Teaching:  | Atmosphere:  | Research:  |
Schedule
Each rotation is a 1 month block. Heavily medicine oriented program, although you have the option of choosing (s)electives from OBGYN, surgery, pediatrics, or medicine. From what I understand some small changes in rotation schedules will be made in the future. This past year there were 5 call months (2 ICU months, 1 "renal transplant" medicine month, 1 general medicine month, 1 pediatric month). Obviously you work the hardest during your call months, but truthfully your absolute worst day at Saint Barnabas will compare to a moderate day at a busy university hospital. Other months are filled with electives, which can range from very easy 3 day/wk work to as many consults and procedures as you want to do for as many hours as you want to do them.
Call schedule. ICU is q3, arrive at 6:30am or slightly later and non-call days leave around 3pm (give or take an hour depending on your other co-interns), post-call days leave around 10am or 11am or so (also depending on your co-interns). Renal transplant and general medicine months are q4, arrive at 6:30am or so and leave around 3-4pm non-call and 10am or so post-call. Pediatric schedule is variable, some people have night-float for a week and some just have 24 hour calls 5-7 times that month or a mixture of both.
Electives are the best months. Each transitional gets 3 months for electives, 1 month for a selective (which is essentially another elective). Electives include virtually any specialty in medicine. Popular ones include radiology, allergy/immun, rad/onc, derm, path. Popular selectives include pulmonary, GI, nephro.
This year all transitionals had to do a month of CCU, which is not bad at all. Only 10 beds, 2 senior residents to do most of the work, great nurses, and varying from 1-2 other co-interns. Again you can do as much as you want, or as little as carrying 1 patient. Arrive at 8am give or take an hour or two, leave anytime from 2-4pm. No call, and if you don't like intensive care cardiac medicine then you can take your vacation during this time.
Teaching
Faculty vary. 99% are great, exactly what the transitionals are looking for at a university affiliated community hospital. They understand you are only here for a year, going into some other specialty ("What is a dematologist/radiologist doing on a renal transplant floor?").
Most teach, although not for 4 hours at a time during rounds. But some don't teach anything, and are there only to work, which sometimes (ie post call) is exactly what you want. However, compared to many other generally cushier programs in NYC your teaching will be above average.
Conferences vary. Initially in the year they were daily, often twice daily. As the year went on, many were cancelled, but in all honestly and depending on the intern it is very often a better use of time to finish work on the floor and go home rather than learn about renal tubular acidosis type 4.
Atmosphere
Camaraderie is very high among the transitionals. Many of us share similar interests and hang out together. Most of us get along with medicine residents/interns, but as many of the categoricals have families/children and are from different cultures we don't often socialize outside of work.
Generally attendings are extremely happy with the transitionals, as we are familiar with the US medical system, don't speak with an accent, and are highly efficient.
Physical environment of work area is excellent. As soon as you walk into the lobby you'll ask yourself why it's all marbled floor and why there is a McDonald's sign. On average the patient population is middle class to upper class. Good when you're not exposed to TB daily, but very annoying when pediatric parents expect you to be their porter.
Virtually no scutwork, although you can draw blood/insert central lines if you want. Plenty of supplies, nurses are very good, and areas are very clean. No disimpacting, and if you really want you can even avoid guaiacs.
In regards to life outside of work, I can't imagine a program allowing me more time to have life outside of work and still teach me something. Very benign environment, so you'll be in a great mood with all that time for life outside of work.
Conclusion
This program is probably one of the best, with some interns even living in NYC (35-40 mins away by car). In a heartbeat I would rank this program number one again. As previously stated, this program is proof that internship year does not need to be one of the toughest years of training. I feel confident in my knowledge of medicine, every transitional passed Step 3 with ease, and I can't think of any other drawbacks.
