This thread is USELESS WITHOUT LISTS!!!!
Well I don't mind sharing mine. At this point, if I get moved down a program's list because I didn't rank them #1, then I'd rather not go there. But I trust in programs to realize that just because they aren't at the top of a list doesn't mean that I wouldn't love to go there, and that they should still rank me highly so they can snap up a bargain should I fall to that position on my list
D). But I digress...
1. University of Illinois at Peoria (Peoria, IL): At first I thought, ugh Peoria. Then I went there and found that although the town wasn't the largest around, the hospital was fantastic. Big level 1 trauma center in the middle of the state. Two shifts a month are done on the helicopter whenever you're in the ED. Plus a starting salary of over 49k is nice. They have a good mix of ICU as well as exposure into fields like anesthesia, ENT, ophtho, etc, without keeping you there too long. The two story ED was kind of odd to me at first, but they make it work.
2. Texas A&M, Christus Spohn Hospital (Corpus Christi, TX): The thing that held me back with this program is their newness. Started a few years ago, they just haven't had enough time to develop a track record. But the way they have the program set up it looks to be a good up and coming program. The only other residency program at the hospital is family medicine so there's no interference from surgery residents when you're on trauma. The hospital is a level II trauma center but has a large catchment area and gets a lot of inbound trauma by helicopter. The attending to resident ratio is low and the volume is average so there's plenty of time for didactic teaching in the ED. Salary was pretty low but the cost of living is comparable. There are a lot of volunteer EMS units around so if you have free time you can go run with them.
3. Wright State (Dayton, OH): The downside for this program can also be seen as an upside- you rotate through 7 different hospitals. It's good in that you can see how lots of different places work and learn in different systems, but the downside is you spend a lot of time early in the rotations spinning your wheels trying to learn the hospital-specific stuff. But they have a strong didactic program and their simulators are phenomenal. Best food of any program also. This was also the only program that didn't offer to provide all of the required texts free of charge.
4. University of Missouri- Truman Hospital (Kansas City, MO): Big hospital, heart of Kansas City, but unfortunately ringed by other level 1 trauma centers at the town's periphery so incoming helicopters don't come here very much. The ER is very well laid out, patient flow seemed supraoptimal. The PD is very resident friendly (not to say others aren't but this one stood out). Downside, lowest salary of any of the programs I looked at.
5. UMDNJ- Cooper Hospital (Camden, NJ): Second most dangerous city in the country so trauma is not an issue here. The ED is getting revamped but in the meantime it's so cramped, beds lining every available inch of hallway, overcrowding at the nurses station because there's a lot of staff and not much room. Good didactics, good administrative support. The hesitation for me here came primarily from the surrounding cost of living.
6. Albert Einstein (Philadelphia, PA): Ok, this was a painful one. I rotated here as a medical student and absolutely loved it. The program is outstanding, the faculty is amazing and the learning experience is beyond compare. The problem for me is that it's 4 years. I have nothing against 4 year programs in general, in fact I'm a believer that 4 years is better than 3. But I'm finishing a surgical internship now (which unfortunately because of the surgical focus makes me ineligible for advanced placement into a 4yr EM program at most places thanks to the lack of ICU, peds, OB, IM, etc) and I have military commitments. My advisor said that although I could do a 4 year program it would not be in my best interest in the long run from a military standpoint. Otherwise, this would have been my top choice program.
7. University of Mississippi Medical Center (Jackson, MS): I applied to match as a PGY2 and this program was one of the few 4 year programs that didn't mind my surgical focus. The curriculum was great. I especially liked that they've set up a continuity clinic in the ED so that you can see a lot of the patients that you send home with lacerations, unimpressive abdomens, etc, and see what the outcome was (how did your sewing job turn out, etc). They also do a bit of time in telemedicine which may be an upcoming wave. The downside for me: I live in Mississippi now, and my spouse doesn't want to anymore. She said if it was where I got in she would be ok with it, but she wanted every opportunity to go somewhere else first.
8. University of California San Francisco- Fresno Campus (Fresno, CA): This being another 4 year program, with the reasons mentioned before, pushed this to the bottom of my list. This despite them having an ED the size of a football field, 4 helipads on the roof which get used with startling regularity, and a strong ICU setup. The one thing that did concern me was the manner in which you progressed through the ED from 1st year to 4th year- 1st years primarily assigned to the "green zone", 2nd years to the "yellow zone", and so on. Although every so often things of higher acuity end up in the lower zones it still was a suboptimal progression in my mind.
And that's my list. For the past few weeks I went round and round with the top 5 continually rotating who was in the top spot. Realistically, I would be happy with any of the programs on my list (otherwise I wouldn't rank them).
). I can ski on vacation 
