Attendings/Residents/Students (lifestyle, criticism, aura):
– the residents are some of the nicest people i’ve met. They were all very welcoming, and Ryan the chief resident while I was there made sure the other extern and I had all of our questions answered and were never lost. super chill vibe overall
Didactics:
– every monday morning, usually presented by a resident/attending
– had suturing labs on pigs feet while i was there after didactics
OR Experience:
– LOTS of exposure in the OR as an extern. I bovied, retracted, threw some sutures, one attending let me do a skin to skin arthroplasty. I was told the residents also only have 2 months of clinic a year, the rest of the time they’re just covering cases. usually ~20 cases a week divided up amongst the residents
– the residents get tons of exposure to some big ankle cases if you’re into that (there isn’t an ortho program here so everything foot and ankle goes straight to podiatry)
– pgy1 had very little hands on time in the OR, but I believe that was just because it was his first week as a resident and they were still getting a feel for him. pgy2s were very hands on. 3rd year regularly did the whole case with minor assistance from the attending.
Clinic Experience:
– with Dr. Tesoro: first couple days was just shadowing until he figured out what i know and don’t know how to do, but by the end i was regularly doing injections, diabetic foot care, etc.
– with Dr. Cohen: allows students to be very hands on right away. He taught me a tremendous amount while i was there. after evaluating the patient, he’d ask me what I thought was wrong and how i’d fix it, then say okay go do it. When it was something I hadn’t done before he explained to me how it was done and then let me go do it. He’s very well read, super educated, and an exceptional teacher. he breaks everything down for you so you understand the reason why and how he does things. Exceptionally educational time here.
– with Dr. Brown: only spent one week with Dr. Brown, but very chill vibes, kind, and easy to talk to. Educated his patients very well on what they had going on and what he was going to do to fix it, which helped me learn different ways of treating things on different types of patients.
City Life:
– saginaw is a small city so all of the hospitals/surgery centers/clinics are within 15ish minutes of each other. very easy to get around
– as far as bar scene/social life there isnt much in the close vicinity of saginaw, but if you take a quick drive over to midland the scene is great. really nice bars and restaurants in a little strip downtown. they held their journal club at a very nice restaurant over in midland.
Favorite Part:
– how kind the attendings and residents are. seriously i never felt belittled or embarrassed. I could ask any question and they were genuinely excited to answer anything i threw at them.
Constructive Criticism:
– its not so much a criticism as it is an observation, but the attendings are particular about how they like things done (which isn’t a bad thing; they’ve been in practice for 30+ years so they know what works). That being said, it’s VERY easy to figure out exactly what they want, they are very communicative and if they want you to do something a certain way they will let you know.
