know he's going to be an incredibly valuable resource to everyone that's applying.
Our school is young, obviously. We're still ironing out the glitches. But I love the fact that there are only 75 of us in this big building. I walk around the school and know everyone in the hallways. I brought my coffee pot up here during block exams and people just help themselves to coffee. A few people asked our deans to keep the school open late during blocks and so now it's open until 3am. No dicussion. It just happened because we asked them to. My classmates are incredible. I have met so many wonderful people here, it continually surprises me. I have already found friends I expect to have for the rest of my life. For my birthday recently, 20 0f my 75 classmates showed up to help me celebrate. We seem to have a very coorperative enviornment here - people are always willing to help each other out, share notes, share resources, etc. We're trying to pave the way for this place so we know we have to work together.
All in all, I'm very glad I decided to attend TUCOM-NV. I urge you guys to come and visit us, meet my classmates and our faculty and staff. If you have any questions, feel free to post or PM them to me. If I don't get back to you, it's because I'm getting killed in blocks. 😳
Hope this helps!
Tiffany
