Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, MD

[ducman]

Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, MD

[Sree Cheruku]

does this place have a gen surg rotation?

[GFLIP]

from what I heard - yes.

[MarlaS]

As someone who has done a Surgery core rotation at Union Memorial hospital in Baltimore I think that I am in a good position to offer some advice. While surgery is a difficult rotation anywhere, I think that it is especially difficult at Union. The attitude of the attendings and senior residents towards the students is extremely poor. As an example, I would say that half the attendings that I scrubbed in with didn't bother to learn my name even though I was in up to a dozen cases with them. Needless to say that these attendings were also completely uninterested in teaching and treated me as nothing more than an animated retractor.

At Union the 12 week rotation is divided into 8 weeks of surgeries and 4 weeks of ICU. The ICU month is absolutely terrible. Studnets are required to do all the admission notes and transfer notes for all the patients coming and going out of the ICU. This involes sitting in front of a computer, often all day long, entering data with minimal patient interaction. Given that ICU days begin at 5am and often end around 9pm it is a very difficult month.

I would strongly discourage anyone from doing surgery at union.

[ttwl]

dang are u serious?? when did u do that rotation? i hope its has been a while?? i am doing that next .. in july...

[MarlaS]

Winter, 2007. A very long twelve weeks.

[bhs2a]

dang are u serious?? when did u do that rotation? i hope its has been a while?? i am doing that next .. in july...



I was wondering how the rotation went for you?

[ttwl]

well rough hours.... but now they have a 80 hrs /week policy...so might be better,,, but u learn a lot....

[Experienced]

As someone who has done a Surgery core rotation at Union Memorial hospital in Baltimore I think that I am in a good position to offer some advice. While surgery is a difficult rotation anywhere, I think that it is especially difficult at Union. The attitude of the attendings and senior residents towards the students is extremely poor. As an example, I would say that half the attendings that I scrubbed in with didn't bother to learn my name even though I was in up to a dozen cases with them. Needless to say that these attendings were also completely uninterested in teaching and treated me as nothing more than an animated retractor.

At Union the 12 week rotation is divided into 8 weeks of surgeries and 4 weeks of ICU. The ICU month is absolutely terrible. Studnets are required to do all the admission notes and transfer notes for all the patients coming and going out of the ICU. This involes sitting in front of a computer, often all day long, entering data with minimal patient interaction. Given that ICU days begin at 5am and often end around 9pm it is a very difficult month.

I would strongly discourage anyone from doing surgery at union.
Marla, have you reported this to Gardner? This is the kind of info they DEFINITELY need to know.

E.

-

[MarlaS]

My husband actually did the rotation - he used my sign in to post earlier. I know he filled in the evaluation forms at the end of the rotation that Gardner has folks fill out.

[Gigi25]

This is all completely opposite from the feedback I've heard about Union Memorial. People who had this rotation have told me that while it was difficult, they learned so much that it was completely worth it. Plus, the scut work was minimal. I'm kind of scared now, since I'm scheduled to do surg there in April. Does anyone have any recent feedback on this rotation?

Thanx

:please:

[ttwl]

hmm its a rough rotation but you learn a lot...

[Samsonlxa926]

Just finished a week ago and it was a rough rotation. Days begin at 6:00am and usually go to about 5:00pm. When you are on call you are stuck there until 9:00pm. Days consist of rounding in the morning, then you are in surgery until about 3:00pm, then you have to check up on your patients and round out until about 5:00pm. When you are on call, you do mostly consults. All the interns, residents, and attendings are really nice and good about teaching. However, like posted earlier, most attendings will not learn your name, but they make you feel welcome. Hope this helps.

[Gigi25]

Just finished a week ago and it was a rough rotation. Days begin at 6:00am and usually go to about 5:00pm. When you are on call you are stuck there until 9:00pm. Days consist of rounding in the morning, then you are in surgery until about 3:00pm, then you have to check up on your patients and round out until about 5:00pm. When you are on call, you do mostly consults. All the interns, residents, and attendings are really nice and good about teaching. However, like posted earlier, most attendings will not learn your name, but they make you feel welcome. Hope this helps.

Thank you! By the way, did you have to take the CCE exam that Saba giving us now? If so, was it difficult and what should we use to study?

Thanx

G

[Samsonlxa926]

Yeah, you have to take the CCE exam. As far as difficulty and studying, I haven't figured it out yet. As far as studying, I study for the exam at the end of the rotation and don't really study for the Saba exam because it should test the same thing. Unfortunately, not the case. As far as difficulty, the CCE is difficult because it tests things I didn't study (pathology slides, FISH, microbiology, OB/GYN). Hope this helps some. Hopefully, you will have the opportunity to take an exam before it is graded so you can see what I mean.

[Gigi25]

Yeah, I took the peds CCE and found it to be ridiculously difficult. Luckily, it didn't count for anything. I think by the time I take surgery, it may count towards our grade. I guess I'll find out!!!!

thanx again

[HJMA]

Can anyone comment on GI rotation at Union?

[gianefiasco]

Can't wait , im here next!!!

"stop snitching Big tex< diesel money calabo"

what?:shock:

[Twix]

Thanks for the above info. Any chance that those who have completed the rotation can give some feedback to the following questions:
1. What would you do differently if you were to do it again?
2. What did they expect you to know on day 1?
3. How many students do you rotate with at any one time?
4. Any books that I should read to better prepare?
5. How could you better prepare for the evaluation at the end?

Thanks,:)
Twix

[Experienced]

Great questions, Twix!

[darkmansaad]

Thanks for the above info. Any chance that those who have completed the rotation can give some feedback to the following questions:
1. What would you do differently if you were to do it again?
2. What did they expect you to know on day 1?
3. How many students do you rotate with at any one time?
4. Any books that I should read to better prepare?
5. How could you better prepare for the evaluation at the end?

Thanks,:)
Twix

1. I would have been a lot more proactive, and learned to suture immediately to get more hands on experience. This is a great rotation, they will let you do almost anything, central lines, alines, whatever. All you need to do is put work in and show that you can handle it...initially i was intimidated but found that as long as you put yourself out there you'll be fine. The residents for the most part are really really good, very friendly and nice...the interns also for the most part are really cool and chill guys. The chiefs are fine as long as you respect them and dont act like a *******. All in all a great rotation, they will work you but if you want to learn you will learn...i didnt spend much of my free time studying instead partying in baltimore and i still got an A on the cce cuz of the learning on rotation. Plus you can do damn near anything in the OR, they even let me do minor procedure like removal of a soft tissue tumor that wasnt too deep near big arteries. Cmon, you cant beat that! Plus you can ask the anesthesiologists to intubate and they will show you how to and let you do it on the easier cases as well.
2. Everything haha. To make your life easier read up on wound care and healing that helps a little but not really. Get ready to owned.
3. You rotate with 2 other students, there are usually 3 teams of 3 students.
4. I read washington manual of surgical medicine with every patient i had. If they had SBO id read the segment on sbo. With that you learn a lot and you dont have to study after. They give u a textbook which is useless and wrong a lot, dont bother reading it. Also try and read kaplan on your own thats a big help for the CCE.
5. Your evaluation is a composite of 3 evaluations you receive. You do 2 4-week blocks on regular surgery and one 4 week block in the ICU. After each block you get an evaluation from the chief in charge of the team. Each chief is different but as long as your not disrespectful and do your job as your told and try hard and show initiative an A is not impossible to get.

Any more questions feel free to PM me

[Twix]

Thanks for the quick reply darkmansaad.;) You have shared some very helpful information. I will be taking you up on the PM as I think of other questions.
Cheers,
Twix

[mario345]

does anyone know about the IM rotation at Union?

what about their residency program?