Attendings/Residents/Students (lifestyle, criticism, aura):
-Dr. Milman (director)- she was semi-willing to teach if you were asking questions. She was very stand-offish in clinic towards the students and made it sort of uncomfortable. There was no direction given on what to do as an extern and it was a very small office with lots of people going in all different directions
-Dr. Anaim- he was very loud and very harsh. He rubs a lot of the hospital staff the wrong way and can be taken wrong by many people visiting. He was nice to me but definitely was always walking on eggshells around him.
-Dr. Dany- the nicest and most easy-going of the attendings. A recent graduate of the program but is the most willing to teach the students and residents. Did most of his rounding days with the residents and actually explained his plan with them and even the nursing staff if relevant to their care. Was always friendly and willing to talk and teach.
-Dr. Castillo- a younger, recent grad of their program. A bit harsh too but a little does great work. Likes you to feel sure about what you are doing to be able to do anything in surgery (as a student or resident) so she did a lot of the real work in surgery and the residents only did the cuts and closure many times. She does a lot of the ankle fractures.
Didactics: Severely limited… Said it was every tuesday but I think there was one week of last minute journal reviews one afternoon that we did my entire month. No organization to it and nothing for me to focus on as a student to study or prepare for a presentation.
OR Experience: Had many cases on MWF, basically most days had at least 1 case. Some days had up to 4-5 cases but residents were scheduled to go up to work in the clinic and often 1-2 residents were left down to work the ORs. Lots of cases were seen as a student which was great. Not much rounding done as a student as another resident did that when cases were going on.
Clinic Experience: LOTS of clinic time at this program. A resident is scheduled to work the 2 different clinics for each month rotation. Then anyone else who was off service or cases got cancelled would go up to the clinic to help if possible. Most patients were seen by a resident and attending was overviewing and available if needed.
Research Opportunities: Residents can ask if they want to do it but is definitely not a focus at all and no active research seems to be going on at all.
City Life: The area the hospital is in is a bit rough. Its in Northeast Philly which is a bit run-down and kind of ghetto. There are plenty of things nearby and areas to live are okay. There are suburbs that are within 20 min. or so that are more family friendly if that’s more what you are looking for and the city of Philadelphia is close to do all the touristy things the city offers as well as food and entertainment.
Favorite Part: They offered a lot of clinic learning opportunities. The residents all were chill overall but very clicky. The hospital is old but the nice thing was that Podiatry got the run of the OR, they were bringing in the most cases so any Add-ons from the hospital could typically go same day or next day and there was no one to bump them later. Many times only 2-3 of their 8 ORs were even open each day. Often times, we finished surgical cases by 2pm and clinic by 4pm so you got to go home at a decent time and call did not seem to be terrible for most of the residents.
Constructive Criticism: Felt like the residents and even the attendings at a point were always talking about someone- a resident, a staff member, or even a student so it did not feel great thinking about what they may have said about me behind my back. It seems as though unless you spoke a second language that you would not even be considered for this program. A lot of patients in the hospital and clinic did not speak English so it was a perk if the residents could speak without a translator. All residents spoke some second language. There also felt like a lot of the time students were told to show up for 7am for a 7:30 case that would not even start until 8:30 or 9am because the attending just was always running late (multiple different doctors and multiple occasions). OLD HOSPITAL means they don’t have the greatest equiptment, a lot of the staff seemed to be talking about leaving, many of the instruments were sent off to the sister hospital so the tools for some cases were lacking. Honestly, felt like a ghost hospital sometimes because their just wasn’t a lot going on in the OR wing at a time since only Podiatry and Gen Surg were doing cases.
