I'm a student here and while it is true that they are on probation and have changed PD's, I think that saying someone 'won't be a competent neurologist' is far from true. Working at Tulane/New Orleans is not easy because the patients are very sick, have a lot of social barriers, and lots of times you're all the hope they've got. It creates a double edged training sword. While I find this rewarding in many ways and would choose Tulane a million times over ( I'm a more efficient worker, a better person, and I can make things happen in seemingly impossible hospital situations), this also means that everyone at every level works really hard. I'm sorry that BrainNola feels overworked and not supported. New Orleans is a very unique city with a challenging system to navigate. But while I can only imagine how transitioning to Tulane or starting a residency here can be extremely exhausting at times, in my opinion, the proof is in the pudding. Just while I've been a student, grads left to do fellowships at Harvard, UCLA and Wash U. And I know that upcoming grads are leaving to do fellowships in movement at Ochsner, neuro-ophtho at UMiami....and I can't remember what a couple others said they are doing.
I was obviously concerned about probation, so I asked several attendings/the new PD why this was the case (esp since the graduating residents have been so impressive/great teachers). And the theme seems to be that they were criticized for being heavy in stroke (no surprise in nola) and for residents wanting more protected teaching times. They've hired an epileptologist as the new PD, and are working to expand to have more in-house Tulane faculty in more sub-specialties (As a med student, I can't speak to how they normally cover sub specialties. It's been my understanding that if Tulane didn't have it, they have relationships with other places in the city). And as far as the teaching conferences, I've seen workload force residents to skip going. I think the "Monday 1-5pm" time is a way to address that, but I guess they'll see how this helps. As I've gone through my rotations, the motto has been "once you've made it through Tulane, you can navigate any system". But having tried to jump from city to city in my life and as a non-southerner, I can say that there's no place like nola. As I've been on the interview trail, people seem to respect the skills that you inherently gain by making it through our system. So long story lol just to say, Tulane can certainly be rough, they've had to address criticisms, but the residents leave with good opportunities.
