hey does anybody have any more information/updates about UCI's program?
Hi! I am a rising CA-2 at UCI and would be happy to answer any questions anyone has about the program. Sorry, I know this is a bit off the thread topic, but since it was asked twice I thought I'd provide some info about UCI. In short, it is an excellent program, and I would definitely come here again if I were to do things over. To be honest, the vast majority of our residents do not read or post to SDN. In perusing through SDN one day a while back (while procrastinating for board study), I was surprised to find that the information about UCI anesthesia on SDN is pretty outdated and inaccurate, which is why I decided to post. However, it looks like another resident beat me to the punch and there is a very detailed (and accurate) description of our program here:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/uci-anesthesia.960834/
A few things I would add to this:
1)
Atmosphere: For me personally, I felt that the quality of clinical training was going to be similar at most of the places where I interviewed, which were top 20 programs, mostly on the west coast, some mid west, and some east coast. I therefore ranked primarily by location and by the atmosphere of the program. I've only rotated at one other institution so it is somewhat hard to compare, but I would say that UCI is on the whole a very benign program. The culture is like a big, sometimes dysfunction, but mostly happy family. That includes the nurses, residents, attendings, fellows, OR techs, and residents from other services. The overall vibe at UCI is warm and friendly, which is the main reason why I chose it for residency. Condescension and ego are not well-tolerated here. I usually ask the fellows and new attendings how UCI compares to their home institutions and the overwhelming sentiment is that they are surprised by how much happier people are at UCI. Now that said, are there sometimes tiffs between nurses and residents? Do residents complain about random stuff? Of course! All the time! But overall, I'd say there is way more joking and laughing between nurses and residents and attendings than fighting.
2)
Support: There has been a lot of change in the administration of the anesthesia department with Dr. Kain leaving and Dr. Ahn taking over as program director. Having lived through the change, I have to say that we as residents are pretty insulated from those changes and I barely noticed the difference. Both our previous and current program director have been extremely supportive, always prompting us for input on how we think residency is going and implementing changes based on our feedback. For example, at our winter retreat we said we wanted more intraop teaching. A few months later, there is now a button that we click on the operation board website to acknowledge when intraop teaching has taken place. This serves to ensure that it happens and give a little nudge to those attendings who are not doing enough of it. So far it has been very effective. At the beginning of our monthly 4U didactics days, we have a "Chair's corner" where we basically vent directly to the chair, Dr. Engwall, who is extremely responsive, very down to earth and approachable. The support at UCI is outstanding.
3)
The things we lack: Transplants and research. That said, if you want to do research you can definitely find a meaningful project (or two or three) to publish within your 4 years here. There are a small handful of faculty who are very research-oriented who want nothing more than to help you find a research project and publish. Coming from a research heavy medical school, however, I do have to say that those opportunities are much fewer here. But the "competition" for those research projects is also a lot less here, so in the end, it is still pretty easy to find a research project (we actually have an internal website that lists all the available projects and there are always empty spots). I honestly think this would only affect those residents who want to publish 10-20 papers before you graduate -- although possible, it would be much more difficult here than at a research heavy institution. Bottom line, if you want to do some research but are not a research fanatic, you will find ample opportunities to publish here. There is also a research track available in your CA-3 year, which I believe extends your residency by a few months, but gives time to do even more substantial research. Regarding transplants, we only do kidney transplants. Yes, it would be nice to have exposure to other transplants. What we miss out in transplants I think we make up for in trauma, as we do become pretty proficient at trauma by the end of our training. And if you really love transplants you will need to do a fellowship anyway which is where you will get the bulk of that experience.
The bottom line for ANY anesthesia program is this -- does it place you into the fellowships and jobs you want. UCI has outstanding fellowship placements year after year and our residents regularly get the jobs that they want in the locations they want. In the couple of years I have been here, I have not heard of a single resident being unhappy with their job or fellowship placement. Our recent fellowship placements are listed here:
http://www.anesthesiology.uci.edu/education_residency_graduates.shtml. This year I know for a fact that our residents so far have all gotten their #1 fellowship choices, having interviewed at all of the top "name brand" programs in their specialties, and those who have looked for jobs have all found jobs they are very happy with (both fellows and residents). Honestly, that is the only testimony that matters.
