Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
When I rotated, I had the opportunity to work with multiple surgeons at Sinai West (Roosevelt), St Lukes, and East campuses. During my month on the rotation I found the attending surgeons to be very dedicated to teaching residents and allowed residents especially senior residents to operate skin to skin. Some faculty did have more of a pimp-heavy approach, while others where oddly reserved in the OR. I felt like the faculty was very supportive of residents and allowed them a great opportunity to operate and see clinic patients without too much hand holding.
Didactics / Teaching
As stated in other reviews, there is a one hour didactics session led by attendings daily at 7AM. I thought didactics were a very strong part of the education here. Additionally, there are (i believe) weekly anatomy sessions in the summers led by residents where one or a few attendings are present to go over surgical approaches. Anatomy sessions were very pimp heavy, especially on the junior residents, however there is a "reading guide" that you receive before the session. So if you study exactly what is being taught all of the pimp questions are actually very straight forward. Some may not like this teaching style but I thought it was extremely fair.
Operating Experience
From my experience the 4th year resident operated skin to skin on every case the entire month. I didn't spend much time with the intern on the service but they did make it to the operating room a few times per week while I was there. There are many PAs which assist in cases, but I never witnessed a PA taking the place of a resident in any case. In fact, the PAs are a huge help because they often cover the floors if residents are in the ORs allowing junior residents increased opportunities to operate.
Clinic Experience
There is a resident run clinic at West and a Faculty practice as well that I was a part of. Residents had complete autonomy to see and indicate patients in the resident clinic, a more oversight in the faculty practice.
Research Opportunities
Mixed bag. It seems a handful of attendings do most of the research and residents can be involved if they want to be. There are a few dedicated ortho research PhDs, which is helpful for residents who want to pursue research.
Residents
Great group of women and men. Very collegial and seem to get along well. I thought the residents I worked with were some of the friendliest and most down to earch residents I met during my rotations.
Lifestyle
Junior residents work 6 days a week. No night call from what I understood. Lots of PAs to help cover the floors and see consults. One of the more lifestyle friendly residencies that I witnessed.
Location / Housing
Located on the Upper East Side right next to central park. Great location close to restaurants, bars, gyms, a huge park for recreation, etc. Housing can be expensive but there is hospital subsidized housing available for all residents.
Limitations
New merger, lots of changes occurring (I think most are for the better though). Trauma could be considered on the weaker side (one attending). Conversely hand, spine, joints, and shoulder/elbow seem extremely strong compared to many other programs.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Overall I loved my month rotating at this hospital. The residents were a great bunch that work hard and enjoy each others company outside of the hospital. The recent merger has brought many changes, but I think they are mostly for the better. The residents now have increased and varied clinical experiences at all of the Sinai hospitals. The new combined class is now able to benefit from the St Lukes/Roosevelt guys, who are traditionally very skilled in the OR, and also the Sinai guys who are strong in research and have a strong educational and didactic training. There is a new chair person who is also looking to expand the department with new hires in all fields, so the clinical experiences of residents should be even further expanding in the upcoming years. Multiple PAs help alleviate many of the typical stresses from residents and help improve the QOL over the course of residency. Overall, I think this is a strong program with strengths in clinic and operating experiences. Older reviews of this program would lead readers to expect a malignant experience with tons of resident pimping and humiliation. This is NOT what I experienced at all. Attendings did expect residents to come prepared to didactic sessions, but as someone who likes to learn from lectures/articles/textbooks in addition to more practical experiences, I thought the teaching was top notch. Furthermore the residents I met were happy with their program, the changes that it had recently undergone, and future directions they were moving in (regarding changes in scheduling and rotations, etc). Residents even post merger are matching at great fellowships (from those I talked to during my away and after), which should help sooth uneasy medical students who are not sure if they should rotate. I would recommend this residency and would have loved to have ended up matching there.
