Reflections from a current resident at Yale:
1) FANTASTIC CLINICAL TRAINING. Huge cases with knowledgeable and friendly attendings. My own experience has included multiple livers (pedi and adult), liver-kidney, and heart t-plants. Outside of t-plant, I've done at least 5 deep hypothermic arrest cases, a good chunk of the usual thoracic and vascular, and the typical middle of the night traumas. I did these all by early in my CA-2 year. I have very few complaints about the quality of my clinical training.
I've done these cases with the likes of Barash (wrote the book on everything), Hines (edited the books on everything else), Ehrenwerth (wrote the book on machines), Perrino (wrote the book on echo), Marshall (ever hear of a mobile plaque on echo? it's because she demonstrated that they mattered), , Rafferty (wrote the, eh, parchment on echo), Ruskin (wrote the book on OR technology), Rosenblatt (the airway maestro), and numerous other folks who are well-respected and perfectly approachable. At other programs, these kinds of people are often hiding in a lab somewhere. At Yale, they're holding cricoid for you. Just about every week, all these characters are in the OR.
2) IS IT MALIGNANT? No, but I do work hard. Typically, hours are in the 60s. We work hard during these hours. I've had two weeks in two years that exceeded 80, and it practically caused the chiefs and program director to send me a fruit-basket in apology. The truth behind the malignant rumor is that OR volume HAS grown tremendously in the last few years, and work-hours have spiked despite still not being terrible. It is clear to me that the program director, associate director, and chair find late non-call days unacceptable for our educational and personal well-being. Such days have increased in frequency, and the hospital is hiring a slew of evening CRNAs to fix this temporary issue. In the short term, the educational protected time has suffered, but it has not passed the notice of the department hierarchy.
The flip side of the increased volume is that Yale is more and more a happening surgical center. We're getting liver patients flown in nationally, ENT patients nationally, onc-surg patients internationally, aortic arch repairs from everywhere, and we have a 10 story cancer hospital with a whole new set of ORs opening in a year. This program is thriving as the surgery program continues to grow in prominence.
In sum, don't come if you don't want to work hard, but don't NOT come because you want a life. Your clinical training will rock, and all us residents manage to have a life outside the hospital if we want it. And speaking of life, there are houses and condos in safe, beautiful neighborhoods a 10 minute drive (during rush hour) away that you can afford on a resident's salary. Try finding that in Boston or NYC.
3) RESEARCH: For non-clinical research, the entire resource of Yale Medical School is 200 feet from the hospital, and the department has been supportive of those who want to do non-clinical research. On the clinical side, all the above faculty and more are there and available. You don't have to do research, but it's there if you want it.
4) FMGs: We have several FMGs each year who do great work and add to the rich cultural environment of our department. How come our profession is the one educated guild in the world that accepts xenophobia as normal and appropriate? If FMGs bother someone, I'd recommend they go interview at Bob Jones Univ. At Yale, we generallly match well with good residents. The higher ups in the dept have made it clear that they welcome diversity. 'nuff said.
Come check Yale out and see for yourself.
