The interview season has officially started

Wow, I haven't blogged in the longest time. I'll try to catch up on what's been going on for the past month or so. I'm pretty worn out. I had 24 interviews this week alone and have more this Friday...ugh.

Going back...back in time.

This past month I got to finish my ER rotation. I realized one thing, I can't stand ER medicine. The notion of 12 hour shifts sounds ok, but it's terrible. It's the anti-surgery. There is a whole lot of sitting around with nothing to do. On other rotations, you're busy and put in a lot of hours, but you don't really realize it. Sure, you're tired at the end of the day, but the goal of the day is to get stuff done and take care of your patient. You leave when that stuff gets done. On ER, I literally counted the minutes going by because it's really about putting in 12 hours. It isn't about actually doing something for the patient. You make 'em stable, then you either send them home or call someone else to take care of them. Not my thing.

Review of my past interviews.

OHSU - Hisbiscus, you've gotta go to this place. You know what I'm talking about. It's perfect for you. It has this amazingly beautiful hospital on the top of a cliff. The buildings are connected by long sky bridges and by sky trams/gondolas that afford you a beautiful view of the city. The city proper is surrounded by rivers, the buildings are LED platinum. Everyone is active more or less, lots of biking, running, kayaking, fresh fruit and good stuff. The air is clean. The mountains are nearby. Lots of feel good stuff. The staff is super supportive, the residents in general are a little bit older and very happy. The only bad part was, I stayed in the bad part of town in order to save a few bucks. If you cross the bridge over to the east side of town, it gets super shady. I stayed at a motel 6 that was about 100 feet away from a strip club superstore. It was rocking all night and motorcycle gangs rolled by until 3 am.

Score: (1-5)
Residents: older and happy. Get along well. 4
Staff: Awesome. 4+
Surgical volume: 4
Facilities: 5
Portland: 4

Emory - It was a rough interview day. 13 back to back interviews. I got grilled, almost to the point of antagonism about why I wanted to come out to Georgia. I never realized how awesome Atlanta was. A downtown proper with lots of skyscrapers. The leaves were changing color and the homes were beautiful. A huge vibrant Korean community, although I must admit that I got some looks around certain parts of town that let me know that I wasn't white. On the plus side, waffle house is awesome and I had the best ribs of my entire life at Fat Matt's Rib Shacks. Thanks for the recs SB.

Score:
Residents: Awesome. young, get along well, work hard. 4
Staff: Awesome teaching 4
Facilities: 4 - concern, may lose their county hospital. Awesome VA experience.
Research: 2 No dedicated research time
Atlanta: 4
General Gestalt: Great fit for me.

Rochester - The day was rough, another 11 interviews, some with multiple staff members. The dinner here was awesome. I got wine and dined like nobody's business. What struck me was I saw something here that I've never seen anywhere else. In general, surgical residents almost universally complain about wasting time in clinic doing pre-ops. This place is a surgeon's dream. On some of the rotation, the only patient contact they have with their patients is when they walk into the OR, the patient is asleep and draped and the last they see of their patients is their sleepy bodies being rolled out of the ER. It really is a true surgeon's dream. It concerns me...the clinic is the bread and butter of my chosen field. It really is extremely important to be able to handle those things and pacify difficult patients. I have no doubts about surgical skills, but I do have to express my concerns about developing my clinical judgment.

Score:
Residents: 4 great guys/gals. Fun to get along with, easy going.
Staff: 4 Super supportive, except for one guy who broke my balls. Super inbred.
Research: 5 A whole dedicated research year with funds set aside. Most programs have gotten rid of the research year and cut down their program from 6 to 5 years. It is mostly for financial reasons, medi-care only funds 5 years. All the research dollars come from the program itself, showing it's dedication to advancing the field. My hats off to the chairman for his insightful comments to me.
Facilities: 3 - No VA, weak clinical experience. Ridiculously amazing operative experience/volume.
Rochester: The weather can be ball breaking, but it's a pretty town and housing is very affordable.

-bender