Griffin Hospital, Derby, CT

[Dru]

Griffin Hospital, Derby, CT

[Brainy]

Interested in doing rotatons at Griffin. How are the rotations?
How the faculty? Do you get good exposure?
How is the day like?
Any feedback.

[swimguy23]

Interested in doing rotatons at Griffin. How are the rotations?
How the faculty? Do you get good exposure?
How is the day like?
Any feedback.

I dont know what other rotations you have there but I heard the internal med program is awesome and difficult.....surgery no longer exists bc they got rid of their surgery residency

[Brainy]

Please suggest good housing near the hospital.

[spyyder]

Fortune Magazine ranked Griffin Hospital 4th on its 2006 "100 Best companies to Work for." I wonder if the rotations are just as worthy. A good keeper for Ross.

[badnewsbearer]

Update on post above....my friend is here for Surgery (wants to be a surgeon) and says it is great. I noticed swimguy posted last Sept., but I am 100% about this. Weird.

[swimguy23]

Update on post above....my friend is here for Surgery (wants to be a surgeon) and says it is great. I noticed swimguy posted last Sept., but I am 100% about this. Weird.

i received that information from auc.....i verified it with a doctor affiliated with the medicine program.....maybe things have changed again, i dont know but thanks for the recent clarification

[microphage]

i received that information from auc.....i verified it with a doctor affiliated with the medicine program.....maybe things have changed again, i dont know but thanks for the recent clarification

I was offered the spot there last June.. I picked Kern instead ;)

[mpd210]

can anyone give me a break down of how a typical day is at griffin internal medicine and surgery rotations? thanks

[mpd210]

Hospital is small...very small (only 3 floors), but its nice (looks like a nice hotel). It is good for patients and residents, but not for students. We're usually "in the way," and the interns don't teach us (though some interns are better than others). The attending focuses all her teaching to the residents (but does try to include students when she remembers).
I believe Griffin requests all students to have a USMLE of at least an 80...but I don't know why since they don't teach us anything.

-The day starts at 7am and ends at 4-5pm.
You write progress notes on the 1-2 patients assigned to you then do rounds with the resident+interns at ~730am. Sometimes you also do rounds again at ~9:30 with the attending+resident+interns.
-There's a 1hr noon lecture every weekeday and includes the interns and residents.
-Once a week you attend a clinic with your intern and just basically watch him/her examine the patient, present to the attending, and write up the case in the chart.
-Tuesdays (1030 to 1130) meet with a doctor
-Wednesdays (945-1145) meet with another doctor
-Fridays (1pm - 2pm) meet with chief resident who tries to go over some step 2 topics but is kind of condescending to us.
-Every other tuesday meet with another doctor at 1pm
-Students are on call every 4th day with their intern. Hours are only until 8pm if a weekeday and 4pm if a weekend. So no overnight calls.

The hours aren't bad at all, but there's no teaching.
There's a procedure list students have to fill at the end of the rotation, but its usually blank because no one "really" allows students to do prodecures. (compare this with for example Arrowhead Hospital where the rule is "if you've seen one you get to do one." Though arrowhead is mostly a DO hospital, I'd rather go there and learn than be here and waste 12 weeks).
We're required to do a total of 20 H&P's by the end of the rotation but they don't seem too strict on it. Im just going to be sure to hand my 20 in before leaving here.
Lastly, there's a final written exam. A score of 70 is required to pass. That's all I know about the final.

I came here because I heard good things about it (associated with yale, previous valuemd posts, high rating among patients), but as a teaching hospital for STUDENTS its terrible. :( There just isn't any teaching. If I try and ask my intern questions she gets annoyed (though this is most likely because interns just started 2 weeks ago). After writing my 2 patient notes in the morning and listen in on attending doing rounds with the residents, I just go to the library and try and read.

As internal medicine is so important, request another rotation site if you can. I tried calling my advisor about switching out of here but
he said "it wasn't allowed because the hospital is dependent on us."
I replied "you mean dependent on the money we send them."
He responded with a laugh "Yeah..."

BTW, there is NO surgery rotation here, but there are electives in internal medicine. I'm not sure how good they are, but because this hospital is so focused on patients well being, most likely you won't get to do much in electives either. There is a family medicine rotation here but they call it "primary care." Its the same rotation though.

[pure_jkz]

i'm at Griffing right now and this place is fantastic.

-First of all...In your clerkships, what you learn is whatever effort you put into it. There are tons of things that happen in the afternoon. That's when everyone is done with their daily progress notes, and so they are willing to teach you and answer your questions and do their procedures for the day.

-That being said, there is a TON of teaching. Every morning at 8:30 there is teaching round with an attending. And every noon there are lecturs by Yale U. Profs on any topic you can imagine.

-the interns, residents, attendings are all the nicest group of people you will find anywhere.

-You're 'on call' once every 4 days. And by being 'on call', that simply means you leave by 7-9pm, instead of leaving by 3-4pm. And for the nights that you're on call, you're even given food vouchers.
(and on most noon conferences lunch is also provided).
Being on call is is when you admit patients, and also when a ton of procedures are done in the ICU. Though it is most often slow, so usually you just end up discussing topics with your intern. The nights on call are pretty much a "leave whenever you want" policy. The interns don't mind you leaving as early or as late as you want. But again you get as much out of it as you put into it. If you wanna see patients, and do procedures, then you'll wanna stay.

So anyways, that being said. Take other comments with a grain of salt. If you show no interest, the interns will just let you go to the library...

-The internists will discuss patients with you, if you're taking care of their patients, and if you ask them intelligent questions about the patient. They won't stand there and 'teach you'. Especially if it's topics you can just go read up yourself. But if you're up for discussing the management or treatment options of your patient with them, they're always more than willing to do that.

-There is NO final exam anymore. And there is NO clinic duty anymore.

-yes you do need to do 20 H&P's...which in 12 weeks is very easy to do.

This place is great, has a VERY positive teaching atmosphere and everyone is very supportive. You can make ton of connections. Definitely recommend Griffin.

[mpd210]

No reason for the nasty response. My opinion is an opinion.
For one thing, I was friends with all the students and residents there. We went out to Persian restuarants, Japanese restaurants, and even a bar with the program director. We all had a lot of fun and I enjoyed everyone's company. However, I still maintain that you don't get too much attention at Griffin. The lectures are geared more for interns and the students just listen in (ex. lectures on how to dictate, oncall schedules, etc).
Also, just because a lecture is by a Yale professor doesn't mean its a good lecture. I'd take a lecture by Goljan over any Yale professor's lecture I heard at Griffin.
And I know what it is to be treated like crap. I'm at Aultman Hospital being treated like crap right now. Btw, just curious, do you have personal experience at Kings?
So again, I liked the friendly atmosphere there, but teaching isn't the best, especially from interns. BUT, I was friends with all of them and have their numbers and emails. I hear from them from time to time.
I'll probably be back there for an elective in a few weeks. It'll be great to catch up with everyone and see how much they've grown since starting internship!

[pure_jkz]

If you met the interns when they first started, then you'd be surprised how the interns are now. They're awesome! If you're going in a few weeks, then you might be there in time for their graduation.
And yea it was great having a residency program director we could go to bars with! Dr. A is too much.. Where did he take you guys, Archie Moore's, Tailgatore's?
The lectures we had were all on Medicine, and nothing but: leukemia, COPD, trauma, crohn's, Hep B, pneumonia, HIV....you name it.

Maybe it was a different experience for you and me because of the timing...sounds like you started when the interns started. Perhaps they were too busy then paying attention to the interns..?