St. Mary's, Waterbury, CT

[Dru]

Alpathmd: I've heard the St.Mary's Surgery Core is pretty good but tough. The attendings are not nice to the students, but you'll learn alot and scrub in for alot of cases.

[Chianti]

Every Rossie should, in my opinion, request to do their Medicine and Surgery core here. St. Mary's is a Yale hospital. Its a very, very nice hospital and a great place to learn.

You can't top the medicine rotation here. The residents are Yale residents and many of the attendings are Yale faculty. Long hours, frequent call, but you learn a lot.

Surgery here is a pain in the butt (that better Dru?), to say the least, but its a great rotation. Working hours are 4:45 AM - to about 6:30 on a regular day, with call q4. Expect to get 2-3 hours of sleep on a good night of call. Lots of trauma and lots of opportunity to do procedures. Overall a great learning exerience, even if you don't like surgery. Three months of hell, but looking back it was well worth it.

[maybatch2000]

Currently doing my surgery here. Pretty rough as described as above. Wednesdays are academic days where we get 8 hours of lectures. Our PD for surgery is very well known. He invented the ingredients in TPN! Recently the yale medicine has moved to a different hospital. But ross students are the only ones who can do Medicine rotation here. They also offer a few surgery electives and a few internal medicine rotations. BTW surgery students get free food 3 times a day. If you want to become a surgon, this would be the place to be.

[Dru]

See:
http://www.valuemd.com/ross-university-school-medicine/63730-regarding-surgery-core-2.html

[backtocali]

Hi... can anyone tell me more about the rotation in terms of schedule, how many students are with you, where to live? Thanks!

[mike233204]

Can you specity what rotation? There is a couple you can do at St. Marys...

[backtocali]

Hey mike, i'll be starting in 2 weeks... thanks for your help!

[pollywollywolly]

is there a shelf exam for im and surgery at this site?

[ForceMD]

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?

[singer]

Forcemd:

You actual found some freetime to do such a lengthly but very descriptive detailed explanation of a clinical rotation. The only unfortunate thine is that only 4 Ross students can rotate in a year. Unfortunately it seems many of ROSS affiliated sites take very few students, if any at all. Never here anyone doing rotationsat LICH. Ross should put on the clinical list that it hands out to students at the beginning of the 3rd year showing the affilated hospitls and the rotations at each hospital the number of rotations slots available. This might show that 20% of the hospitals have 80% of the rotations.

[ForceMD]

Well singer, time and money have always been compared in their value... all I can say is just like money, if you don't have any time, make some...

[AxlFoley]

Any info from students that recently did their surgery core here?

[Chianti]

I did my surgery core here 2 years ago. The program chairmen was bringing in a lot of new faculty who were research/teaching oriented. Rest assured, this is still the best Ross spot to do surgery.

[thethom]

I just got scheduled for surgery here, will be starting next year tho after my peds and OB. Looking forward to the "Kings County of surgery" How's the scut? Interesting cases or just usual lap choles and appys? How much exposure to Plastics? Thankssssssssss!

[AxlFoley]

Ya I hear its one of Ross' best sites for surgery....but also pretty painful (for a surgery core that is)

Do you remember what the hours were usually like?

[Chianti]

Of course I remember the hours. How could I forget? :lolup:

I would get there at 4:45 AM to pre-round and write my notes. Rounds began at 6 AM. Breakfast afterwards and then off to the OR. We did plenty of lap choles and hernia repair, but also interesting stuff like Whipples and gastric bypasses. Usually scrubbed in on 2-3 cases per day or one lone, 5-6 hour surgery. Then we had afternoon rounds. On an average day we would go home about 6 PM. Call was q4 and the calls were tough. A "good" night on call meant 3 hours of sleep, no joke. You were off post-call after rounds, but you still had to attend clinic the next day on clinic days or scheduled lectures.

This rotation is BRUTAL, but in a good way. I hated it while on it because of the hours but looking back it was a great rotation. You learn an INCREDIBLE amount and get to do a lot. The PD invented TPN and is dedicated to teaching. You come out of it feeling like you can do anything. The hospital itself and the staff are first-rate. No more rude nurses, bad hospital food, people who can't speak English etc...

Overall, it is a great rotation. You guys should count your blessings that you get to rotate there.

[AxlFoley]

thanks for the info, appreciate it. One more q for you though...

Did you live in town or commute from new haven?

[Chianti]

Definitely live in Waterbury. New Haven is a good 30-minute drive that you don't want to make at 4:30 AM. Live in Waterbury, party in New Haven on the weekends.

[AxlFoley]

weeeek-ends....?

[thethom]

Party during a surgery rotation, thats funny...:-P

[AxlFoley]

I heard the rotation is so brutal (in a good way....and bad) that you actually forget all the times you've actually partied in the past.....

[thethom]

Hahahaha, hey AxlFoley, when are you scheduled to rotate there?

[onmyway]

I have surg there too. march 24 - june 8

[thethom]

Well then onmyway, I will see you there...! I have it scheduled the same time...

[AxlFoley]

Yo whats up Tom.....as of now, scheduled for Oct this year

[AxlFoley]

Any recent experiences regarding the surgery core here, within in past several months)? I hear the new chief (since July) made some or helped make some modifications to the schedule for us students....

still same lectures, and exposure?

[thethom]

Haha spoke to students who rotated there. Post call days are NOT off, you have to stay in the hospital and work. overnight call q3 to q4. Professional attire must be worn at rounds, no scrubs, then can change into scrubs. Good exposure to bread and butter surgical cases. The thing that gets me the most upset about hospitals is the dress policies. I mean no scrubs on rounds when you are seeing patients. So its better to paint their faces and wounds with your tie as you lean over?

And at other hospitals, do you know what the response has been when I have challenged the "authorities" concerning ties at other hospitals, "Well then wear a bowtie.." LOL...

The call schedules are great, and I love working, I just cannot stand wearing ties... >:-O LOL

[m77]

I did the surgery rotation there and it was intense q3 no post call working almost 120hrs a week (but then again i did IM at kings so this was like an extended kings county with less autonomy). Even though it was brutal I would do it again saw so many interesting cases(not just lap choles) sometimes you don't scrub out til 5 or 6 pm depending how the schedule is. Once in a while you can scrub into an ortho case or a gyn case depending on if you're interested. The ortho peeps are really cool very relaxed. It takes some time for the residents to trust you and allow you to do things but as with any rotation you show interest they let you do things.. Its a level 2 trauma center so you get your fair share of trauma's. All the residents are cool except for the cheif who is kind of "moody" some of the attendings teach others just want to finish the case as soon as possible but they all have their special quirks. The hospital is small so its difficult to hide so if you have an interest in surgery I recommend this rotation.

[thethom]

I'm glad someone with Kings county experience could finally compare the two..! DARN the lack of autonomy! >:-O

[hopeful786]

Hi,
I am starting on March 24th as well, just wanted to know if any of you had any info on temporary places to stay near the hospital, or if any of you were considering roommates for this rotations. Let me know...

[thethom]

I got a deal set up at the hotel across the street...nice to be close for those 4am mornings..

[traumajunkie]

Cant wait my brother rotated there, well since I want to do surgery or er I want to rotate here, I heard its tough as hell.-lol:rolleyes:

[thethom]

Wow, 6 weeks into this rotation, all I have to say, I LOVE SURGERY!!! I get to scrub on Plastics, ENT, Vascular, Thoracic cases daily, in addition to Gen surg stuff of all sorts, not just lap choles (students can go to the pig lab and practice lap choles, sternotomies, etc themselves, and to Yale to practice on the lap simulator!) Some of my fellow students have scrubbed on cardiac cases (CABG mostly), neurosurg, and Ophtho cases. Then on call my beeper goes off all night for trauma alerts, some flown in by helicopter. Yeahhhhhh! On my second call (q4) I scrubbed on an emergency craniotomy in the middle of the night for a guy with an acute subdural. Motorcycle helmets are not required in this state I guess, so you see lots of motorcycle (donorcycles as theyre called here) head trauma, and since its warming up now, more and more and more. Wow, how can anyone NOT do surgery?!?!?

Ok gotta be in at 430 so off to sleep.

[jeonghur]

Anyone have a surgery core rotation here they would like to switch to Caritas from 12/22/08 to 3/13/09?

[Cuando2]

Wow, 6 weeks into this rotation, all I have to say, I LOVE SURGERY!!! I get to scrub on Plastics, ENT, Vascular, Thoracic cases daily, in addition to Gen surg stuff of all sorts, not just lap choles (students can go to the pig lab and practice lap choles, sternotomies, etc themselves, and to Yale to practice on the lap simulator!) Some of my fellow students have scrubbed on cardiac cases (CABG mostly), neurosurg, and Ophtho cases. Then on call my beeper goes off all night for trauma alerts, some flown in by helicopter. Yeahhhhhh! On my second call (q4) I scrubbed on an emergency craniotomy in the middle of the night for a guy with an acute subdural. Motorcycle helmets are not required in this state I guess, so you see lots of motorcycle (donorcycles as theyre called here) head trauma, and since its warming up now, more and more and more. Wow, how can anyone NOT do surgery?!?!?

Ok gotta be in at 430 so off to sleep.

Hahaha, written like a true newbie...like the kid who just steps onto the police force and is all excited about getting to touch the gun and stuff...I'm not trying to make fun of you, I'm happy you're having fun (and having a good surgery rotation, similar to like mine was...I was reminiscing while reading your spiel)...but to answer your final question, well, thats why I was laughing when I read it...those who truly like surgery (that does NOT mean every resident who is in surgery, because not all of them even like what they're doing once they realize what they got themselves into)...well...enough said, I guess I've already made my point. Just wait until you realize what its like to have TRUE responsibility for what you do to your patients, then factor in how many hours you don't get for your own self, etc, etc...so well, theres the most popular reason as the answer for your question.

[pavilion7100]

hello everyone,
does anybody have any information regarding housing in the waterbury, Connecticut area? i'm starting surgery at St.Mary soon, but having a hard time finding a place to stay.

[thethom]

Are you (or were you, or did you want to be) in surgery Cuando? To be honest, I spent more time in the hospital than the residents, as I did not get post-call off, and the residents did, and I came in earlier to write the daily notes for the residents, so for these 3 months (in addition to my 3 months at Kings County) I have an idea whats its like to have no "personal time." I'm not tied down by marriage or anything, so that makes life much easier, and I am currently at the end of this rotation, and I still love this stuff. The only thing correct in your post is that agree with is that I don't have the full responsibility for the patients that the residents do.

Best of luck, I hope you find something you like..

[tssme]

Any students here who're starting out in September for Surgery? I've seen of a few posts ask about housing, but I have noticed any responses. Where is the best place to live while you're rotating here?

[thebarbarian]

Anyone starting in 02/09 for surgery? LMK.

[thebarbarian]

Anyone starting in 02/09 for surgery? LMK.

[PAtoMD]

Can somebody please give any info on the housing? Where did you live? How did you find the place? Thanks a lot

[PAtoMD]

I got a deal set up at the hotel across the street...nice to be close for those 4am mornings..

Did you stay at the Holiday Inn Express? How much was it? Were you happy staying there? Thank you

[RedGold]

Yes I am as well. Haven't looked into housing or anything else yet though... you?

[Smatty4483]

I'm starting st. marys in connecticut on 2/23/09! Im glad im hearing good things about this locale.

[groovygirl]

hi guys,

i'm starting my rotation there 8/18 (in just a few weeks!)- anyone in need of a room mate or know ANYTHING about housing out there? if i find anything out, i'll be sure to post it.

[thebarbarian]

I heard New Haven is not too far, I may try living there until I get settled.

[thethom]

Eh, not such a good idea. You have to be at the hospital at 4:30am every day. Living in new haven means leaving around 4 am, which means getting up at..you do the math..

The Courtyard Mariott had some good accomodations. Call them and see what kinda deal can be set up.

Some of the residents also allow students to rent out a bedroom. Check with them when you get there, or contact the medical student coordinator at the hospital. Don't ask me the contact info, just find it on the hospital website...

[thebarbarian]

Sounds good. Im doing medicine and surgery there....should be interesting. Has anyone done IM there?

[RedGold]

So I've been reading the posts about the long hours for the surgery rotation... and trying to figure out what to do with my dogs. When you are on call can you leave the hospital? Or do most students stay there?

[thethom]

No leaving LOL. You are there the whole night, then in the morning you round on your patients as usual and work the rest of the day, no post-call day off like at other hospitals. What are you going to do when you are away from the hospital and your pager goes off with a Trauma alert...or if a laceration comes into the ER and your resident pages you to go stitch it up...? ETC ETC you get the picture...

[canal]

I am interested in doing either IM or surgery or both at St. Mary's, however, I was wondering how difficult it would be to get these cores here. I've also read that it 2 to 3 LOR is required. can someone clarify and give any inputs. thanks

[thethom]

Did surgery there, they didn't ask for any LORs, my advisor actually recommended it to me... I've heard some students speak of USMLE score requirements but I have also never heard this from an authority...

[canal]

thethom, your step 1 score is really good...does this mean that all those who did their cores/electives here had high scores? My score is 218...would this average score get me in?

[sonyvaio]

so is this place a high work load place i'm not interested in surgery

[Future2010MD]

I am starting internal med here in Nov 2008....anyone else get this place? I've heard amazing stuff about this hospital...esp for IM and am quiet excited to start..

[novamd]

I lived about 10 min from it until I grad from college......nicest hospital in the area. But then again, I've only been there as a patient. :-)

[AxlFoley]

so is this place a high work load place i'm not interested in surgery


ya it is...very high workload....they work ya like a 1st year. Learning however is really good. One of Ross' premier surgery sites if you ask me. If your not interested in surgery at all, then there are other places to consider, however I'm not sure where exactkt

[Macgyver1]

This was by far the hardest rotation of my med school. Your treated like an Intern but without any responsiblity or respect. You work more hours than the interns and are basically glorified retractor holder and camera driver for Laproscopic surgery's.

If you want to be a surgeon GO HERE. You can learn A LOT here if you want, but its for a PRICE. Prepare to be q4 with no post call, and about 3-4 hrs sleep if luckly while on call. Students see ALL patients (8-30) every morning before rounds. Most interns are nice, a rare few senior residents are nice and attendings are a mix of pimp masters and "who are you again?"

It was an adventure for sure. Im sooooo glad its over.

[Wolfress]

I'll be starting at St. Mary's in early Jan. I'm *very* excited about it...thethom, I think I'm in your boat on the passion thing.

My question is, what level of surgical knowledge are you expected to have before you get in there? Should I do some prereading and practice some stitching or enjoy the Winter Break and wait until I'm officially taught the material/skills?

Thanks!

[thethom]

You should do all of the above before you start. You will learn even more in the rotation on top of what you learn over break. I'm not saying study all day, take BRS Gen Surg everywhere and read it during whatever down time you have (you'll be surprised actually how much of the day is spent doing nothing productive). Heck, I read it every time I dropped a deuce and was done in less than a month..! :-P

[Smatty4483]

Anyone starting here 2/23/09?

[Rjay119]

HEy there, I am planning to start there on 2/23/09 as well?