University of Hawaii

[alohakaoha]

Checking the threads from the past, the last post looking for info is from 2009. Anyone currently in residency here or interview here last year with their impressions?

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[Easily_Sunburned]

Checking the threads from the past, the last post looking for info is from 2009. Anyone currently in residency here or interview here last year with their impressions?

Hey there - Current resident here. What can I help you with?

 

[Easily_Sunburned]

Personally, I'm a big fan. Obviously the weather is hard to beat. But that is a big perk in that there are a lot of options for doing things outside and enjoying being here all year around. The proram itslef has a pretty sweet case mix, and there is a lot of really varried stuff hanging around. Get to see a lot! Another perk, which I didn't think of until I got here, was the program size. It's 8 residents a year, which means that (a) you get to know your class really well, and (b) you don't get lost in the shuffle. Getting fellowship LoR's was realy quite easy because I could simply chat with my attendings, all of whom knew me and were able to write really good ones. That's definetly the story here - you get to know the attendings really well.

So yeah, big fan!

 

[alohakaoha]

Thanks!
I'm making a small trip out of it and hoping to somehow make it around without a car. Looking forward to my interview!

 

[Doctor_Sandy]

I was disappointed to hear somewhat mixed reviews about the pediatrics residency program at University of Hawaii. I met another applicant reapplying after leaving the program and another resident from a different program saying they heard negative things. Can some you help with this confusion?! I have to make my ROL soon

 

[bashwell]

I was disappointed to hear somewhat mixed reviews about the pediatrics residency program at University of Hawaii. I met another applicant reapplying after leaving the program and another resident from a different program saying they heard negative things. Can some you help with this confusion?! I have to make my ROL soon

Hmmmm. If all your info about Hawaii is from these two individuals, then I wouldn't necessarily say it's reliable info. It's hard to tell. The first person had to "reapply" which could be a red flag in and of itself, while the second person "heard negative things" which could be just unfounded rumors or gossip or something like that for all we know. Maybe there's more to their stories, but I'm just saying this based on what you've revealed here.

 

[alohakaoha]

I was disappointed to hear somewhat mixed reviews about the pediatrics residency program at University of Hawaii. I met another applicant reapplying after leaving the program and another resident from a different program saying they heard negative things. Can some you help with this confusion?! I have to make my ROL soon

Do you have specific questions?

 

[AMehl]

Also wondering the same thing

 

[Easily_Sunburned]

I was disappointed to hear somewhat mixed reviews about the pediatrics residency program at University of Hawaii. I met another applicant reapplying after leaving the program and another resident from a different program saying they heard negative things. Can some you help with this confusion?! I have to make my ROL soon

I agree w @bashwell - if you're gonna go off of a resident WHO LEFT THE PROGRAM, you're not really going to get great advice. And I've heard negative things about a lot of programs.... but I take it with a grain salt, because, as you aid, you're hearing the NEGATIVE things. Hardly an unbiased view.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have - either PM me or here - I'm a resident in Hawaii. I promise that I'll answer your questions honestly.

 

[Easily_Sunburned]

Also wondering the same thing

Hey - wondering about the 'negative things you heard' or wondering about 'specific questions?' Happy to help either way!

 

[Doctor_Sandy]

I agree w @bashwell - if you're gonna go off of a resident WHO LEFT THE PROGRAM, you're not really going to get great advice. And I've heard negative things about a lot of programs.... but I take it with a grain salt, because, as you aid, you're hearing the NEGATIVE things. Hardly an unbiased view.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have - either PM me or here - I'm a resident in Hawaii. I promise that I'll answer your questions honestly.

Thanks for your help. I agree that it is a biased view, but definitely something I need to take into consideration. The negative things I've heard are that it is a "malignant" program (heard this from a resident in a different program) and that several residents have left in the past for various reasons. I guess my questions would be - if you had to do it all over again the same, would you? Is there anything you wish were different about the program? If there were problems in the past, is there anything underway to change that? Has this program ever been under probation by the ACGME?

 

[Easily_Sunburned]

Thanks for your help. I agree that it is a biased view, but definitely something I need to take into consideration. The negative things I've heard are that it is a "malignant" program (heard this from a resident in a different program) and that several residents have left in the past for various reasons. I guess my questions would be - if you had to do it all over again the same, would you? Is there anything you wish were different about the program? If there were problems in the past, is there anything underway to change that? Has this program ever been under probation by the ACGME?

Sure, happy to answer!

1 - I've honestly never felt it to be a malignant program. Some residents and attendings will have their issues with each other - but from what I've seen, they're very good at settling those professionally. The faculty in general are also honestly very invested in the residents - the majority of the hospitalists are actually a lot of fun to be on with overnight. They're also very supportive, and genuinely care about the residents.
2 - we have lost a few residents in the time I've been here. The majority of these have been because of one reason - distance. Hawaii is fantastic for a lot of reasons - it's also a 6 hour flight from the mainland. In considering ranking Hawaii, do NOT take that lightly. The single unifying theme amongst the residents who've left has been that, in one way or another, the distance from friends, family, etc, became a major issue. Personally, I love it out here - but the move WAS hard.
3 - Would I do it again? In a second.
4- I'm not a fan of NICU. I don't have much basis for comparison, never having actually been at any other NICU or program. It basically boils down to them not consistently having residents there (size-wise, to be a fully resident run NICU, we would need around 10 residents on the NICU at any one time). As such, the role residents are expected to play changes from team to team, and between faculty. Personally, not a fan of that. I like consistency. That being said, do I feel like I could resuscitate a crashing baby/lead a neonatal code or a delivery that went bad? For sure. We also matched someone into a NICU fellowship this year, which says something too! If the NICU were 'perfect' (whatever that means, again, because I don't have a basis of comparison), I wouldn't really have anything to post as far as 'things I wish were different!'
5/6 - As far as I know (program 'living' memory is around 5-6 years; as an intern, you work with 3rd years/chiefs, so people who started 3 years before you did - anything else is second or third hand), we've never been on probation by the ACGME. I'm also not really aware of specific problems in the past. That being said, one advantage to the program is size/ability to respond and move quickly. I remember during my intern year, one concern folks had was that there wasn't enough resident-lead research happening. Fast-forward 2 years, and every single 2nd/3rd year in the program, and a fair number of interns, have either their own project or a project they're doing with another resident, as lead/second author (when another resident is lead author).

Some of the positives about the program (since hey, I love it!) are the 100% fellowship match rate, the 100% board pass rate (again, going off people in living memory, since no-one is going to email out of the blue and say 'hey guys, guess who just failed their boards!'), the intimate/close feel of the residents (you really end up with a circle of friends as big as the program, any one of whom I'd feel comfortable meeting up with 1:1 for a beer or coffee or whatever), the attending you get to know quite well (to the point that some of the research I've gotten has come from attendings emailing me out of the blue and saying 'hey so I hear you're interested in z/y/z - lets do a project on it!), the hospitalists who I honestly look forward to being on rotation with... sorry for the run on sentence!

I really hope that helps to answer some of your concerns! Keep the questions coming, will do my best to answer/clarify.

 

[Doctor_Sandy]

I really hope that helps to answer some of your concerns! Keep the questions coming, will do my best to answer/clarify.

Thank you SO much. Helps A LOT

 

[Easily_Sunburned]

Thank you SO much. Helps A LOT

No problem, let me know if I can answer anything else for you 🙂

 

[DSK]

No problem, let me know if I can answer anything else for you 🙂

Hi Easily_Sunburned, thank you for all of the great information! I have a couple of questions for you.
1) How DO friendly is your program?/Do you have any current residents that are DOs?
2) I am currently a FM intern looking to switch into a pediatrics residency. I understand that this means I will have to repeat intern year if I enter a pediatrics residency program, but I was wondering if you know of any residents in your program that have gone through a similar situation. Do you have any advice regarding this? I am very interested in your program and it is great that you enjoy it so much!
Thanks in advance!

 

[cgc217]

No problem, let me know if I can answer anything else for you 🙂

Hi, Easily_Sunburned:

Thanks so much for your information. I'm really interested in your program; have family in HI. How receptive is your program to non-HI residents? AMG from MD school here. Southeast USA.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Easily_Sunburned]

Hi Easily_Sunburned, thank you for all of the great information! I have a couple of questions for you.
1) How DO friendly is your program?/Do you have any current residents that are DOs?
2) I am currently a FM intern looking to switch into a pediatrics residency. I understand that this means I will have to repeat intern year if I enter a pediatrics residency program, but I was wondering if you know of any residents in your program that have gone through a similar situation. Do you have any advice regarding this? I am very interested in your program and it is great that you enjoy it so much!
Thanks in advance!

Hey, will do my best to answer:
1 - very DO friendly; one of our current chiefs (we have 2 chiefs a year to split the work load) is DO, the other is MD. In all the years that I've been aware of, we've always had at least a couple DOs.
2 - I actually don't really know anyone who's done that; not to say it's not possible, just that there aren't any current folks who've done that in the program. I do know we had applicants in similar situation last year, and, provided they had a legitimate reason for switching programs and we weren't worried they would switch out of our program too, we didn't hold it against them. So as long as you can assure folks of that, you should be fine.

Hope that helps!

 

[Easily_Sunburned]

Hi, Easily_Sunburned:

Thanks so much for your information. I'm really interested in your program; have family in HI. How receptive is your program to non-HI residents? AMG from MD school here. Southeast USA.

Thanks in advance!

Hey, we're very open to non-Hawaii residents. My class was mostly non-hawaii residents, actually. For some reason, it tends to oscillate between being majority Hawaii, minority Hawaii. Go figure. In general, if there's a hierarchy, students from Hawaii (and med students from University of Hawaii, in particular) will generally be looked at a bit more closely and might have a higher chance of matching, since it's assumed that they will stay in Hawaii after graduating from residency. Our program is unique in the rate retention of residents after training; something like 80-90% of pediatricians in Hawaii were trained at the UH peds residency program. So providing well trained paediatricians for the state is something of a priority!

That being said, there isn't any bias against non-Hawaii graduates, because it's understood that not everyone will stay, and not everyone who stays will be from Hawaii. If you can convince them that you're interested in staying in Hawaii (family being a great reason!) after you graduate, then you will definitely get bonus marks on your application, though! The school you come from shouldn't matter all that much.

Hope that helps!

 

[alohakaoha]

To add on to this discussion, as a newly minted second year (Aloha Easily_Sunburned, A hui hou for Interview Season in January 😀)

1) Is the program malignant: Not at all. You’re going to have personality clashes at any program you go to. At the end of the day, the current 22 residents are pretty happy to work with each other and in the exact opposite of being malignant have volunteered to help protect each other from being spread too thin. I really think of the people in my class and the residents above and below me as part of my ohana and you are gonna butt heads with people in your family once in a while.

2) The number one reason why residents leave is distance. It’s hard out here. You can’t really do a weekend trip home unless money isn’t an option.

3) Would I do it again? I love my intern now co-second years, the uppers before us and the new interns. I love the people we serve. And Hawaii is a truly beautiful place to do residency.

4) I’ll agree with Easily_Sunburned on the NICU though I think the issue is more there are not enough attendings to appropriately lead a resident run team of acutely ill neonates. I was lucky and had good attendings who enjoyed teaching but sometimes you’re less fortunate.

5/6 - Ditto what he said.

7) Our program is very DO friendly, each class year has at least one DO!

8) Not sure about how easy it would be to switching residencies but I do know in general it’s fairly difficult.

9) My class is entirely from the mainland and we’re trying as hard as we can to pass as kama’aina now. Some of us more successful than others.

 

[Perth Domer]

My residency does some rotations at Kapiolani (as have several of our attendings). Kapiolani used to be a malignant program and was on ACGME probation (Work hour issues back in the day). That's not an issue any more. They seem to get a good mixture of pathology, though due to the ethnic makeup of Hawaii they don't see much sickle cell or CF. Their NICU experience seems lacking. Using the not enough residents excuse isn't enough. Where I went to med school the residents covered only about half the patients, but covered patients of all levels of acuity. Correct me if I'm wrong but there's also no NICU/PICU night coverage built into the rotation. In previous years they lost several residents in their classes, though this seems to be less of a problem now.

 

[cgc217]

Very excited about applying to your program! Have interview invites started to be sent out yet? Thanks!

 

[Bernardo_11]

Wow, reading through this thread (2004 residency graduate; 2008 DB peds graduate) makes me feel ... old. Yet I remember my training there like it was just yesterday.

Nardo

 

[maybe11]

I know this is a bit of an old thread but I’m trying to get some info on the gen surg residency here. I’m a Hawai‘i native, mainland D.O. student trying to come home and was wondering if they have ever accepted a D.O. student before. Any info would be very helpful!!

 

[FlowLimited]

I know this is a bit of an old thread but I’m trying to get some info on the gen surg residency here. I’m a Hawai‘i native, mainland D.O. student trying to come home and was wondering if they have ever accepted a D.O. student before. Any info would be very helpful!!

This is the Pediatrics forum. You'll have better luck in the Surgery forum.