Maimonides Surgery is very abusive and malignant. Avoid it at all costs!

[Maimo Abuse]

I read a post at SDN about how Maimonides medical center surgical residency program is abusive to its residents, and how it is so malignant. I wanted to re confirm what that person wrote and add to it.

The original posting can be found here:
Maimonides Surgery, Malignant Program?

To start, think about this fact. Every year, in the past decade, a categorical surgical resident has left this program. None of those residents have anything good to say about this residency. This is an excessive high rate of categorical people leaving a program! What wonderful program could possibly have such high rate of people trying to not be associated with it? What is really going on?

Even if you are not from New York (NY), the level of malignancy and abuse in Maimonides is legendary! There have been Attendings in Texas who have warned people from selecting this program.

The most obvious and worst thing about the residency is the Program Director, Patrick Borgen. You can just google his name just get a sense of his character. You don't need my point of view. Go ahead, google him now.

This person, who has the role of PD, refuses to meet with residents. He never gives any time to them. Even when you want to schedule appointments with him, his secretaries say we will get back to you, and then never do. Later, they give you the run around as to when you can see him. If you go to his clinic, he would still refuse to come out and speak to you.
There have been countless pre lim residents who have been screwed by him for 1) he not writing letters of rec from program director which is a must for everyone applying, and 2) if he did, turning them so late that so many people could not secure any interviews.

He uses residents as cheap labor and absolutely does not care about their well being. He refuses to help residents succeed, which begs the question, why is he the program director?
He accepted a resident into pre lim stop for the second time. After this person had signed the contract, he wrote an evaluation stating the resident is obviously worthless and will not be continuing in surgery. Just put yourself if the position of that resident. Imagine realizing you have just been ****ed. You have to be a very cruel person so be able to screw people like that.

Program director aside, you will realize people here are worked over the 80 hours limit. You do the math. Interns come in at 5:15 to 5:30 AM and leave between 8-9pm every night. With one day off a week, that's 105hr work week.

Multiple times Attending's have warned residents to "not **** yourself" by reporting the program. Even once, after the hospital administrators came and talked to the residents about how important it is to work the 80 hour work limit, the moment they left, the attendings warned residents that they will be in trouble if they are complaint. They were told to lie.

The lying does not stop there. Before the ACGME survey a meeting was held with the residents and they were told specifically to only put in good words for the program as if the program is investigated, everyone will loose their jobs.

Program is also filled with rotations without any days off during 2 months! they include pediatric surgery and thoracic surgery. Try doing laundry in those rotations and with that schedule! Good luck.

It's hard to believe such a program exist. It's even harder to believe what you are seeing, until you see again and again, residents who are sick being dragged to work, being hooked up to IV bags and as they vomit, they type notes. If that is not abuse, I don't know what is. The program has absolutely no back up in place for people who need to leave for medical care, let alone any other matter.

One time, a resident who was ill, fainted in the OR. He had to leave for 30 minutes to vomit and wash his face. This resident was put on probation for "abandoning his post". Again, this seems far fetched and funny, until you realize this is a true story.

If you are a categorical resident, do yourself a favor and DO NOT apply to Maimonides.
If you are a prelim resident, do yourself a favor and also DO NOT apply to Maimonides. Pre lims specially as you will find they will not support you, and will not accept you to the program.

If you want to read about others warning you about how malignant and terrible this program is just google Maimonides Surgery

You have been warned!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ThoracicGuy]

I read a post at SDN about how Maimonides medical center surgical residency program is abusive to its residents, and how it is so malignant. I wanted to re confirm what that person wrote and add to it.

The original posting can be found here:
Maimonides Surgery, Malignant Program?

To start, think about this fact. Every year, in the past decade, a categorical surgical resident has left this program. None of those residents have anything good to say about this residency. This is an excessive high rate of categorical people leaving a program! What wonderful program could possibly have such high rate of people trying to not be associated with it? What is really going on?

Even if you are not from New York (NY), the level of malignancy and abuse in Maimonides is legendary! There have been Attendings in Texas who have warned people from selecting this program.

The most obvious and worst thing about the residency is the Program Director, Patrick Borgen. You can just google his name just get a sense of his character. You don't need my point of view. Go ahead, google him now.

This person, who has the role of PD, refuses to meet with residents. He never gives any time to them. Even when you want to schedule appointments with him, his secretaries say we will get back to you, and then never do. Later, they give you the run around as to when you can see him. If you go to his clinic, he would still refuse to come out and speak to you.
There have been countless pre lim residents who have been screwed by him for 1) he not writing letters of rec from program director which is a must for everyone applying, and 2) if he did, turning them so late that so many people could not secure any interviews.

He uses residents as cheap labor and absolutely does not care about their well being. He refuses to help residents succeed, which begs the question, why is he the program director?
He accepted a resident into pre lim stop for the second time. After this person had signed the contract, he wrote an evaluation stating the resident is obviously worthless and will not be continuing in surgery. Just put yourself if the position of that resident. Imagine realizing you have just been ****ed. You have to be a very cruel person so be able to screw people like that.

Program director aside, you will realize people here are worked over the 80 hours limit. You do the math. Interns come in at 5:15 to 5:30 AM and leave between 8-9pm every night. With one day off a week, that's 105hr work week.

Multiple times Attending's have warned residents to "not **** yourself" by reporting the program. Even once, after the hospital administrators came and talked to the residents about how important it is to work the 80 hour work limit, the moment they left, the attendings warned residents that they will be in trouble if they are complaint. They were told to lie.

The lying does not stop there. Before the ACGME survey a meeting was held with the residents and they were told specifically to only put in good words for the program as if the program is investigated, everyone will loose their jobs.

Program is also filled with rotations without any days off during 2 months! they include pediatric surgery and thoracic surgery. Try doing laundry in those rotations and with that schedule! Good luck.

It's hard to believe such a program exist. It's even harder to believe what you are seeing, until you see again and again, residents who are sick being dragged to work, being hooked up to IV bags and as they vomit, they type notes. If that is not abuse, I don't know what is. The program has absolutely no back up in place for people who need to leave for medical care, let alone any other matter.

One time, a resident who was ill, fainted in the OR. He had to leave for 30 minutes to vomit and wash his face. This resident was put on probation for "abandoning his post". Again, this seems far fetched and funny, until you realize this is a true story.

If you are a categorical resident, do yourself a favor and DO NOT apply to Maimonides.
If you are a prelim resident, do yourself a favor and also DO NOT apply to Maimonides. Pre lims specially as you will find they will not support you, and will not accept you to the program.

If you want to read about others warning you about how malignant and terrible this program is just google Maimonides Surgery

You have been warned!

So which resident are you in this story?

 

[sinombre]

So which resident are you in this story?

Plot twist: he's actually the program director.

 

[kemper6036]

excellent initial post

 

[kemper6036]

to be fair though, i've also not heard much good about that place

 

[bannie22]

The lying does not stop there. Before the ACGME survey a meeting was held with the residents and they were told specifically to only put in good words for the program as if the program is investigated, everyone will loose their jobs.

Most programs are like that tho...


Otherwise, I applaud you for standing up and raising awareness so that future applicants can thoughtfully reconsider if they are applying to this program.

 

[Bonferroni Correction]

April fools?

I met Dr Sherwinter and a couple residents and all seemed great

 

[Big Bad Byron]

is that the hospital near the area with all the Chasidic jewish population?

 

[McSurgery]

Hello all,

I'm a current senior surgical resident at Maimonides, this is my first post on SDN - I made this account specifically to address this post because I feel that it (unfairly) affected us in the Residency Match this year. We had an unmatched spot this year and I would be naive to believe that this post didn't (at least in part) contribute to it.

First regarding the post itself - please take note of the date that it was posted, soon after the 2017 match. Internally within the program we know exactly who posted this. I'm not surprised the original poster made this thread and quite frankly has exaggerated or outrightly lied to you, the reader. It speaks to his character as an individual and reflects why he was not offered a categorical position within our program.

I have been in / around Maimonides for a while. I was originally a preliminary resident and then became a categorical resident within the program. I have had my share of ups and downs personally and through it all, the program/administration at Maimonides - both within our Graduate Medical Education office and Department of Surgery - have been 100% supportive. Having come from the preliminary track, I will attest that it is difficult to get a categorical position anywhere. I worked my butt off to get a spot within the program. At the time when I started, we still rotated out at Coney Island Hospital (CIH). Despite my first 3 months of residency being at CIH and then an additional month of night float at Maimonides, I was still able to make a favorable enough impression on my senior residents, the attendings and the staff in general that I was invited for a categorical interview and subsequently matched into the position. At no point did I assume either (1) a second year preliminary position or (2) an interview for a categorical position was automatically granted. I will also note that I did receive a letter from our Chairman that was delivered in a timely fashion. Similarly, when I applied for fellowships recently, I had a meeting (of which I was actually late for but he was punctual) where we discussed my application strategy and then he delivered a (phenomenal) letter on time.

One of the strengths (and apparently weaknesses) of our program is that we treat categorical and preliminary surgery residents as equals. They have the same schedule (neither gets more months of nights than the other) and are entitled to the same case quantity and quality. The expectation within our program is that all residents by the end of their 2nd year will have completed 250 major cases. We're pretty good at making sure that happens; their case load will be a mix of ambulatory cases and double scrubbing with senior residents on larger cases. I can understand how this creates a false sense of security for our preliminary residents. That being said, if a prospective applicant to our program were to look at the composition of each year's categorical class they will find that anywhere from 25-50% of the categorical class is made up of preliminary residents from our own program. We have roughly 2-3 preliminary residents/year in the PGY 1 and 2 classes. It is impossible to expect that our program will be able to keep all of our prelim residents. That being said, to speak directly to our 2017 preliminary class - two PGY2 prelim residents were able to obtain categorical PGY 3 spots at other programs...this of course was done with the assistance of our program's administration writing supportive letters and reaching out to their programs of interest. A couple of years ago, I know of 2 PGY1 prelims who took categorical spots elsewhere in surgery and there are countless who applied widely to other specialties (IM, FM, Anesthesia, Radiology) and were able to obtain positions there as well.

Let's talk about resident wellness. This year one of our residents became critically ill. The outpouring of support for that individual - not just from within the program but also the staff throughout the hospital speaks to the culture of our group. I'm an outsider in this situation, I know there were many things that the program did to help this individual and his family. Some of the elements that I'm aware of include: (1) ensuring his newly married spouse had health insurance [he literally was just married when he became ill], (2) giving him additional time off to recover and would not end up off cycle per ABS guidelines and (3) giving his family who came from out of town to be with him a 24-hour contact who was in the hospital, should any concern arise. He was also visited by pretty much the entire surgical attending/administrative staff while hospitalized. Within this residency, the residents look out for one another and are extremely protective (for better or for worse) of each other. Ironically, the resident he mentions that was offered a 2nd year preliminary position and then had a bad evaluation is actually one of our strongest 2nd year residents and would be offered a categorical position within the program if his/her visa allowed for it. The fact that the original poster would choose to undermine his fellow residents is pretty hurtful and really demonstrates why he wasn't a team player.

Residents who have left the program...having been around the institution for a while I can think of pretty much all of the categorical residents in the last 10 years who have left the program. This JAMA study states the national attrition rate is about 18% (because this is a new account, I can't post the link but this is the citation - Khoushhal et al. JAMA Surg. 2017;152(3):265-272), since we're a 4-5 categorical resident/year program...let's say it's 1 in 5 will leave the program. While our number of residents leave is on par with the national average - they don't all leave surgery. Going back to 2011, I can think of 2 who left because they were offered positions at institutions where they did research, another 2 who left to be in surgical programs closer to their spouses, another 2 who left to join integrated programs in their subspecialties of interest (plastics and CT surgery). I know one who wanted to change specialties - she's actually in that specialty AT Maimonides and continues to have a positive relationship within the surgical department. Unfortunately, surgery is not for everyone; for our residents who decide they want to pursue something different, the program has facilitated their transition into new specialties.

I'd like to highlight some of the real strengths within the program that I've been able to take advantage of. For our categorical residents, we have the opportunity to pursue a paid year of research at any institution who will accept you. I actually did 2 years. Also, in order to enhance my fellowship application, I was given the opportunity to do an away elective (ie. an audition rotation) in my 4th year at my top choice institution for fellowship -- the senior residents within the program divide up call coverage/team staffing to make this possible. We do away rotations at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and Mt Sinai for transplant - excellent exposure to a different health system. All of our residents take ATLS and our senior residents complete ATOM (and some ASSET).

I would like to think that the majority of our residents are very proud of our program and what we have to offer. There is room for improvement - having visited multiple other institutions recently, I think this is true everywhere. We are so much more than the short-sighted post would have you believe.

 

[GenSurgResidentMMC]

Whoever reads this should know that it’s so far from the truth about Maimonides, that it’s comical. I’m a categorical resident at Maimonides and proud to say so. I have an excellent relationship with my attendings and consider my co-residents some of my closest friends.

Anyone who reads the above post should make note of the date it was posted—March 28, 2017. That’s 11 days after the 2017 Match results came out. The person who wrote it was one of our preliminary interns who unfortunately was not successful in the Match and felt compelled to make false claims about the program’s culture in an attempt to harm it. I want to discount several of the claims he makes:

1) Preliminary residents have no prospect of attaining categorical positions

Our program takes between 4 and 5 categorical residents per year. Currently (academic year 2017-2018), 7 out of our 22 categorical residents were previously preliminary residents in the program. There is at least 1 former preliminary resident in each PGY year. How could a program that uses prelims as nothing more than “cheap labor” have 1/3 of their categorical residents come through the preliminary tract?

It is true that some preliminary residents are not successful in securing a categorical position here. But that is the unfortunate reality of a preliminary contract—you are not guaranteed a categorical position. The program has had between 4 and 10 prelim residents per year over the last several years. If there are 4-5 categorical positions per year, obviously there will be many prelims that will not get categorical positions. Even still, the faculty has helped several of those not accepted here into other programs. Last year the program helped two of our PGY2 prelims matriculate into categorical PGY3 positions elsewhere.

2) Categorical residents leave at an excessive rate

He claims that at least 1 resident has left the program every year for the last decade and that none of them have anything good to say about the program. As the author of the post was an intern, I’m not sure that he even knows more than 1 or 2 people who left the program, let alone what they have to say about their experience here. Most importantly, he makes no mention of why those residents left. One resident dreamed of being a plastic surgeon and transferred into an advanced position in an integrated plastic surgery residency. Another transferred after being offered an advanced position in an integrated cardiothoracic surgery residency. And two other residents left to take PGY3 positions at surgery residencies in other states where their spouses were in training.

It’s important to consider attrition from surgical training in the context of the big picture. Nationally, almost 20% of residents who start categorical surgical residency leave their program (JAMASurgery 2017;152(3):265-277). Residents leaving surgical residency is a fact of life, regardless of the training program you’re looking at.

3) The Program Director is not interested in resident success

In addition to advocating for the many prelim residents taken into the program as categorical residents, one of Dr. Borgen’s most important programs is to fund a year of external research for 2-3 residents per year. Residents have their salary paid by Maimonides while going to a research facility of their choosing—this is almost entirely unique for programs like Maimonides and is critically important for those seeking competitive fellowships. Imagine being able to go to any research facility in the world and say, “I’m a surgical resident and would like to do research for you...and you don’t even have to pay me!” Recently, residents have done a year of research at University of Toronto, UCLA, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Oxford University, just to name a few.

I’m disappointed to see such an inaccurate portrayal of our program online. I’m more than happy with my training here and have had a lot of fun while going through it. If you’re a student, come and do a rotation with us—you’ll see what the Maimonides surgery residency is really like.

 

[MMCResident]

I have never posted on SDN but have used it various times throughout the medical school and residency process. It has always been a good resource and the general culture of the website is to provide honest and unbiased information that others can learn from. It is a shame that an aggravated user abused the site with a fabricated, impulsive post. As a general surgery resident at MMC, I too am biased, but I feel obliged to defend an excellent training program.

I echo everything written in the above posts and just want to add a couple things. Since my sub-internship at MMC and throughout residency, Dr. Borgen has always been an accessible and invaluable resource. From your first case together in the operating room, he involves you and patiently provides constructive criticism that motivates you to improve. He encourages residents to come to clinic and when you’re there, he makes it a point to discuss each patient thoroughly with you.

Next, “being hooked up to IV bags and as they vomit, they type notes” sounds like it came out of an awesome Quentin Tarantino scene, but I can assure you we are not that savage. During residency I was diagnosed with UC, which can really be a pain in the ass. I have had a few bad flare ups and every time I have needed backup coverage, it has not once been an issue. While it is true that we don’t have “back-ups” to come in when residents are ill, all residents cover for each other and the administration makes sure of it.

To future applicants - Maimonides is not a malignant program. It is a program made up of like-minded residents and amazing attendings who are invested in your future. For anybody who is interested or wants to hear more about my experience, please private message me and I would be happy to answer any questions you have.

 

[Surgery McSurgeryface]

Hello SDN -

I am another of the current senior residents at Maimonides. I wanted to reiterate many of the above sentiments from my co-residents, colleagues and friends. To all future surgery applicants, please know that the statements made by the banned OP are either extremely exaggerated or blatantly untrue.

I wholeheartedly agree with everything that has already been stated above by my co-residents. I wanted to break down a bit of what the OP said and try to shed a bit of light on the real-life Maimonides Surgery Residency.

I read a post at SDN about how Maimonides medical center surgical residency program is abusive to its residents, and how it is so malignant. I wanted to re confirm what that person wrote and add to it.

The original posting can be found here:
Maimonides Surgery, Malignant Program?

https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/maimonides-surgery-malignant-program.1042626/
The link that the OP posted links to a post from 2013. There are some similarities between that old post and the OPs, namely, just how hyperbolic they both are. If there was any validity in this, the ACGME would have shut the program down years ago. Having been at the program for years, I can speak from first hand experience and state with confidence that not a single one of the egregious behaviors has taken place or been reported at the program.

To start, think about this fact. Every year, in the past decade, a categorical surgical resident has left this program. None of those residents have anything good to say about this residency. This is an excessive high rate of categorical people leaving a program! What wonderful program could possibly have such high rate of people trying to not be associated with it? What is really going on?

If you were to ask those who've left, they would all say that the reason wasn't because of the program, but rather their personal choice. A resident leaving a program because they realized their calling as a physician was in another field or because they were offered an advanced position in a field they had been working towards all their lives should not count as a transgression against the program. In fact, any time a resident has expressed their interest in another field, the administration has done everything in its power to help them succeed in transitioning to that specialty or in finding their place within our program where they feel more comfortable.

This person, who has the role of PD, refuses to meet with residents. He never gives any time to them. Even when you want to schedule appointments with him, his secretaries say we will get back to you, and then never do. Later, they give you the run around as to when you can see him. If you go to his clinic, he would still refuse to come out and speak to you.
There have been countless pre lim residents who have been screwed by him for 1) he not writing letters of rec from program director which is a must for everyone applying, and 2) if he did, turning them so late that so many people could not secure any interviews.

He uses residents as cheap labor and absolutely does not care about their well being. He refuses to help residents succeed, which begs the question, why is he the program director?
He accepted a resident into pre lim stop for the second time. After this person had signed the contract, he wrote an evaluation stating the resident is obviously worthless and will not be continuing in surgery. Just put yourself if the position of that resident. Imagine realizing you have just been ****ed. You have to be a very cruel person so be able to screw people like that.

This section was discussed in the posts above, but I wanted to add my point of view as well. Yes, Dr. Borgen is a busy man, but he still makes time for the residents. While it may be inconvenient to have to schedule a meeting with him, he is always approachable outside of his office. I have had innumerable conversations with him after Grand Rounds or an M&M, or even just waiting for the next case to start. He is always willing to listen to what you have to say and help out when he can.

It's hard to believe such a program exist. It's even harder to believe what you are seeing, until you see again and again, residents who are sick being dragged to work, being hooked up to IV bags and as they vomit, they type notes. If that is not abuse, I don't know what is. The program has absolutely no back up in place for people who need to leave for medical care, let alone any other matter.

One time, a resident who was ill, fainted in the OR. He had to leave for 30 minutes to vomit and wash his face. This resident was put on probation for "abandoning his post". Again, this seems far fetched and funny, until you realize this is a true story.

Again, this is more exaggeration and embellishment from the OP. No one has ever been put on probation because they had to leave the OR due to feeling ill. The only time I have personally seen a resident working while attached to an IV pole was my intern year at Coney Island Hospital when one of the chief residents developed severe abdominal pain during rounds, left rounds to have it assessed, and was found to have a kidney stone. Another chief came in to cover for him while he had a JJ stent placed, but because he wasn't going to be discharged from the hospital immediately and was otherwise feeling better, he continued to follow the floor patients' progress.

As senior residents in the program, our goal is to leave the program in a better place than it was when we first started, and I truly believe that we are doing that. While it is a shame that the unprofessional nature of the OP has already caused some damage, we take these concerns seriously and use all feedback to improve our program.

I am happy to answer any questions that anyone may have, especially from prospective students and applicants. Please feel free to PM me with any questions.

 

[allison.p1]

Has anyone noticed all these rebuttal emails were done on the same day?
Luckily I have a friend who is rotating at Maimonides Surgery. She told me the program director has forced people to write those about the program. She said everyone knows that Maimonides surgery is a bad program but they are stuck there and need to graduate. So, they are keeping their mouths shut until they are able to get out!

 

[siliso]

Yes, the three consecutive denunciations from single post people on one day are hilariously Soviet style. I am imagining the ugly post Match chief meeting and the orders to get out there and propagandize STAT.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

LOL'd at the obvious shilling.

Good work, Maimo Abuse and D.K.Man. We need more whistleblowers like you.

 

[Durty-Trixxx]

Has anyone noticed all these rebuttal emails were done on the same day?
Luckily I have a friend who is rotating at Maimonides Surgery. She told me the program director has forced people to write those about the program. She said everyone knows that Maimonides surgery is a bad program but they are stuck there and need to graduate. So, they are keeping their mouths shut until they are able to get out!

I don't have any affiliation with the Maimonides Surgery program --- but it does seem awfully suspicious that four newly-created SDN profiles (some with very comical usernames) from four supposedly different residents in the program post rebuttals all on the same day and speak in overly-glowing tones about the program?

Things that make you go --- HMMMMMM

 

[CBG23]

Hmm, not sure what to think. It's entirely possible that the positive posts could be from residents who honestly believe they are in a good program and are telling the truth. OR... they could all be false posts intended to dispel the truth of the first post. Oddly enough, the OP was banned after just a single post. Wonder why?

This whole thing is very strange/ dicey...

 

[DOorDONT]

The surgery program will be fine. At the end of the day, they can always hire desperate IMGs or even some DOs who need a spot.

 

[DOorDONT]

Exactly. The program can be 100% IMGs and it wouldn't shut down. At the end of the day, there's no LAW saying that the Maimondes ACGME surgery program needs to have AMGs as their residents. We can talk bad about a program as much as we want, but again, at the end of the day, they can fill their spots. Residency programs DON'T NEED medical graduates, medical graduates NEED residency programs.

 

[thedrjojo]

Exactly. The program can be 100% IMGs and it wouldn't shut down. At the end of the day, there's no LAW saying that the Maimondes ACGME surgery program needs to have AMGs as their residents. We can talk bad about a program as much as we want, but again, at the end of the day, they can fill their spots. Residency programs DON'T NEED medical graduates, medical graduates NEED residency programs.

Still doesn't mean that those that can choose shouldn't be duly warned...

 

[instantkarma]

reflections from former mmc resident. forgive my english typing without caps is faster. i did a year there a long time ago, before hours limitations. interesting politics there. if you are an orthodox jew you can do no wrong. if not and even if you are a non religious jew or israeli you are treated like a second class citizen. the more religious/orthodox you are the more preferential treatment you will receive. i filled the pgy1 slot of a fancy name canadian school orthodox grad because he simply failed to show up. he decided to show up a month or two into the program and was put to work. he actually was a very nice person, cool outspoken guy that had no problem telling a-hole attendings they were a-holes but because they wanted him so much he got away with it. his plan was to change to optho after 1 year but they wanted him to stay in same program.. a non orthodox pgy1 like me was very low on the totem pole and the secret to survival was shut up and put up. residents were regarded as indentured servants and were easy to control because everyone needs that paper on completion.

prior to that year i had had significant clinical experience in tough public hospitals and was already very organized and efficient, so much so i saw all my patients, wrote notes, orders, reviewed studies, etc etc in a way that was perceived as too fast. this was my my first sin. they thought something was wrong, i must be goofing off or a miss somewhere. one day out of the blue the associate director paged me to meet him on the ward. he had me place all my patient charts on a rack pulling them randomly and quizzing me for dx, w/u, test results, labs, meds, plan, etc etc. he went through my entire service and i was on the money for each and every patient. rather than being pleased he looked rather unpleased. as i recall he was an short orthodox guy with a napoleon complex.

on call i like to order chinese food from nearby brooklyn chinatown. great food and convenient. on occasion the rabbi or equivalent discarded it because it wasnt kosher but since the hospital receives government funding that cannot discriminate against kosher and non kosher food. chinese food was my second sin.

residents had routine meetings with an attending acting as a peer and guidance counselor. my complaint was that i was often paired with crap upper level residents of nefarious competence and emotional well being. one such female resident chased me trying to stab me with her pen because i did not want to turn her verbal order to write an aminoglycocide in a already significantly renally impaired patient. she got enraged about me suggesting a better option. subsequently i heard she was advised to change to psychiatry. other upper level residents they paired me with panicked with decompensating floor patients and disappeared, yes ran away. we nicknamed him "fearless leader"

getting back to the attending counselor i recall them being surprised. they said typically when a resident is complaining / having issues that resident has mediocre to poor evaluations which was not the case as my evals were all good to very good.. they ended up telling me to take is as a positive thing, a compliment because they chose crap resiidents to pair with me knowing i could function on my own. nice huh. f...ing amazing.

endless hours without sleep, the norm. i totally believe the current hours limitations being abused. that is consistent with much of the mindset. i was not renewed imo because the hospital paid out of its own pocket the salary of the no show resident that showed up at his leisure and getting rid of me meant the government funding would pay the other guys salary non out of pocket. perhaps the non kosher food i ordered was also a factor as well as appearing to goof off because i was up to speed of a higher pgy level?

you get get the gist of how things worked at mmc at least then. btw i was in medicine not surgery but the politics and mindset likely similar. i completed residency somewhere else.

 

[Johnnyvascular]

Usually in any post like this, there is some truth to the original post. All of these tend to go the same way: 1) Somebody speaks out about what they genuinely feel is a poor program. 2) Residents of the actual program, who obviously have a vested interest in the program, desperately defend it's reputation. 3) People are left to make up their own minds on the program, and those desperate enough to want surgery/insert-specialty-here e.g. FMGs/DOs/etc, will take the program and try to make the best of it.
I interviewed here. All I can say is, I DID notice a strong preference for Orthodox Jews. That is all.