The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health

Attendings/ Residents: 3 main attendings with around 10 – 15 others. Attendings and residents at this program are truly a family. Attendings are always providing feedback and truly care about the growth of the residents. Awesome culture to be a part of, very much a work hard play hard culture. Residents also love hanging out on the weekends and usually go to a happy hour on Fridays after clinic. Residents here are all very smart, super cool and love to teach students.

Academics: This is a true resident run program, you get out of it what you put in. There are a couple of academic sessions per week and interview case workups for students usually on Wednesdays which were EXTREMELY helpful down the stretch. Cadaver labs are once a month.

OR Experience: Best OR experience I saw in my 6 externships. The cases are truly for the residents and the attending only guides/ assists if they need to. Great autonomy here. Cases are great also, they do about 1-2 ankle replacements per month. I saw a ton of rear foot cases, good trauma. They also just signed 2 foot and ankle orthos at the main hospital and podiatry residents scrub all their cases as there is not an ortho residency. Overall, phenomenal surgical exposure and the residents had the best hands I saw throughout my externships.

Clinic Experience: first year resident run clinic Monday morning and Friday Afternoon. Wound care clinic half day on Tuesday. Third year residents get clinic with the director to learn billing/ etc.

Lifestyle: First year is difficult as it is everywhere. Residents are always helping each other out as they are a close knit team. No hand holding here.

Pros: This is a phenomenal surgical program. Tons of rear foot cases here, strong elective exposure. The combination of the above with the autonomy that this programs provides makes it a top-tier program in my opinion. Residents are also super cool there. If you want to do your residency in the upper Midwest, Jewish should be at the top of your list. Highly recommended giving them a visit.

Cons: The only real con that comes to mind is the lack of pediatric exposure. If peds is your thing, I’d honestly look elsewhere.

Location: The main hospital is located in Kenwood, a suburb 15 minutes away from downtown Cincinnati where you will be spending the majority of the time. There are also a few surgical centers that the residents get to do surgical cases at.

Attendings: Dr. Robert Brarens (Director), Dr. Renee Ash, Dr. Chris Cullum and nearly 15 other attendings.

Residents: The program takes 2 residents per year. All of the residents are outgoing and treat each other like a family. The residents are very close to each other and never hesitate to help each other out. I haven’t seen such a close group of residents. All of them also like to hangout outside of the hospital as well (which is a huge plus for me).

Academics/Rounding: At this program the majority of rounding is done as group rounding meaning the externs and whichever residents are on service will round on all the inpatients in the hospital in the morning every day. As for academics there are weekly Mcglamry chapter reviews and monthly journal club and cadaver labs.

OR Experience: For the most part, attendings are very hands off and let the resident’s do skin to skin, unless the resident is inexperienced in the procedure and the attending will help the resident through the case. There is very little double scrubbing at this program, the only time I’ve heard of double scrubbing is towards the end of your second year of residency when you start scrubbing into Dr. Brarens’ cases. These are typically done by third year residents and a second year will join to get acclimated with how Brarens’ likes to do his cases. Dr. Brarens and Dr. Cullum bring some big cases to the program including TARs, recons etc. There is a great variety and diversity of cases with the other attendings as well. PGY3s were some of the more confident residents I had seen in the OR. All the residents will easily get their numbers and go way above the requirement.

Clinic Experience: There is a first year resident run clinic every Monday and Friday that runs for half a day, and wound care clinic with Dr. Ash that is every Tuesday in the afternoons.

Lifestyle: Generally, residents have a balanced lifestyle. Usually, the residents are done for the day after their cases unless there are academics planned for the evening.

PRO: Great surgical program, and they have a wide variety of cases. Attendings seem to be very hands off and let the residents do skin to skin if they show the confidence to. The residents are like a family and never hesitate to ask each other for help and are always willing to help. A big pro for me is that the residents also like to get together outside of the hospital. A big bonus for students is that they get meal vouchers, so you don’t have to pay for food, and residents get free food in the cafeteria.

CON: As a student there was quite a bit of down time which can be a good and bad thing. Good because you have time to prepare for your boards and your presentation. Bad because for me personally I like to be kept busy.

Overall: Jewish is truly a hidden gem. Very good surgical program that very few people know about. Dr. Brarens and all the other attendings bring very interesting, diverse, and quality cases. Great work-life balance.