I was reading through the different messages that had previously been posted and the Wake Forest thread didn't have to much information available so I thought I would elaborate a bit. I am currently a CA-1 at Wake. This was by far my first choice and I would definitely come here again. Wake's program is solid across the board and was the only program that met all of the requisites I wanted in a program. I don't think much is posted about it because almost every Wake student is interested in coming to this program and they know it tends to be on the competitive side. My decision criteria are below.
1. Location - Winston-salem is beautiful and EXTREMELY affordable. Resident salaries are about the same everywhere however 44,000 a year in New York is night and day compared to 44,000 in NC. There are three beautiful lakes within 5-30 minutes driving which I love to go to. Backpacking and camping opportunities are everywhere. 1hour to the Blue Ridge parkway. 1 hour to Raleigh, 5-6 hours to DC, 1 hour to Charlotte, 4-5 hours to the beach. 5 hours to Atlanta. I own my house and have great neighbors.
2. Training - Across the board we have some of the kindest attendings I have met who are also great teachers. I have yet to have one get extremely upset and give me a hard time. The attendings are also very protective of us. The surgeons tend to be good to work with so harassment by them is very unusual. The program has plenty of research especially for its size but this program more than any other program I visited is almost completely focused on Residency education. This is evidenced by the best simulation lab I saw on interviews. Attendings will challenge us but I have yet to feel overwhelmed. Being a large referral center there is also a tremendous diversity and breadth of opportunities and cases available. The most common weaknesses you will see in other programs are our some of our strengths ie. regional and OB. There are plenty of CRNA's who are terrific to work with and really do a good job of taking the mundane cases away from residents. Typically out of room at 3:00 to go do preop evals. We tend to do more preops than other programs however. The chief editor of Anesthesiology is also located at Wake Forest.
3. Regional - Wake has a strong history of regional anesthesia. There was a dedicated 4 bed preop holding area with its own nurses that was dedicated to regional. Unbelievably enough this was found to be to small and so a new area is currently under construction and will be completed in the next month or two. It is not unusual for residents to get 4-5 blocks a day and a wide diversity of blocks are performed.
4. OB - You will get to work with extremely good, well published attendings who are universally laid back. My first 8 hours of OB training I placed 7 epidurals. After my first month of OB I have approximately 65 epidurals, 15 CSEs and 20 Spinals. After 5 days of night float on OB the residents get 5 days off that is not counted against vacation. This is the one rotation that is offsite (about 3 miles away from the main hospital)
5. Chronic Pain - I haven't done this rotation yet but I know the chronic pain fellowship is highly sought after. Much of the research funding Wake receives is in chronic pain.
6. Neuro - Neurosurgeons are good to work with and the neuro-anesthesiologists are across the board are excellent. Neuro tends to be one of the most enjoyed rotations
7. Peds/Cards - I have not worked with these attendings yet but from what I here they are excellent. Peds is inhouse.
8. Moonlighting - Available as a PGY3 and 4. In house moonlighting from 3-11 which I think is 60/hr. At Medical Park down the street there is sleeping for dollars which is 40/hr and is just basically back up in case there are any problems. From what I here most people sleep through the night. OB also has a good moonlighting opportunity on Saturday night. I have been told that some residents double( perhaps triple) their salary. Moonlighting is definitely not a requirement however because you should be able to live reasonably well in WS.
Vacation - 2 weeks as a PGY1. PGY2 gets 2 weeks of vacation and 1 week of meeting time (chose conferences wisely ie. Mexico, Colorado, Carribean etc. ) in addition to 5 days at Christmas. We also work 2/7 holiday days which gives additional time off. 5 days off during OB. PGY3-4 receives 3 weeks vacation and 1 week of conference. I have not had any trouble scheduling vacation - the attendings are very responsive to requests.
In short there are plenty of good residencies available but I think you would be hard pressed to find a better training experience than Wake.
1. Location - Winston-salem is beautiful and EXTREMELY affordable. Resident salaries are about the same everywhere however 44,000 a year in New York is night and day compared to 44,000 in NC. There are three beautiful lakes within 5-30 minutes driving which I love to go to. Backpacking and camping opportunities are everywhere. 1hour to the Blue Ridge parkway. 1 hour to Raleigh, 5-6 hours to DC, 1 hour to Charlotte, 4-5 hours to the beach. 5 hours to Atlanta. I own my house and have great neighbors.
2. Training - Across the board we have some of the kindest attendings I have met who are also great teachers. I have yet to have one get extremely upset and give me a hard time. The attendings are also very protective of us. The surgeons tend to be good to work with so harassment by them is very unusual. The program has plenty of research especially for its size but this program more than any other program I visited is almost completely focused on Residency education. This is evidenced by the best simulation lab I saw on interviews. Attendings will challenge us but I have yet to feel overwhelmed. Being a large referral center there is also a tremendous diversity and breadth of opportunities and cases available. The most common weaknesses you will see in other programs are our some of our strengths ie. regional and OB. There are plenty of CRNA's who are terrific to work with and really do a good job of taking the mundane cases away from residents. Typically out of room at 3:00 to go do preop evals. We tend to do more preops than other programs however. The chief editor of Anesthesiology is also located at Wake Forest.
3. Regional - Wake has a strong history of regional anesthesia. There was a dedicated 4 bed preop holding area with its own nurses that was dedicated to regional. Unbelievably enough this was found to be to small and so a new area is currently under construction and will be completed in the next month or two. It is not unusual for residents to get 4-5 blocks a day and a wide diversity of blocks are performed.
4. OB - You will get to work with extremely good, well published attendings who are universally laid back. My first 8 hours of OB training I placed 7 epidurals. After my first month of OB I have approximately 65 epidurals, 15 CSEs and 20 Spinals. After 5 days of night float on OB the residents get 5 days off that is not counted against vacation. This is the one rotation that is offsite (about 3 miles away from the main hospital)
5. Chronic Pain - I haven't done this rotation yet but I know the chronic pain fellowship is highly sought after. Much of the research funding Wake receives is in chronic pain.
6. Neuro - Neurosurgeons are good to work with and the neuro-anesthesiologists are across the board are excellent. Neuro tends to be one of the most enjoyed rotations
7. Peds/Cards - I have not worked with these attendings yet but from what I here they are excellent. Peds is inhouse.
8. Moonlighting - Available as a PGY3 and 4. In house moonlighting from 3-11 which I think is 60/hr. At Medical Park down the street there is sleeping for dollars which is 40/hr and is just basically back up in case there are any problems. From what I here most people sleep through the night. OB also has a good moonlighting opportunity on Saturday night. I have been told that some residents double( perhaps triple) their salary. Moonlighting is definitely not a requirement however because you should be able to live reasonably well in WS.
Vacation - 2 weeks as a PGY1. PGY2 gets 2 weeks of vacation and 1 week of meeting time (chose conferences wisely ie. Mexico, Colorado, Carribean etc. ) in addition to 5 days at Christmas. We also work 2/7 holiday days which gives additional time off. 5 days off during OB. PGY3-4 receives 3 weeks vacation and 1 week of conference. I have not had any trouble scheduling vacation - the attendings are very responsive to requests.
In short there are plenty of good residencies available but I think you would be hard pressed to find a better training experience than Wake.
