University of Hawaii Surgery Program

[SomeFakeName]

Hi, can somebody give me some insight on the general surgery residency at the University of Hawaii. Nobody at my medical school knows much about it, and when I emailed the residency coordinator to ask if he could give me the email addresses of some of the residents or give my email to the residents so that we could discuss the program, he flat out refused to provide me with any of their email addresses. I remember reading somewhere that it's usually not a good sign if a residency program doesn't want you to talk about the program with its current residents. So if anybody knows anything about this program (except for what's written about it on scutwork.com) I'd appreciate if you'd let me know, thanks.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[surg]

The UH program has had a reputation of being a program that is heavy on work and light on educational focus. It is not a very big program so I will be interested to find out what they are planning to do to get in compliance with the 80 hr work week. The last time I spoke to one of their residents (~2 years ago) they were pretty miserable. What that person told me was the plus side was you operated like a fiend, but the downside was that there was no time to read at all.

Haven't heard anything since then, so take this information with a grain of salt.

 

[Toadkiller Dog]

U of Hawaii in general is a miserable place. I interviewed there for med school (as an out of stater), and it quickly went to the bottom of my list.

The administration was not friendly at all (or knowledgeable for that matter), and their curriculum is downright weird. The hospital did not look very well kept up, either. Cost of living is extremely high, also, especially for what they pay you (in residency).

Just to show you how well thought of they are by people who interview there (for residency), they were one of the only places in the country to have unmatched slots in *ortho*, for goodness sakes.

Unless they really change, or you really need to live in HW, I would look elsewhere.

 

[Bikini Princess]

Originally posted by Toadkiller Dog
U of Hawaii in general is a miserable place. I interviewed there for med school (as an out of stater), and it quickly went to the bottom of my list.

The administration was not friendly at all (or knowledgeable for that matter), and their curriculum is downright weird. The hospital did not look very well kept up, either. Cost of living is extremely high, also, especially for what they pay you (in residency).

BTW, the SOM is becoming more organized, and a lot of new residency/clerkship coordinators have come in. It's true that they've come close to losing accreditation for the entire SOM in the past few years, but I think things are on the upswing. I do understand that many of the clinical teachers don't have very much enthusiasm, or supportive of residents.

 

[cali]

anyone know what the prelim. in surgery program is like in Hawaii? I am going into anesthesiology but am thinking it might be nice to spend a year in Hawaii for my PGY1 year

 

[Castro Viejo]

Well if the above is any indication of how hard the residents at Hawaii work, you can be sure the prelim will get scutted off the island.

Aloha.

 

[UI2003]

I'm not surprised that the coordinator didn't give out his resident's email addresses to you (hello, confidentiality anyone?) but if you want to inquire in another (better) way, simply forward an email to the program coordinator stating your name, year, contact info etc. and ask them to post it to the resident's listserv. It's their job to do this sort of thing and most are happy to oblige. Another route would be to look up the program on scutwork.com and email any of the residents who've posted a review. Good luck!

 

[Celiac Plexus]

Originally posted by UI2003
I'm not surprised that the coordinator didn't give out his resident's email addresses to you (hello, confidentiality anyone


Well, actually it's not really a privacy issue. I can go to a number of web sites of surgical residencies and find e-mails of residents(e.g. here). It's absurd to say that the reason a PD won't give e-mail addresses to applicants is because of a privacy issue. I think that any program that tries that hard to guard access to current residents, is throwing a red flag in your face. If a program is asking you for 5-7 years of your life but is not open enough to allow you to contact the current residents then that is problematic.


. Another route would be to look up the program on scutwork.com and email any of the residents who've posted a review. Good luck!

Scutwork is a neat resource, but to base any big decisions on what these anonymous posters have written is not a great idea. There is no way to know if the poster is really a PGY-4, or an MS-III, or if the posts are really unique,or if some resident is signing in as multiple users. Bottom line: do not accept web sites like scutwork.com as substitutes for talking with residents/attendings at the places where you interview.

 

[gabbydoggie]

personally, i would take it as a bad sign that the program coordinator wouldn't help you get in touch with residents. Very questionable. if you are really interested in living there for whatever reason, go ahead and apply. go interview and decide then.

good luck.

 

[omn]

U of Hawaii in general is a miserable place. I interviewed there for med school (as an out of stater), and it quickly went to the bottom of my list.

The administration was not friendly at all (or knowledgeable for that matter), and their curriculum is downright weird. The hospital did not look very well kept up, either. Cost of living is extremely high, also, especially for what they pay you (in residency).

Just to show you how well thought of they are by people who interview there (for residency), they were one of the only places in the country to have unmatched slots in *ortho*, for goodness sakes.

Unless they really change, or you really need to live in HW, I would look elsewhere.

JUST BY THE WAY.. THIS IS A TERRIBLE THING TO EVEN THINK ABOUT...

IS IT TRUE?

 

[thedrjojo]

JUST BY THE WAY.. THIS IS A TERRIBLE THING TO EVEN THINK ABOUT...

IS IT TRUE?

I dunno, it was posted 13 years ago.

Kudos on all caps though

 

[HISurg]

Just as an update, I read this here and felt I had to comment. Ive been a resident here for several years and feel that the comments made here do not accurately reflect the program anymore (though may have in the past, I do not know).

It is a smaller community program, I'll give you that. I wouldn't expect to come here and have a groundbreaking research study, its just not that kind of place. We do stay busy, but in recent years (since I've been an intern and on) the chiefs have tried hard to make sure ALL of us are in compliance with 80 hours. Are you going to get thrown out of the OR if youre over hours? No (this is the kind of thing we will turn a blind eye to as you are an adult), but if yours spending countless hours doing scutwork (which is rare) we will send you home to make sure you aren't over. We have a broad assortment of cases with the vast majority of the attendings who love teaching. In recent years we have become increasingly robot heavy however we still have a large amount of open and laparoscopic cases. Our interns start operating from their first month and it is expected that interns have a good operating experience (often getting advanced cases due to insufficient residents to staff all the good cases). All in all I think we get a very strong operative experience at our program and start very early.

My favorite part about my program and the thing I feel that sets it apart is how we interact with each other. I really like my fellow residents and most of my attendings. Some of my best friends are my co-residents and my attendings are great mentors. Its not unusual for attendings to buy you food or to just hang out to chat when free or around the hospital. They all seem to want the residents to do well and there is a sense of investment in the residents as the future of the surgical community in Hawaii. As residents we don't have a lot of time outside work but when we do going out together for a beer or dinner is common and Honolulu is a great city for that.

As far as what Id say are the weaknesses of our program its mainly still academics. While the program does give us "academic time" the conferences are not always the most useful. Its certainly possible to score in the 90th percentile on ABSITE here (we have 1-2 residents per year who do) there is a lot less hand holding so its easy to fall behind on academics. Otherwise there are minor problems with service structure but these are slowly being fixed by our new program director Dr Murayama.

Anyways the bottom line is that I would chose this program again. Is every day wonderful? No, but I doubt it is in any program. The important thing is that I feel like Im getting a good surgical education and am happy with the people Im doing it with. Im more than happy to address any questions about the program here or hopefully our program coordinator is better about giving out emails.

 

[LucidSplash]

Just as an update, I read this here and felt I had to comment. Ive been a resident here for several years and feel that the comments made here do not accurately reflect the program anymore (though may have in the past, I do not know).

It is a smaller community program, I'll give you that. I wouldn't expect to come here and have a groundbreaking research study, its just not that kind of place. We do stay busy, but in recent years (since I've been an intern and on) the chiefs have tried hard to make sure ALL of us are in compliance with 80 hours. Are you going to get thrown out of the OR if youre over hours? No (this is the kind of thing we will turn a blind eye to as you are an adult), but if yours spending countless hours doing scutwork (which is rare) we will send you home to make sure you aren't over. We have a broad assortment of cases with the vast majority of the attendings who love teaching. In recent years we have become increasingly robot heavy however we still have a large amount of open and laparoscopic cases. Our interns start operating from their first month and it is expected that interns have a good operating experience (often getting advanced cases due to insufficient residents to staff all the good cases). All in all I think we get a very strong operative experience at our program and start very early.

My favorite part about my program and the thing I feel that sets it apart is how we interact with each other. I really like my fellow residents and most of my attendings. Some of my best friends are my co-residents and my attendings are great mentors. Its not unusual for attendings to buy you food or to just hang out to chat when free or around the hospital. They all seem to want the residents to do well and there is a sense of investment in the residents as the future of the surgical community in Hawaii. As residents we don't have a lot of time outside work but when we do going out together for a beer or dinner is common and Honolulu is a great city for that.

As far as what Id say are the weaknesses of our program its mainly still academics. While the program does give us "academic time" the conferences are not always the most useful. Its certainly possible to score in the 90th percentile on ABSITE here (we have 1-2 residents per year who do) there is a lot less hand holding so its easy to fall behind on academics. Otherwise there are minor problems with service structure but these are slowly being fixed by our new program director Dr Murayama.

Anyways the bottom line is that I would chose this program again. Is every day wonderful? No, but I doubt it is in any program. The important thing is that I feel like Im getting a good surgical education and am happy with the people Im doing it with. Im more than happy to address any questions about the program here or hopefully our program coordinator is better about giving out emails.

You just defended your program against a 15-year-old post. (Insert necrobump gif here)

 

[wholeheartedly]

You just defended your program against a 15-year-old post. (Insert necrobump gif here)

Yeah, but at least they realized it and noted it in their post. Someone might have questions about the place and want more recent info.