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any thoughts?
Uic
- Thread starter LotaPower
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- Joined
- Jan 9, 2003
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UIC is a solid program, of course I am biased as PGY-II here but I'll try to give you a level perspective on the program.
We are a multi-hospital program rotating primarily at 3 hospitals- the University Hospital, Mercy (our inner city hospital) and Illinois Masonic Hospital (Trauma 1). In addition we do rotations at Christ, Children's memorial or Wylers, and MacNeal.
I feel that our biggest strengths are primarily the faculty and my fellow co-residents. The people make this program, this is something you can judge for yourself if you interview here. It was the primary reason I came to the program.
In addition we have a good number of ICU months. 1st year we do MICU and we take CCU call while on cardiology; both of these months are at the University Hospital. 2nd year we do 2 PICU months, one at the University and the other at Christ. Not too many other programs do 2 PICU months, I felt this was a plus because no one really feels comfortable taking care of a sick kid let alone coding one. We also do MICU and CCU again in the second year we are generally on call alone at Mercy our inner city hospital. the ICU month there is awesome you see plenty of great pathology- AAA's, Intercranial Hemmorhages, Septic Patients, Pulmonary Edema, Toxicology. I loved the month, great learing and plenty of autonomy.
Our peds experience is also great, in addition to our two PICU months, we do two dedicated peds ER months, for our month in the second year we work at either Children Memorial or Wyler's Children Hospital, the two biggest childrens hospitals in Chicago. The rest of the time, we see kids in our ER at Mercy and Illinois Masonic they are integrated 24/7. At the university we see them whenever the peds ER is not staffed by peds residents.
Graduated responsibility is emphasized at our program. 1st year is great, not too much pressure in the ED. They primarily want you to get familiar with all the ED's we work at. They all have their different flavors and our charting is different at each; at the University we have paper free form chart, at Mercy we use T-sheets, and at Illinois Masonic we use computerized charting. It can be a pain in the arse at first, but it definitely prepares you to work in just about any environment. 2nd year you tend to take care of most of the critically ill patients and start to move the room. 3rd year you will be basically moving the room (speed is really emphasized in our program), and depending on your interest teaching medical students.
I would say that the biggest weakness in our program would probably be our Ultrasound. It is still being developed, the 1st years are probably more comfortable with it than I am, but it'll probably be some way off before we really integrate it into our program. I am currently comfortable with the FAST scans, AAA's, and relatively comfortable with using it for lines and for pregnancy exams.
Well I'm tired of writing, if you have any other questions feel free to ask me. Also, there are a couple of people on this board that went to UIC for med school that may be able to give you an alternate view of our program. Good luck.
We are a multi-hospital program rotating primarily at 3 hospitals- the University Hospital, Mercy (our inner city hospital) and Illinois Masonic Hospital (Trauma 1). In addition we do rotations at Christ, Children's memorial or Wylers, and MacNeal.
I feel that our biggest strengths are primarily the faculty and my fellow co-residents. The people make this program, this is something you can judge for yourself if you interview here. It was the primary reason I came to the program.
In addition we have a good number of ICU months. 1st year we do MICU and we take CCU call while on cardiology; both of these months are at the University Hospital. 2nd year we do 2 PICU months, one at the University and the other at Christ. Not too many other programs do 2 PICU months, I felt this was a plus because no one really feels comfortable taking care of a sick kid let alone coding one. We also do MICU and CCU again in the second year we are generally on call alone at Mercy our inner city hospital. the ICU month there is awesome you see plenty of great pathology- AAA's, Intercranial Hemmorhages, Septic Patients, Pulmonary Edema, Toxicology. I loved the month, great learing and plenty of autonomy.
Our peds experience is also great, in addition to our two PICU months, we do two dedicated peds ER months, for our month in the second year we work at either Children Memorial or Wyler's Children Hospital, the two biggest childrens hospitals in Chicago. The rest of the time, we see kids in our ER at Mercy and Illinois Masonic they are integrated 24/7. At the university we see them whenever the peds ER is not staffed by peds residents.
Graduated responsibility is emphasized at our program. 1st year is great, not too much pressure in the ED. They primarily want you to get familiar with all the ED's we work at. They all have their different flavors and our charting is different at each; at the University we have paper free form chart, at Mercy we use T-sheets, and at Illinois Masonic we use computerized charting. It can be a pain in the arse at first, but it definitely prepares you to work in just about any environment. 2nd year you tend to take care of most of the critically ill patients and start to move the room. 3rd year you will be basically moving the room (speed is really emphasized in our program), and depending on your interest teaching medical students.
I would say that the biggest weakness in our program would probably be our Ultrasound. It is still being developed, the 1st years are probably more comfortable with it than I am, but it'll probably be some way off before we really integrate it into our program. I am currently comfortable with the FAST scans, AAA's, and relatively comfortable with using it for lines and for pregnancy exams.
Well I'm tired of writing, if you have any other questions feel free to ask me. Also, there are a couple of people on this board that went to UIC for med school that may be able to give you an alternate view of our program. Good luck.
