UW neurology

[Enkidu]

What are your impressions of the Neurology program at the University of Washington? Based on the quality of the medical school and the Neuroscience research there I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to be on many people's radars.

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[PhakeDoc]

I too am surprised that this program isn't more popular. There was a recent thread I think comparing the west coast programs.

The one thing that's a big negative about U Wash for me is the distance between the hospitals (I absolutely positively hate driving, especially for commuting's sake). Although I've never been to Seattle, I hear traffic can be quite miserable. If things were closer together, I imagine it'd be much higher on my radar.

 

[donesoon]

In general I liked UW as well, although I had some of the similar concerns as Phake. Hospitals spread out means a lot of driving, between the university, Harborview, and the VA, and the residents are split out to each site which makes it inconvenient for conferences. Lots of great research opportunities but for me I wasn't sure how much I'd really be willing to drive to lab from an off-site rotation after hours- it's hard enough going to lab at the end of the day at 4pm when you can walk across the street to it. The chairman seemed very nice, enthusiastic and was very welcoming during the interview. Good subspecialty coverage although their neurocritical care program is different than most places, it is at Harborview and is more a neurohospitalist rather than closed unit kind of place. Residents were really nice and the pre-interview dinner was very cozy and pleasant.

I think on the whole UW is probably a great place to train although in context with the other west coast programs, I personally favored programs which had close lab access, integrating campus and hospitals because I want to minimize the effort needed to get to lab, and were stronger in neuroICU, epilepsy and interventional. I know it's not typical of most but I preferred UCLA, Stanford, and OHSU, then UCSF/UW, and then UCSD (didn't interview at any other West Coast programs).

 

[swman]

I am also interested to know what residents' experiences are like at UW 's Neurology program. Rumor has it among UW's IM residents that the Neurology program is "malignant". When I asked them to explain they said that their friends are far overworked and miserable. I have heard this same sentiment from many (>10) IM residents in separate conversations when I told them I was interested in Neuro. Can any current or recent residents confirm or, hopefully, deny, whether this ever was or still is the case?

 

[PhakeDoc]

...I preferred UCLA, Stanford, and OHSU, then UCSF/UW, and then UCSD (didn't interview at any other West Coast programs).

Thanks for your response. For UCLA and Stanford, did you think the quality of experience, facilities, research, etc., to be good enough in relation to UW to overcome the driving necessities there as well? If I remember looking at the LA County map correctly, 2 of the hospitals covered by UCLA seemed pretty far out (1 was way out). Also, Stanford requires coverage @ Santa Clara Valley Medical which can be a crap drive in Bay Area traffic.

Thanks.

 

[HarveyCushing]

I am also interested to know what residents' experiences are like at UW 's Neurology program. Rumor has it among UW's IM residents that the Neurology program is "malignant". When I asked them to explain they said that their friends are far overworked and miserable. I have heard this same sentiment from many (>10) IM residents in separate conversations when I told them I was interested in Neuro. Can any current or recent residents confirm or, hopefully, deny, whether this ever was or still is the case?

I know that sdn can provide great advice and info on programs. However as with most things you need to take it as a grain of sand. If UW neuro is one of your top choices and you are worried that it is malignant and thus not a good fit for you, you might want to consider doing an elective rotation there so that you get first hand experience with the program and can see whether or not it is truly malignant. Sometimes it is hard to tell the truth as residents will come on here to defend their program when it is labeled "malignant" and attempt to make everything sound great. The best way is to actually visit the program for 4 weeks and see how it functions and what the life is like for the residents imho.

 

[donesoon]

... For UCLA and Stanford, did you think the quality of experience, facilities, research, etc., to be good enough in relation to UW to overcome the driving necessities there as well?

Few of the programs I interviewed at had little to no commuting (WashU, Duke, and OHSU come to mind). I don't remember all the curriculum details of the programs I visited but what I do remember is UW stuck out because they have few residents/yr (5 I think, +2 child) and 3 distinct sites, and I had heard of difficulties getting everyone together for teaching activites like morning report. UCSF also has 3 sites but they have more residents and could do teaching conferences at each place with just the residents there. (I didn't like that Mission Bay was another drive away from the main hospital, but it did look impressive from the photos.) I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the commutes to the counties at Stanford and UCLA but I didn't think of them as a particularly strong negative.

I think I should also mention that commuting was NOT one of my major criteria, just something to help sort out programs that I felt were about the same. I could have been happy at any of the programs mentioned, and the major factors for me ended up being spouse preference and a learning environment that would allow me to be successful in what I want to do eventually, which is have a small clinical focus and run a lab.

What I mean by the second part is if you are working 14 hour days on service with q4 call and 15 patients at a time, you may not have any time to keep up with reading in your basic science field, or wander into lab after work one day to fiddle with something, or even go to some interesting basic science talk. Some programs are like this and some are not as much.

 

[DD214]

If you like admitting EtOH withdrawal and all drug overdoses to the Neurology service, you will enjoy your residency training on your Harborview rotation at UW. If you anger the almighty god of the 'View, he will make sure that you are "board certified in EtOH withdrawal" to the detrmiment of your training. The medicine intern who pulls call with you at the 'View will get no fewer than 30 pages an hour for the 40 or so ward patients you are covering while admitting comatose head bleeds and druggies all night.

You are cheap labor and are treated as such by Dr. C.

Enjoy.

 

[watano]

It seems that UW neurology is having a hard time to recruit top students, although itself ranks high both research and clinical service.

 

[Amos]

It seems that UW neurology is having a hard time to recruit top students, although itself ranks high both research and clinical service.

One thing to keep in mind is that UW is strictly categorical. For those needing flexibility for the first year of training this is a problem.

Seattle is a great town, so recruiting should not be an issue for them. I would think they would get applicants from CA that wanted to stay on the west coast or Midwest candidates that wanted to head west.

The idea above about doing an away rotation there is a good idea.

 

[aaddnl]

Agree with most of the above posts. Even though the Univ of Washington has a generally good reputation in medicine and academic areas and Seattle is considered a nice place to live, its neurology program has issues. As the previous poster pointed out, you are basically caring for patients that would be in the Medical ICU in any other hospital. And that's only one of the issues.