Vanderbilt University Program Individual Response

What is your in-state status?:

Out of state

On what date did the interview take place?:

2/1/2009

How do you rank this residency among ALL other residencies?:

8 out of 10

What is your ranking of this program's facilities?:

7 out of 10

What was the stress level of the interview?:

1 out of 10

How did the interview impress you?:

Positively

How many people interviewed you?:

3

What was the style of the interview?:

One-on-one

What impressed you positively?:

See below; this is an incredible program - on par with really any other of the "Top 10". Residents are well taken care of w/perks - moving assistance, free laptop, holiday bonuses, moonlighting, real nice scholarship program if you wanna do academics. Report as inappropriate

What impressed you negatively?:

See below; up to you to decide if Nashville is a plus or minus. Program Director mentioned alumni networks and practice management lectures for all, but the resident we sat with at dinner the night before mentioned that he was having trouble finding a job in a specific area, and that he didn't feel like he knew what he was in for in the real world; this complete contradiction was not lost on several of us in the interview group. Lacks five year accrediation and citations were never directly answered. Report as inappropriate

How was your interview day? Please summarize.:

PROGRAM: Big hospital system (not superbig, but big; mostly attached via skywalk or tunnel). 14 residents/yr, all the fellowships you can think of. 55,000 anesthetics/yr. Administration very stable. Resident at dinner the night before mentioned the prog dir was NOT very involved in residency's daily ongoings, but the assistant prog dir is very vibrant and seems very much involved. Private and seemingly doing quite well in terms of money. TRAINING: Intern year looks like great training, and will never be mistaken for a transitional year: 3 mo ICU, 2 mo surgery (including the feared Peds Surg rotation, which is reportedly never less than 85+hrs/wk), 1 mo EM, 1 mo Peds, 1 mo "periop medicine", and 2 mo anesthesiology - one is like med student rotation (stand around w/resident, read a little, no call), the other month is June, and you get your orientation and begin life as a future anesthesiologist! 2 wks vacation. Not a typo. 2, as in two..."but you'll be a great physician". CA1 and 2 yrs are the standard intro to main OR/healthy cases then do the major subspecialties - all the bad ass things you could want. Very much THE game in town, extending down to Memphis and up to whatever the hell is north of Nashville, but a big distance either way. All the really amazing stuff is here: transplanting everything, trauma everything, peds hospital, etc. One speaker told us they have regional numbers that rival Virginia Mason's, which is the only place I've seen to make that claim. OB does around 3500 cases/yr - not the highest volume ever, but you get your numbers. CA3 year is one of the best laid-out years I've seen. Once comfortable as a CA3 - reportedly very early in the CA3 yr - you do some advanced anesthesia cases, and also do rotations as the jr attending. You do supervision of 4 rooms w/CRNAs, you teach and supervise the jr residents, make the calls on anesthetic plans, etc. FACILITIES: Nice at the Main, VERY NICE at the Childrens Hospital. Ultra-wired...I mean attendings carry a little thing (bigger than PDA, smaller than laptop) w/camera-accessed views into each room they're covering, and they can set their pagers to ring if a parameter (eg: mean arterial pressure) goes too low or high on a monitor. DIDACTICS: dedicated W and F one hr lectures from 0630 - 0730, then M, T and R morning subspecialty lectures (program directors own words were "Those don't always happen"). Stats the program provide show their residents did just below 75th precentile on ITE. I didn't take note of any mentioned board pass rates. MISCELLANEOUS: Robbins Scholarship is a program for 2-3 residents in each year that asks you to commit to research every year (time is made) that works towards a major research project, and you agree to do a fellowship in a related subspecialty (once awarded the scholarship spot you are guaranteed a Vanderbilt fellowship), and then stay on as faculty for one year, continuing to do research. The ultimate goal is to introduce and hopefully retain academic anesthesiologists. Your reward is an extra $15K added to each yrs salary, then an extra 90K(!!!!!) onto your fellowship salary, then you start as an attending at (a reported) $290K - not too shabby for academic, eh? Things that will keep me from ranking this place in my top 3 are: 1) resident attrition is an average of 1 per year. 2) two weeks of vacation in intern year then 3 in CA yrs...not deal breakers in any way, but certainly not pulling me in; 3) some discrepancies between what program described as strengths and residents described as weaknesses. BOTTOM LINE: You'll be a anesthesia superstar once leaving here, without being brutalized learning your trade. Report as inappropriate