Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
In general, faculty were approachable. Of course, as with any program, there were certain faculty members that seemed like they wished students weren't there. The chair is very knowledgable and great to work with.
Didactics / Teaching
Didactic conferences every morning of the week for about 1 hour each day. In addition, residents have OITE reviews and such one night per week or so.
Operating Experience
Attendings scrubbed and doing most of the case for the most part. I did not see a lot of resident autonomy, even with more simple, straightforward cases. The trauma service is very busy but there is usually only one trauma room running and the chief and lower level resident both scrub with the attending. Not as much "hands on" experience as I had seen elsewhere.
Clinic Experience
Residents have a resident clinic one day per week while on trauma. Otherwise, clinic is with the attending is his/her private clinic, so there are few learning opportunities in clinic. There is a resident clinic at the VA as well that is solely run by the residents.
Research Opportunities
Plenty of research time available it seems. They seem to really encourage research heavily.
Residents
Residents were great and easy to get along with. Most were married and many had children and seemed to have a life outside of work. I was not able to really assess how well the residents got along with each other.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle seems average. Residents work hard, long hours (as with most programs) and the call schedule seems manageable.
Location / Housing
Charleston is a great city with lots of stuff to do (or so they said, I never had time too!) Housing is expensive from what I could tell. All the residents seemed to love living in Charleston. Weather is humid but the surroundings are beautiful.
Limitations
As above, I think the limiting factor is the type of operative experience. There are plenty of cases to go around, but the attendings are very involved in each and every case, no matter how large or small (Even a simple hardware removal). I like that the attendings want to be involved, but I feel like you have to give some autonomy to residents if they are every going to learn something.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Pleasant experience. Students should be prepared to work very hard there and work long hours (as most rotations require). They tell you up front that they want you to be the first person there and the last to leave at night. While on rotation, I worked about 110 hours the first week on the trauma service to give some idea.
