Alright, seems like we've all been too busy with our rotations that we just haven't been able to give updates on how the various clinical sites are. I've been trying to find up-to-date information on various sites on electives but to no avail. So here's my contribution in the likelihood that there might be someone looking for info on St. Mary's. IN RETURN, I HOPE PEOPLE START TAKING THEIR TIME OUT TO GIVE SOME UPDATED REVIEWS OF THEIR CLERKSHIPS. I realize most postings are from 2003 or so across the forum, and we all know that residents and interns from then are probably gone by now. And also that most of your rotation experience does depend on what kind of resident and intern you work with. So... with that, here's the scoop on St. Mary's Internal Medicine Core in Waterbury, CT.

To begin with, I am the only student in internal medicine here. And from what I've heard, the program only accepts students from Ross and for any given three month core, they only accept one. (unlike surgery)... This is because they have an active observership program here and many graduated foreign docs rotate through here as observers...

So, what's the rotation like? Well, you are put on a patient care team with a resident, an intern, and an attending, which all change every month. The floor rotation consists of four teams one of which you are on. As a team, you manage a given number of patients. What's your responsibility as a student? Well, they test your limit, and give you responsibilities according to how much you want to partake and what you can handle. I manage a maximum of three patients at any given time, which includes up to two new admissions on each call day.

Hours: 6:00am - 3-5pm daily (much later on call days)
Call: Q4 which means every 4 days. (yes, includes weekends). for a given month, you get one full weekend off, one full weekend working, and two half weekends... so mosty you work 6 days, and yes a full 12 days straight once a month.
Notes: I write all notes for my patients including orders.. which are cosigned by the resident or the intern... H&P for every new admit, admit orders for the floor, daily progress notes, daily orders and help fill discharge papers...
Responsilbities: Put together patient information, labs, and issues and be able to present in one cohesive rounds presentation and recommend daily management for issues that the patient may have including attending notes, discussion with attendings, and patient advocacy...
Meals: Breakfast and lunch with morning reports and noon conferences which are daily. Plus meal tickets for the cafeteria. (Yes, that means free food throughout the rotation)
Daily Schedule: Mo, Wed, Frid (7:00 - 8:00) cardiology rounds
Everyday, (8:00-9:00) morning report (case presentation), Grand Rounds every Tuesday
9:00 - 12:00 work rounds and patient care
12:00 - 1:00 noon conference
1:30 - 2:30 med student and observer lecture
2:30 - 3,4,5 patient care
If on call - stay until dismissed (no overnight) latest I've gotten out was 12:30 am
Remember if you have patients, that means pre-rounding before anything starts on any day so that means an hour to 2 hours before your day starts you should pre-round your patients.

I think that's the program in a nutshell.... The staff is great here, the hospital is well kept, clean, and facilities are modern. Nurses are wonderful, residents depending on who you work with can be great or not.. Attendings and faculty are very knowledgeable and love teach. Although the residency program has now branched off from Yale, they still have Yale elective students rotate through and the faculty has not changed much so they are still the same faculty when it was a Yale affiliated program....

One more thing... if you do plan on coming here, although it's great being only 5 minutes away from the hospital, if you don't mind traveling about 20 minutes each way, I would advice you to stay in New Haven... A much livelier place than Waterbury. New Haven is a college town (Yale) and it really is a better place to live (i imagine). I stayed here in Waterbury.

Well, good luck all!!!... I know, it's been a while since I posted... miss me?

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