Lincoln Medical Center Transitional Year Review 2014-2015
Overall:
The program was my first choice, and I would choose the same program again as my top choice. There is no malignancy. No residents quit, get fired, or are on academic probation as per PD. Residents who need to interview for advanced spots are given the time off. Hours are quite good and I have down time to relax, study, get coffee, and eat outside in the courtyard on 90% of work days. Ty year residents are treated in high regards by attendings and nurses.
The South Bronx is an underserved area. For its zip code it is one of the poorest, with the most dialects spoken, one of the highest rates of comorbidities (mainly DM and obesity), and many high risk pregnancies. Patients are quite thankful for the service that is provided. The ER is the third busiest single center ER in the country. It's a level 1 trauma center and you'll see many GSW, MVA, and other high acuity trauma. You'll also see peds trauma occasionally.
Teaching:
On the core rotations surgery has 4 hours of conference on Thursdays, medicine has noon conference and teaching rounds daily, MICU has 2-4 hours of teaching rounds per day. We have a SimMan were we run codes and practice exam skills, multiple central line and air way mannequins, suturing equipment and laparoscopic equipment. However, on rotations without residents such as radiology or anesthesiology there is no formal conferences, but if you express interest all attending will go out of their way to teach you what they know. The ty year residents meet 1-2 times per month for one hour for teaching rounds and discussion of improvements to the residency or rotations.
Evaluations:
After every rotation you must collect surveys from one attending, nurse and peer. Do not worry about this.
House Staff:
There are department sponsored events. Christmas party dinner this year was at Calle Ocho with a three course meal. Also, had a picnic in prospect park with Dinosaur BBQ. CIR (resident union) also plans picnics and events. Spouses/boyfriends/girlfriends always welcome. Residents also have their own individual parties as well as. Attendings often buy coffee and meals (almost everyday on MICU with certain attendings).
Safety:
Police stationed at every entrance in hospital. No issues that I'm aware of. Never been messed with. However, some patients get verbally abusive in the ED; comes with the job of an ED physician.
Benefits:
Salary: $55,585 (2014-2015) +$500 for orientation and $2500/yr extra from residency Union CIR
$650 for books/laptop/iPad/step 3
$1200 for travel for abstract presentations (plotter printers for posters available in house).
FICA insurance is placed into a personal Prudential retirement account at $5000/yr
No cost dental, vision, and health insurance. Free prescription coverage is limited to $500/yr, but you can opt to pay a low monthly cost for total prescription coverage.
Premium pretax transit card for unlimited subway and bus anywhere in NYC is $100/month out of your salary if wanted.
UES UWS 1br prewar walk ups cost $1700-2000/mo. Bronx 1br by hospital ~$1200/mo.
I have enough money for 1br on UES, cable, Internet, ibr on my student loans, subway unlimited card, wash and fold service and maid service to clean my place biweekly. I also eat most every meal out. 20min commute by subway.
Rotations::
Hard:
SICU One Month (M-Saturday 6a-6p but often stay until 8p)
MICU One Month (m-f 730a-730p) two golden weekends and two weekend days on call (730a-730p)
Medium:
EM Two Months (19 12hour shifts per month) (8a-8p or 8p-8a - split in blocks each for two weeks per month)
IM Two Months(7:00-5p when not on call) (q4 call 7:00a-8p)
Surgery (6a-6p M-F)- one weekend day call (6a-6p) and one weekend night call (6p-6a)
OB clinic two weeks (easy) and L&D two weeks (630a-3pmish m-f)
Easy:
Vacation 1 month
3 elective months (most choose: anesthesiology, radiology, and a research month- no call, overnights, or weekends on electives; can take a few personal days off)
Anesthesiology (M-F 7:30a-early afternoon)
Radiology: (M-F 9am-early afternoon)
Research: take Step 3 and work on an independent research or quality improvement project
Medicine Clinic (1:30p-7:30p M-F)
Two weeks at the end of the year are given off regardless of the rotation to give time to move to your next program.
The bad:
Hospital was built mid century, and parts are old and outdated as you'd imagine a public hospital would be (ie SICU has no windows). Medicine clinics and ER are brand new and medicine and inpatient floors look good.
Nurses in New York State are unionized and you may find yourself performing blood draws, blood cultures, and a-sticks more often than your peers outside of New York State. Nurses in Clinic, SICU, and MICU are amazing, but you'll do occasional blood draws in ED, surgery, and medicine for the 5 months you're there.
Translator phones will be required for 50% of patient encounters if you don't speak Spanish. This adds double the time for all encounters but is expected and you're given ample time. Patients truly appreciate being able to speak their native language and often thank you profusely for taking the time to use a translator phone. Rarely, I get a patient who speaks an uncommon dialect and the translator service has to page me back in 5-15min when they find someone.
Switching services every month is a little clunky. You are often oriented on the first day of your new rotation. However, it has been my experience that the residents and attendings recognize you as a brand new resident to the service and orient you as they would on July 1st; so you're often not far behind the pgy-1 resident on that specialty. The ty residents call each other the weekend before switching services to get sign out on patients, find out where and when to show up, attending preferences, tips and tricks of the rotation, etc. We tried starting an online forum but nobody ended up using it.
Quadramed EMR (Epic implementation supposedly 2017) has its quirks and often loses notes; must save notes as partial often and copy your progress with ctrl+c.
The interview:
Starts around 8:30a->Quick presentation by PD->group interview->individual essay->tour-> interview with PD-> home in early afternoon 1-2p. Interview may give a malignant vibe with group interviews, one quick PD interview, and individual essays, but this is only a quirk of the interview process and should not be taken as a reflection of the program. It may be hard to express interest in the program during the interview day, but send a post-interview thank you note to the PD and keep in touch to express interest in the programs that you'll be ranking highly.
Final Words:
I think this program is a diamond in the rough and is often times overlooked or unheard of. However, if you're looking for a relaxed residency in NYC I'd definitely recommend it.
