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- Oct 27, 2003
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thoughts, experiences...etc
thoughts, experiences...etc
thoughts, experiences...etc
Stay away.thoughts, experiences...etc
I trained there, a tough program that will prepare you, but the hospital is going through a ton of financial trouble, I would avoid it if you have options.
It's a possible the place will shut down, unlikely, but possible.
Thanks. I don't have a lot of options at the moment. But regarding the finances of the hospital, do you think it is bad to an extent that the program will shut down due to not retaining enough faculty/staff? Or is it just that residents have to do more social-work/nursing type stuff to make up for the lack of ancillary support? I don't care about income, etc. But I would like a place that will prepare me.
There's a former infrequent poster here who is a resident there. This person is a US MD who transferred from another specialty and was staying in the same city for personal reasons. This person seems to be doing OK. It's a psychiatry program in Shreveport -- if that's what you need, then you can make it work. Unless of course it closes down, which could suck. My understanding is, though, that when psychiatry programs have shut down, residents have been able to find other spots. Maybe not guaranteed but still likely.
Shreveport is an ok town, but it's loaded with ultra conservative people who care only about church and guns, racism is openly tolerated, and entertainment and travel options are severely limited. I trained there, made amazing life long friends, but on June 30, the last day of fellowship I was driving towards Chicago.
Did you do your fellowship in Shreveport? Was there a particular reason you decided to stick around for it? Did they allow you to fast track into child (i'm guessing from your username)?
It's a busy place where the amount of patients you see is very high. It takes a lot of effort to see that many patients and you need to be fast with them as well. Most of them are very sick since Shreveport is a very poor city and Monroe, where you need to work a good chunk of time, is even more poor. The whole state is still recovering after Katrina. The hospital is now privatized because of financial burdens, so I don't know if the management has improved but when I was there it was hell. I think Willis Knighton was once going to buy the place. The hospital is in a ghetto part of town and the city itself has become very dangerous in the past few years.
Plus, people in the south are very old-fashioned. The nurses, program attendings, social workers, ancillary staff,etc. expect that MD's should be devoted to their patients at all times. This means that they should be living at the hospital and work like the older doctors did. This is not compatible with those of us who have children, families, and other obligations. It is very possible to violate duty hours at this workhouse since you'll be expected to be in the hospital an insane amount of time.
Shreveport is very conservative and racist as well like the previous poster stated. Although the hospital is primarily filled with people of different nationalities mostly Indian, black or middle eastern. But outside the hospital, expect to be treated poorly if you are of a different race.
With all of that said, if you can stay patient for 4 years and are willing to tolerate the disorganized harsh training environment, you will be able to find a job somewhere more favorable. My options were small to begin with being a foreign graduate so I was lucky to end up anywhere, but going back in time, this definitely would not have been my first choice. I think they have changed quite a few things since I have been here, but I am sure it is still a busy place.
Disagree with marsh20 re easy to violate duty hours... the hardest rotation was a combo ER / consult service in Monroe, and even with that it was at most ~55 hours per week. Regular work week as a pgy1 / 2 pretty easy to stay within ~40 hrs / week. Pgy 1/2 take 2-4 twelve hour calls per month. Pgy3s take 1. Pgy4s take none. Very difficulty to violate duty hours with that.
How many residents does the program take every year?
I will say the fast paced lack of supervision helped me work efficiently in the private world, but I was self motivated and read, if you aren't this place will eat you alive.
Ok, you guys are scaring me now....is this place really that harsh? I don't mind living in Shreveport so much after looking into it, but what do you mean by read? Are there like reading assignments you have to do everyday or is it just reading up things on up to date for your patients? When I was a medical student that's all we did on our patients. Google gives you an answer to pretty much anything anyways.
Step your game up. There's no room for the lack of confidence. It's all self-directed.
Just make sure to keep that confidence and any arrogance to yourself. You don't want the nurses on the 10th floor, Dr. FG, or the Chair to get a whiff of that if you want to survive this program and finish in 4 years without repeating rotations. Trust me, just say yes ma'am.
confidence is bad when it's seen as arrogant. also academia (especially the lower dregs) is full of fragile egosSeriously, why is confidence seen as a bad thing during residency?
confidence is bad when it's seen as arrogant. also academia (especially the lower dregs) is full of fragile egos
Vice versa is common too...I think many people confuse confidence for arrogance.
Vice versa is common too...
There is a shortage of humility with the faculty.
The interesting thing, which I don't think is unique to this program, is that the Internal Medicine Residency at LSU is far more organized and structured with regards to workload restrictions than the Psych program. I think the issue stems from a lack of funding for Mental Health/Psychiatry residencies in general across the globe.