Cook County/Stroger IM malignant residency

[DermViser]

Many of the posts in this thread are ridiculous. As a medical student in Chicago, you know if you want to see crazy $h!t you go to county. Yes the personalities are a bit rough around the edges but they have to be. That patient population will walk all over you if you don't stand up for yourself. So I can imagine how some FMGs can find this intimidating.

The other thing people always complain about is the FMGs, however most of them are absolutely brilliant. They may have the quirks of having english as a second language or not knowing how the flow of healthcare in the US works but they will have Harrisons basically memorized.

My roommate is a current IM resident at county, the scutwork is real and it sucks. Fortunately he has medical students he can often unload some of this on, which to the medical student is a gift from god actually being able to DO something.

I can tell you exactly why you go to county, to see things you CANNOT and WILL NOT see anywhere else. I'm talking about leprosy and things that are thought to be nonexistent but somehow creep up out of the south side of Chicago.

Chicago is more or less a war zone, this is no exaggeration, my roommate while on Trauma Surgery at county saw more GSW fatalities in one month than occurred in the ENTIRE country of Japan.

Japan's population = 120 million
Chicago population= 10 million

There's a difference between being a medical student in which you only spend 2 months rotating, and spending 3 years of residency in that program, ESPECIALLY if you're going for a fellowship.

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[Eire14]

If you think PDs, or more commonly their administrative assistants, aren't perusing the SDN forums to see what people are saying about their program you are a fool. Just see the Cleveland Clinic IM program thread.

Non applicable. Your point was that the user posted to suck up to their PD. The account they used was completely unidentifiable, and the chances of it resulting in a meeting with their PD are negligible.
It's much more likely that a fake review would come from program staff, but that wasn't the point you made. You'd rather blame an IMG, those universally unscrupulous rascals.

 

[DermViser]

Non applicable. Your point was that the user posted to suck up to their PD. The account they used was completely unidentifiable, and the chances of it resulting in a meeting with their PD are negligible.
It's much more likely that a fake review would come from program staff, but that wasn't the point you made. You'd rather blame an IMG, those universally unscrupulous rascals.

I didn't say their suckup posts resulted in a meeting with their PD.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

You'd be wrong. Not everyone fits the statistics. I would hope IMGs would be be "better" considering they've likely completed reidency and practice in their home countries vs. your typical MS-4 medical student. I do have a problem with them clearly lying about the program, with all evidence to the contrary and esp. when they just happen to create SDN accounts for the sole purpose of trying to boost the program in the minds of applicants due to ulterior motives.

Bingo. I've never been able to understand this fawning over how 'brilliant' the FMGs are. They're not at the same point in their careers as are MS4s. Period. So yes, someone who is an attending in their own country is going to have better medical knowledge and clinical skills than the average American medical student. Whoopdedoo.

 

[Fazzari]

Many of the posts in this thread are ridiculous. As a medical student in Chicago, you know if you want to see crazy $h!t you go to county. Yes the personalities are a bit rough around the edges but they have to be. That patient population will walk all over you if you don't stand up for yourself. So I can imagine how some FMGs can find this intimidating.

The other thing people always complain about is the FMGs, however most of them are absolutely brilliant. They may have the quirks of having english as a second language or not knowing how the flow of healthcare in the US works but they will have Harrisons basically memorized.

My roommate is a current IM resident at county, the scutwork is real and it sucks. Fortunately he has medical students he can often unload some of this on, which to the medical student is a gift from god actually being able to DO something.

I can tell you exactly why you go to county, to see things you CANNOT and WILL NOT see anywhere else. I'm talking about leprosy and things that are thought to be nonexistent but somehow creep up out of the south side of Chicago.

Chicago is more or less a war zone, this is no exaggeration, my roommate while on Trauma Surgery at county saw more GSW fatalities in one month than occurred in the ENTIRE country of Japan.

Japan's population = 120 million
Chicago population= 10 million

Bro, med students are there to learn, not do b***h-work. And this post isn't about Trauma surgery, so all those cool stories you see on TV are just that----> on TV. Medicine residents have nothing to do with that side of the hospital.

Peace.

 

[FutureInternist]

Every moment spent drawing labs, taking patients to CT etc is time that should be spent reading or sleeping

When I was first interviewing, I was surprised by how many programs made it a point to state that their residents did not do this BS scut work

As someone already said, the intensity to being a better doc curve has limits....you need enough pathology to become efficient but not so much that you don't even have time to read up on your patients

This "tough it out" attitude is what destroys whatever humanity is left in medical professionals by the time they hit Residency...You had to do it, so you will make your students do it & the cycle continues

 

[padastra]

It's funny how fast residents forget that medical students are literally paying (sometimes exorbitantly) to be there. Running labs, wheeling patients to radiology, placing IVs, etc. carry no educational value. I would never ask the student to do it unless it's his/her patient on a SubI, and I hope to never be in that situation (i.e. to never work in a hospital with that poor of ancillary support).

Taking responsibility for your patient as a medical student should be: spend time with your patients and get to know them, provide the team with a better understanding of the social aspects of the patient's care, know the patient's disease and pathology and treatment, attempt to formulate your own plans, ask intelligent questions, and when the patient has something that is unfamiliar with the team do some research and educate the team on the subject.

 

[DermViser]

I also graduated from a malignant residency and the OP's post really resonated with me. Now that I am out in practice, I can definitely say I am a changed person. I really did enter residency as a naive intern, and came out a hardened man. Internship was hard on me, I lost 15 lbs my first year. We were overworked and it was incredibly intense. I remember counting down the days until I was out of that hell hole. Although I am now a strong physician and have nerves of steel, I am full of bitterness and resentment. I look at back at my residency years and there is no fondness, all I remember is a dark time in my life.

I hope you got some counseling to work through this. So sad that **** like this still happens.

 

[throw away]

Taking responsibility for your patient as a medical student should be: spend time with your patients and get to know them, provide the team with a better understanding of the social aspects of the patient's care, know the patient's disease and pathology and treatment, attempt to formulate your own plans, ask intelligent questions, and when the patient has something that is unfamiliar with the team do some research and educate the team on the subject.

Very well put.