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PGY2 Overall Rating: 13-Jun- 2009 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule Schedule depends on which rotation you are on. Since you have six months of electives, you will have a great schedule during those months. During electives you usually only have one call day a month. The busiest months are medicine floors (3 months) and CVICU (1 month). The schedule is one of the best you can find in the country. Teaching Faculty was very friendly and caring. There is daily noon conference and weekly grand rounds. On wards you have teaching sessions on Mon, Wed, and Fri. People are willing to teach if you want them to, and let you work if that is what you want to do. Some private attendings do not teach much. Atmosphere The harmony among residents is great. Most people get along and socialize together. The residents I have worked with have been friendly with residents. The hospital is in good shape and renovated from time to time. A good portion of the categorical medicine residents are foreign grads. When you are here you work with foreign grads, osteopathic grads, and allopathic grads. All are treated equally. The schedule is one of the best in the country. Conclusion The schedule and ancillary staff stand out. No scut work and teh schedule is amazing. The drawback is the UPMC has taken over and has made things busier here, but that has been addressed by addign mroe hospitalists. Being part of UPMC has given us better benefits and access to UPITT teaching and facilities. I feel liek a learned a lot during my stay here and I would come here again if I had to do it again. It is a very comptetitive transitional year that attracts high level candidates.

Medical Student Overall Rating: 30-Aug- 2004 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule I just completed the transitional year at Mercy. There are 13 4-week blocks during the year broken down as follows: 3 Wards, 1 Nights, 1 CCU, 1 Ambulatory, 1 ER, 6 Electives. Electives are whatever you want to make of them, but the most popular ones here are radiology, anesthesiology, ophthalmology, ENT, and neurology. On wards and CCU, your schedule is 7AM-5PM M-F, and weekends are as follows. Out of 4 weekends/block you will do one of the following for each weekend of the 4 blocks (Wards and CCU): (1) Fri 7AM - Sat 7AM and Sunday 7AM-1PM, (2) Sat 7AM - Sun 7AM, (3) Sat 7AM-1PM, and (4) Sunday 7AM-7PM. If you do the math, this amounts to only 8 24-hour calls for the whole year, but during these four blocks you will not get a weekend completely off. Nights are Sunday - Thursday 7PM - 7AM plus a one-hour conference every AM from 7AM-8AM. Note that weekends are completely off on nights. ER is 16 10-hour shifts for 4 weeks, or 14 10-hour shifts for three weeks if you have a vacation. Ambulatory is 8:30AM - roughly 3:30-4:30PM with evenings and weekends off. Scutwork is minimal to non-existent. The ancillary support and nursing staff are as good as it gets, and your medicine ward services are capped at 12 patients maximum. Each medicine ward service consists of an intern (you) and one senior resident, either an R2 or R3. Sometimes there is a med student, and they can be helpful too. Overall, the hours are spectacular. Elective hours are what you want them to be, wards are between 60-75 hours/week, and ambulatory is 40 hours/week. I never felt overworked at this program because the environment is warm and friendly with minimal stress. In fact, this is one of the more competitive transitional years for these reasons. Teaching Faculty here are for the most part very good. There are a few attendings who don't teach much, but there are many more who take an interest in resident education. The style of teaching here is very resident-friendly. You seldom have bedside rounds and usually discuss patients over the phone or in passing on the floors. During wards, there are teaching rounds M,W,F 10AM-11:30AM, nights has its teaching as mentioned above, and Grand Rounds are Thursday mornings. There is also a conference M-F 12-1 with lunch served 75% of the time. Overall, the quality of these conferences is very good and I found them to be helpful, especially in the beginning when you are getting used to being an intern. Research opportunities are present here, but not as much as larger academic centers. Transitionals usually opt out of research since they are there for a short period of time anyway. Atmosphere The physical environment is great. The resident lounge has a pool table, ping-pong table, big-screen TV with cable, DVD player, computers, phone, and a regrigerator that is always full of free food from the cafeteria. As long as you get your work done efficiently, you will have PLENTY of time to relax in this lounge, including when you are on call. There is an IRO (Intern-Resident Organization) that puts together numerous social events throughout the year. Drug reps take the residents out to dinner 2-3x/week at the best restaurants. I had more than a great life outside work, and residents always got together for events outside work. Benefits include free parking and $2000/year in the cafeteria. Conclusion The standouts of this program are its schedule, number of electives, resident friendliness, and the lounge. Because of its reputation, residents come from all over the US, often without and friends or family in the area, so bonds are formed quickly. I felt prepared after this year and passed USMLE Step 3 with no problem. Residents were top students and therefore go into competitive specialties at well-known places all over the US. The only drawback is that Pittsburgh is not one of the bigger cities like NYC, Boston, Philly, etc., but there is still plenty to do here. Before coming here, I researched just about every transitional year in the Eastern time zone and ranked this #1. Looking back on last year and after talking to other residents in my present residency, I am very happy with my decision.

Intern Overall Rating: 26-Jan- 2003 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule A typical floor medicine day starts at 7 AM (NO prerounding) and ends at 5:30 PM, when night float relieves you. Most days consist of rounding on your own in the morning, then catching up with your attending or calling him/her, reviewing the patient list (NO formal rounds). Afterwards, attending noon conference, then relaxing in the afternoon unless there is an admission. While on the floor months, you take call once a week (there are only 3 floor months). Electives are similar to being a MS5, they are EXTREMELY laid back. There is usually no call at all during these months and if so, then 1 day for the entire month. ENT, ophtho, radio, anesthesia, and nuero are the popular ones here. Of course, you can choose to have tougher electives by doing ICU or trauma, but most transitionals opt out of this. An elective day can start at 9 AM and end by noon depending on the rotation. There are 5 elective months. The remaining months are 1 CCU, 1 outpt med (9-5, with NO call), 1 ER (20 10 hour shifts), 1 month of night float (5:30 PM-7 AM, with NO daytime responsibilities). Teaching The teaching here does not rival a large academic institution. There are more than ample teaching opportunities (such as noon conference, grand rounds, and teaching rounds). However, if you are looking for a strict teaching environment, with research, then Mercy does not provide that. Most attendings do not do bedside rounds or grill you during rounds. Rounds are informal. Atmosphere The cmaraderie amongst peers is great, especially among the transitionals. You are not segregated and treated as any other resident. All residents get together and socialize (i.e. surg, med, ped, etc). Transitionals are a bit more notorious for partying. Attendings are all very nice (always a few exceptions to the rule, but mainly all very friendly). 4 weeks of vacation. Nice hospital. Pittsburgh is an underrated city, i am not from the area and have found it to be great. Lots to do and good nightlife. There are a great deal of FMG's in the categorical med program, but they are extremely helpful (as most have already done a residency or completed one in their home country). The transitionals were all top of the class med students and it is a competitive program to get into. I am able to run almost every day and spend most of weekends partying or out of town. Conclusion The lifestyle and hours are the best part of the program. The drawback is that each weekend on medicine floor months your weekend is committed to a call (either fri, sat, or sun). I am getting a good experience and not being overworked. There are 24 hour ancillary services, and nurses take phone orders. I would definitely pick this program again if i had to reapply. Most interns are ophtho, radio, derm, anesthesia residents. It is a great program and i would HIGHLY recommend it.

Intern Overall Rating: 03-Sep- 2002 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule Typical day on floors starts at 700 and ends at checkout at 530, if you are done with your work. There is a night float system so you don't take call on weekdays. Transitional year residents do 3 floor months plus a cardiac critical care month,which is the same hours as the floors. You do a month of night float 530pm-800am sun-thurs, which does suck. Other required rotations are a month of ambulatory,and ER which are pretty easy. During the non-ward months, you average about two calls a month, which are alot easier than floor call. The 5 elective rotations range from easier than 4th year medical rotations (Radiology, ENT, OPTHO are the favorites here), to 12 hour days (ID, ICU) Overall, the hours are great, and that's really the main reason why this is one of the most competitve transitional years. Teaching Faculty is very friendly, but most don't teach much. There are daily noon confrences, and attending rounds on wards. Some of these are educational, but I sleep through most. Atmosphere Interns/residents get along well. Most transitonal interns were very top-of-line medical students who are going into competitve fields next year, whereas in hte categorical, all are DO or FMG's. I don't have a problem with this, and everyone seems to be pretty social, although transitionals do tend to hang out more with each other. There is the ability to have a life outside medicine. I work out every day, and transitionals end up getting over 50% of weekends totally off. Conclusion Positives- pretty slack internship in terms of hours/call - very friendly atmosphere, residency has good pay and nice perks, like food allowance and free parking. - Pittsburgh is a very underrated city. It may not be as good as DC or NYC, but there is actually lots to do here. You can live in a nice neighborhoods within 15 minutes of the hospital. Real estate is very cheap compared to most other urban areas. Negatives- you do have to do a month of night float, and because of night float, even though you don't take call on weekdays, you can never leave before 530 when nightfloat comes. Therefore, you may be done at 2, and sit around until 515 when you get an admission, and not be out until 630. Pittsburgh winters and eary springs suck.