MrScottyMD
08-25-2004, 09:41 PM
Well, I have officially reached my half way point of my internship here at Mayo Scottsdale. I wont say it has been easy cause its alot of hours and alot of call but you survive. I highly reccomend Mayo for family practice and the teaching goes above and beyond any teaching I ever had to date. After one month of inpatient medicine here you absolutely are comfortable with acute care and certainly with ICU type patients as the population here is certainly very old and tend to come in very sick. Family Medicine is unopposed here and you will see patients just as sick as on the IM service and you are completely independent of IM. The working conditions are pristine and the computer system makes life a breeze. There is absolutely no malignancy in this program. Even the surgery residency here is filled with great friendly people, including the attendings (very unique indeed). The ICU docs here are great, approachable and you learn because everyone wants to teach. You are guided every step of the way so you know the reason behind everything you do so it becomes automatic. First you round your patients. Usually 6-8. Then you sit down for 2 hours and discuss each patient on the service and present them. Then you do bedside on every patient. This method really pulls it all together. It may be somewhat micromanagement but no stone is left unturned in a patient case. Within 3 weeks of in patient medicine here you are able to manage 95% of what comes thru the door. This includes Antibiotic choice, Rate Control, Imaging, Fluid Mgmt, and consult servies or anything else. The clinic here is where the program shines. Usually twice a month your four hour clinic is videotaped with patient interaction and permission. Your exam skills are refined, your dictation is critiqued and your medical decision making is scrutinized. They wont let you get into bad habits. There are alot of free for all residencies out there but here at Mayo this is NOT one of them. If its not evidence based medicine then its not taught here. The other positive is that the cost of living here in AZ is relatively cheap, its a growing area and the pay starts just shy of 42K so as far as reimbursement its better than most programs. I have no doubt that in this three year residency not only will I be a qualified outpatient family physician but because of the patient population I will have no problem managing an inpatient service. I hope things are going good on the island and its exciting to see how far Saba has come. Good luck to all and it will all your hard work will pay off.
Sincerely, Scott Jones MD DC PGY-1
Sincerely, Scott Jones MD DC PGY-1