Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Most the the faculty are extremely nice, and the program director is one of the nicest doctors I've worked with. Dr. Zamarano is an amazing traumatologist, great with pts and the best attending you could ask for as a resident. The Chairman is very intimidating--both to the residents and others. The residents are extremely uncomfortable around him, which is apparent when he rounds with them.
Didactics / Teaching
Of the three programs I rotated, the didactics at this program were by far the weakest. A few hours once a week in the morning, with three 1-hour blocks. One given by a resident, one by an attending, and then grand rounds. There may have been a 4th hour of didactics.
Operating Experience
This was very strong. I saw PGY-2's doing some great stuff on the trauma service. Most of the PGY-2's are very comfortable with a lot of autonomy, and this was quite impressive. While better than no services at all, at the main campus, they're split into three services: trauma, spine, and elective. What this means is during the time you're on elective, you cover a hand surgeon, then a F&A surgeon, then a sports case all in one day. It was impossible for the PGY-2s covering multiple attendings in multiple specialties to have read/prepared for the case. I'm sure the attendings understand this, but it still seemed pretty tough for the residents as they tried to learn the material since they're doing a different thing every day.
Clinic Experience
To give full disclosure, all a sub-intern sees is what happens at the main campus, which is where you are during your intern year, your PGY-2 year, and then 6 months of your PGY-5 year. We don't see what happens during the PGY-3,4, and half of your PGY-5 year b/c you're at different sites doing different things. As far as the time you're at the main campus, you are in clinic a lot. There is "resident clinic" a lot--two half days and one full day week (2 days) in addition to "pre-op clinic" which seemed like was happening several hours a week. The residents see a ton of patients in these resident clinics, which may give great autonomy (as the attending covering "resident clinic" often doesn't see the pts), but learning how to examine and "do clinic" from an attending was missing. I'm sure they get this in their 3rd and 4th year, but 40% of every week doing resident clinic seemed like a ton of painful clinic without the benefit of learning from the experience.
Research Opportunities
No exposure to this.
Residents
As a sub-intern, you only really interact with a little less than half of the residents in the program. Of the 7 I worked with, about half are guys I'd like to be my seniors or co-residents, and 3 I would not. I also disagree with the last post that the residents are happy. Some were, some clearly were not.
Lifestyle
Supposedly your PGY-3 and 4 year are great, but as mentioned above I really don't know how it is at the other sites. During your PGY-2 year, you work very hard and are in the hospital a lot. The PGY-2s said they work over 100 hour every week, and from my time there I definitely believe them. They are on call as PGY-2s a lot--averaging at best Q4, but if a PGY2 is on vacation (which is 4 months a year if they each take a month), then they have to go to Q3. They usually get to sleep quite a bit on call, but they're just there a lot.
Location / Housing
Great location obviously
Limitations
Delayed operating experience/fellows (although not much of an issue).
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Overall, the program has its pros and cons. Like any program, it's not all bad, not all good.
