Greeley Clinical Training Site (North Colorado Medical Center)

[Dru]

New 2007 site in Greeley, Colorado

[wylie313]

anyone have any feedback on how the peds or OBGYN rotations were here? how is the city, how was your overall experience? thanks

[BrotherMan]

what is the contact info?

[jlmd08]

NCMC in Greeley is a great place to do rotations. There are very few Ross students here, mostly because people probably just don't know about it. Other caribbean students rotate here. All rotations are one on one with the attendings. Did surgery, ob/gyn, and ENT. You basically have the attendings schedule and do whatever they do. Only residents are Family practice, so you get to do a lot, especially for surg. Just email or call up the director, who is a pediatrician, and he will arrange it. The contact info is listed on the Ross affiliated sites document. As far as the town, it's about 90,000 people, an hour from Denver. The hospital is really nice, even a starbucks, and free food in the doctor's lounge. Rent is cheap, and apts are nice, no traffic, no rush hour. It is a great alternative to the inner city hospitals.

[rockjock2010]

Is it possible to do your whole 3rd or 4th years here? Is this something you can request?

[missmd1013]

Hi was wondering what Surgery was like there? :)

[jlmd08]

You are one on one with the surgeon. There are about 4 different surgeons that take students. We operated 3 days a week, started at 7:30, done by 5 most days. 2 days seeing pts in the office. You first assist every case. They let you suture and do as much as you want to learn how to do. Some have you write notes some don't. The dr I was with was on weekend call every 6 weeks, so I didn't ever come in on the weekend. It was really good to learn the technical skills of surgery, especially if your interested, without the long hours. I had a good experience, but it may be different depending on which surgeon you get.

[cavalletti]

Are all cores avaliable and are they green?

[diver]

i have the same question for anyone who knows--are all the rounds at Greely ACGME approved??

[canal]

can someone please tell me if greeley clinical cores acfmg approved?

[angydan]

Yes, they are ecfmg approved. All their MA are board certified and the hospital is approved by the JCAHO, but if you are from Ross, stay away from this hospital. Ross owes them money so they don't treat the Ross student with respect. I don't care what other people say. Stay away from Ob-Gyn dept. It's painful, no gain in knowledge from the attending and all they do is to tease the student. Ob-Gyn dept. in particular.

[angydan]

Hi S!, I noticed your private post on this topic but for some reason can't reply to you. Well, to be honest with you, my review of the rotations I had there in Greeley is based on my experience. You may have another experience and you may judge depending on how you performed. In my case I was a 4th year med from Ross and I did ENT and Ob-Gyn core. I can't tell you 100% on the IM electives, but I bet it's almost the same with every rotation.The ENT rotation was great, I liked it a lot cause it was an elective, but as any core you may find it a little bit stressful, mostly Ob-Gyn. I had a horrible experience with the core.I was a 4th year med student doing Ob-Gyn and after been in lots of hospitals and after gaining confidence in treating the patients and in myself, I felt like I was in my 5th semester in Miami or at Surgery at Wychoff Heights where they treated you like a worm.In other words, after been through 1st, 2nd ,3rd year and now 4th year, its like all of sudden you are back to the beggining of your 3rd year.The attending I had, she was bit harsh and condescending with me in particular, very unprofessional. I don't know if it was bc I'm Hispanic ( she did addressed that a couple of times but I won't go to this matter) or if it was just bc I was a foreign med student. Ross University was having some payment issues with some attendings in Greeley. Even the DME,Dr. Dubynski, addressed that to me several times with a rough condescending attitude,even though it was not my fault. I missed one day in my core rotation due to the flu (it was in November) and they almost failed me. I spent 6 weeks sitting in front of the attending's desk doing nothing. Even if I needed to go to the bathroom they'll flip about it. You won't have an scheduled time like a hospital with a residency program. So if you are on call on the weekend you may stay in your apart. but if they call you for an admission at 3 am on a sunday, you have to go. So you'll spend your nights in your apart. waiting to be call so that you don't miss the call or they will fail you. I'm serious about this, I don't care what anybody says. They don't care. Other rotations will have calls every 6 days while other every 4-5 weeks, depending what rotation. If you have been in good hospitals where you are treated with respect and you are the one treating the patient then don't go to Greeley. The confidence (your confidence)that you have been building up during your 4 years in med school will go down the drain in just a week. I consider myself a hard working,serious student who has always do my best in every rotation. I had A's and B's in all my rotations and I don't want to sound like a lay back, victim type of guy, but I'm warning you of the possibilities you may encounter in Greeley. Again, you may or you may not, depending on your experience. I never like Ob-Gyn, cause I'm going into IM as well. So you'll be all alone in the rotation. Now, here comes what this is all about. There's no residency program, so you are going to be around the attending's *** all day. You may have 1 or 2 patients.You may or may not write note, but there'll be no morning report, no 12 o'clock lectures, no free food. Not a great learning experience just b/c the attending is busy and you may not do a lot internal medicine stuff. Also, the hospital is private. So, if you are trying to get in into an Internal Medicine residency, they won't help you and they don't have a residency program except a mediocre family medicine program. The hospital infrastructure is great, I've never worked in a private hospital so you'll know as soon as you get in. So again, you may have a great time or not. You are from SABA so if your school has everything square away with them it's ok, but I'm from Ross. In a summary, my experience there was not what I expected and I've been in a lot of hospitals around the U.S. and P.R. I've been in NY,CHI,FLA,PR. AZ, CA and CO and never saw a good end out of Greeley. The good part, it's a cool new hospital. UNC is close so there will be student life close by and also the food in Greeley is great and there's always good people. Everything else is just bad. I stayed in an apartment close to the UNC campus called Arlington Park. You told me you are from Canada. I know is more south but I will recommend to you to do electives in Phoenix, Arizona at Maricopa Medical Center. All the electives there are great.There's a great internal medicine program and you'll switch from there to Mayo clinic. The program is very up to standards and the system there is much better than a lot of hospitals from the East and again if you are looking for a spot in IM, that's the place. The staff is very professional and helpful towards the students. You'll learn 100 times more in there and they will help for your Step 2 and CS exams than in Greeley. The cost of life and the life there is more presentable. So, I hope you find the right spot in your rotations and i wish you the best. I hope I didn't scare you but yet again, I don't want you to go through all the things I went through and I bet other students went through, just that they haven't come forward yet. I know student's life in medicine is stressful and more Ob-Gyn, I don't know a lot of IM in Greeley, but I can assure you that I know how a student should be treated and what the student should go through med school and what I went through there( Greeley) was not normal and is not how a student should be treated.I f you are up to follow your attending all day, not been productive, to be insulted in a passive agressive and condescending way,not been prepared for the UMSLE 2 or CS, if you are up to be submitted to mind games, been on call whenever they want, be lost for an eternity( :shock:drama)then go to Greeley, if not then Arizona it is. I wish you the best and hope to talk to you more. If you decide to go to Greeley, let me know your experience.If you need any other advice or wish to talk more of this experience send me back your email and we can talk more. Good Luck!!

P.S. Pardon my grammar. I'm typing through my blackberry...

[angydan]

Hi C, thank you for your comments. I hope I don't insult anybody about the East vs. West side thing :D. What I saw and my experience was that in the west side, the med system and med education in hospitals is more organized. They treat and take a better care of the student in the west than in the east. They want you to build that doctor's confidence while in the transition from 3rd to 4th year. You are actually called "Doctor" and not "hey you,move it!!!, like in Kings County or in Brookdale in NYC.You have more space for your education.There's also the possibility that you may interact with U.S. university med students while been able to rotate through hospitals with university programs, like I said such as Mayo Clinic, just b/c is not that crowded and also gives you the chance to know the staff that is in charge of this programs where you can ask for a letter of recommendation or even apply for a wide variety of U.S. University hospitals residency programs. I hope I don't offend anybody from the East, but that's my opinion. In the west, They focused on the student learning issues and is not crowded with students from Ross as your would see in the East. Ross students are everywhere, but mostly in the East. So in the overall experience for me was much better while doing rotations in the west, just b/c what I said and also that not only you might live in a cool city besides NYC, but the cost of life for a student is cheaper.You know that those $8500 given by the school is not enough in NYC or Chicago. You asked me about where in CA and the hospital I did my rotation was in Riverside County Med Center in Moreno Valley. I think the contact is Christina Gildmer but you should contact your coordinator. The experience there was great. Is good for IM . I really don't know about the other rotations. You also asked me about Mayo Clinic and while I was in Maricopa in Az, the staff is great and professional, some of them also work at Mayo Clinic that is located in Scottsdale, 15 minutes from the hospital. If you work with those doctors, you can arrange electives in Mayo Clinic by been sponsored by your attending. When I called to arrange an elective they asked if I have a sponsor cause I was from Ross so my attending who was also working with Mayo (and also the residents in Maricopa rotate through Mayo and they also have their contacts, so they might help you as well) contacted the clinical coordinator and they set me up for a couple of electives there. 3 other of my colleagues and students, 1 from St. Georges and 2 from I believe a school in Des Moines where also able to rotate through Mayo in different cores while I was there, so it is possible if you are pro-active in that matter. I had an average gpa score, but they don't look at that, they look at your USMLE Scores. I think they'll ask for a 205 and above or an 85 percentile. I had a 203 in my first step and an 83% but they didn't care. If you don't have a sponsor and you are interested in doing electives there, just call and give it a try. If I did it, you can do it. Again, great hospital, great programs and very organized, top of the cream. You are going to work a lot and hard, but you will never want the rotation to end cause it's that good. Now you know, and after having a great experience in those hospitals, why go to Greeley? To be back to 3rd year? where you won't develop as a a med student? and all you'll do is to look at your watch and contemplate and pray so the day ends(drama :shock:) sitting in front of your preceptor just reading Boards on Wards over and over again. Med clinicals are tough, but with a positive attitude and if you follow the rules of the game, everything will go smooth. I hope I have answered all your Q's. If you any other Q let me know and I will gladly help in what I can. Good luck to your husband!!!

P.S. Pardon my grammar once again...my blackberry curve rocks!!!