UF-Jacksonville

[P962381]

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I am having a hard time finding reviews of EM at UF-Jacksonville (Shands). I would appreciate any thoughts on this program (strengths/weaknesses).

Thanks,
A

 

[SolidGold]

Should be one in the reviews thread that I agreed with.

 

[Xanderain]

I did a Neuro rotation there, but of course, with the stroke team, you spend a lot of time in the ER. I found their ER to be extremely over-crowded, with a good number of the patients being in shackles (for whatever crime they might have committed), and the attendings there are some of the nastiest and meanest doctors I have ever met. With that said, it is likely that you would get good exposure to a lot of interesting cases there, and if you could handle the occasional nasty attending, you might like it there.

 

[hyperbaric]

Patients in shackles don't bother me, but bad attendings do. This is a program of interest to me and, good or bad, I would like to hear the experiences/opinions of others. Please post here or PM me if you prefer.

 

[Interpolfanclub]

As an EM resident at Jax I feel compelled to come to the defense of my program and its' attendings. I'm sorry if the previous poster had a negative experience with one of our attendings. Everyone has their off days, and Jax can be a stressful place to work. With the stress of the ED and the sheer number of attendings and range of personalities it is difficult to maintain a pleasant disposition all the time. I would not categorize any of our attendings as being mean and nasty. There is just a range of personalities and as with any program there are some attendings you get along with more than others.

I feel the strengths of this program are without a doubt due to its' county nature. We are given a great deal of autonomy beginning intern year and it is definitely a resident-run ED. Lots of lines, intubations, codes etc etc. You hit the ground running here. You are given a very active role in patient care from the beginning, not much hand holding here at Shands.

Weaknesses are also tied to our county nature. To speed things up I push patients to xray, hang fluids, clean up spills etc whatever it takes to get the job done. If you want to go somewhere and never do "scut" then Shands is not the place for you. But if you want to go to an EM program where you will see sick people and know how to manage them and have done every conceivable EM procedures, we're your program.

The drawbacks to this program (pushing patients to xray etc.) are not going to affect you when you are out in practice. But if you haven't done enough lines, LPs...not good. Not something you are going to have to worry about being a UF grad. We are also one of the oldest programs in the country. 1975. I wouldn't go anywhere else. PM with questions. Thanks.

 

[anonymousEM]

I also graduated from Jax 2 years ago. I completely agree with the above poster. Does the ED suffer from overcrowding, sure, so does every department in the US. But, that means you get to learn how manage patient flow and have the opportunity to care for as many sick patients as possible before you are out there on your own. I am currently working in another county hospital, teaching situation and I can honestly say that I have a lot easier time working there than many of my colleagues who completed residencies at other top-notch programs. It's not because I have more book knowledge, but I'm used to always having multiple critical patients in the ED and comfortable managing a lot of truly sick patients at once.

For those of you who are trauma junkies, you'll get your fix and then some...I think the last numbers I heard were approximately 30% penetrating trauma. Another strength is that the administration is really receptive to resident input when it is constructive regarding curriculum. When we said rotations weren't working, they were dropped and substituted with better learning experiences. The hospital wasn't pretty, we didn't have rotations in Hawaii or waterfalls in the lobby, but they spent the money on important things for training like all of the airway toys (faculty is nationally known for instructing in The Airway Course) and there is now an amazing simulation lab. In general, I thought that the ancillary staff was pretty good for the situation as well. There are faculty who are state and nationally known for activism in EM, the editor of a major EM textbook just retired as dean of GME, renowned Peds EM experts (the color coding kids system is a collaboration of Drs. Broslow and our own Dr. Luten), folks who have been involved with editing national journals...the list goes on. International opportunities are increasing.

If you need someone to assign you 3 chapters of Tintinalli every night and to give you a quiz in conference each week to get you to read, this is not the place for you. I, however, found that I really flourished in the environment. It wasn't easy, but it made me a confident EM physician. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Judge for yourself, not based on someone's neurology rotation. Good luck!

 

[anonymousEM]

regarding shackles, Jax has the city contract for the jail pts. You see a lot of folks of varying degrees of illness in jumpsuits, but it's not a big deal either way.

 

[Xanderain]

Funny how when I state facts, no judgments, other than perhaps the behavior of the attendings, they feel compelled to defend their program. I never said it was bad, and certainly an EM resident is going to have a wholly different point of view then from an IM or Neuro resident. I just don't think that an EM attending physically and verbally trying to intimidate and chastise a neuro attending is professionally appropriate, ever. With that said, I never had an EM resident there that was anything other than very courteous. Additionally, I heard that the EM residents get to go to the local zoo for "Venom Day". That's sounds pretty sweet.

 

[EdEmEr]

Question: How well respected is your program and could your residents get almost any job they wanted? My understanding is that this is one of the top places in the SE and that graduates are highly sought after. Is this correct?

SCUT: This is my general philosophy from a 4th year medstud perspective and not specific to UF/Jax.

If you are EXPECTED to scut as an intern under the assumption that you pick up skills that could help in the future, I'm not sure this is really that important but fine...so be it.

If you have to scut every now and then to get things moving when it gets busy, fine. You are part of an ED team and you can help out.

HOWEVER, if you spend your entire residency pushing patients to the radiology suite and starting IV's because the hospital is short staffed and overwhelmed, welcome to cheap labor my friend. We as doctors have to train to make decisions and that HAS to detract from your educational goals. Am I wrong?

I also graduated from Jax 2 years ago. I completely agree with the above poster. Does the ED suffer from overcrowding, sure, so does every department in the US. But, that means you get to learn how manage patient flow and have the opportunity to care for as many sick patients as possible before you are out there on your own. I am currently working in another county hospital, teaching situation and I can honestly say that I have a lot easier time working there than many of my colleagues who completed residencies at other top-notch programs. It's not because I have more book knowledge, but I'm used to always having multiple critical patients in the ED and comfortable managing a lot of truly sick patients at once.

For those of you who are trauma junkies, you'll get your fix and then some...I think the last numbers I heard were approximately 30% penetrating trauma. Another strength is that the administration is really receptive to resident input when it is constructive regarding curriculum. When we said rotations weren't working, they were dropped and substituted with better learning experiences. The hospital wasn't pretty, we didn't have rotations in Hawaii or waterfalls in the lobby, but they spent the money on important things for training like all of the airway toys (faculty is nationally known for instructing in The Airway Course) and there is now an amazing simulation lab. In general, I thought that the ancillary staff was pretty good for the situation as well. There are faculty who are state and nationally known for activism in EM, the editor of a major EM textbook just retired as dean of GME, renowned Peds EM experts (the color coding kids system is a collaboration of Drs. Broslow and our own Dr. Luten), folks who have been involved with editing national journals...the list goes on. International opportunities are increasing.

If you need someone to assign you 3 chapters of Tintinalli every night and to give you a quiz in conference each week to get you to read, this is not the place for you. I, however, found that I really flourished in the environment. It wasn't easy, but it made me a confident EM physician. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Judge for yourself, not based on someone's neurology rotation. Good luck!

 

[GeneralVeers]

Funny how when I state facts, no judgments, other than perhaps the behavior of the attendings, they feel compelled to defend their program. I never said it was bad, and certainly an EM resident is going to have a wholly different point of view then from an IM or Neuro resident. I just don't think that an EM attending physically and verbally trying to intimidate and chastise a neuro attending is professionally appropriate, ever. With that said, I never had an EM resident there that was anything other than very courteous. Additionally, I heard that the EM residents get to go to the local zoo for "Venom Day". That's sounds pretty sweet.

When I rotated there as a student we had "Venom Day". At the zoo they take you into the back room, and let you touch the pit vipers, and hold the giant python. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[EMT2RN2MD]

they take you into the back room, and let you touch the pit vipers, and hold the giant python.

So you wouldn't say that "Venom Day" left a bad taste in your mouth?

 

[anonymousEM]

I don't know of anyone who has had a difficult time finding a job he or she wanted in a town he or she wanted to live in. In fact, the benefit of an older program is that there are grads of the program all over the place willing to lend a hand or recommendation when you need it. That being said, I don't know of any of my med school colleagues (who did residencies all over the country who have had difficulties either...). I think training in EM is similar enough that getting hired in most markets is more about being a good fit--either with the dept's niche (International, EMS whatever) based on interests developed in residency or with the group's personality etc.

I have no idea what kind of interaction occurred between the other poster and an attending. In general I found the group easygoing and friendly to work with, though we all certainly have better days than others. It is not ever appropriate to berate or abuse colleagues. Again, I've been out for a couple of years, but the group is more or less the same and I'm surprised to hear anything like that on these boards.

During my residency the scut was limited and actually the techs were top notch...I rarely started an IV unless we were going for an EJ or central access after multiple others had failed. I wouldn't say my time was wasted on lots of scut, but you had to know when to step in and help out. It was more an interest of prioritization...knowing who was the sickest one who had to go to CT next in the dept, should I spend 1 min pushing someone to XR so that the nurse can start the antibiotics on a septic patient etc. Occasionally we all do something outside what is truly our own responsibility to make sure that we are all doing the best thing for our collective patients.

As far as the city, Jacksonville can be a great place to live if you're a beach fan or just like a laid back place but there's not a big downtown scene, you need to be ok with driving a car everywhere--public transportation is not the city's strong point and it is a very spread out.

Best of luck with your decisions.

 

[enfuegoEP]

The hospital wasn't pretty, we didn't have rotations in Hawaii or waterfalls in the lobby!

What!!!! No waterfalls 😡 How am I supposed to learn in such an environment? Scratch Jax off my list...No waterfalls=No enfuegoEP

 

[hyperbaric]

Any housing suggestions for a month-long rotation?

 

[Janders]

Ask the person coordinating your away month if there are any spots left in the dorm.

(yes, an on-campus dorm. badass.)

 

[hyperbaric]

Muchas gracias.