St. Agnes Hospital, Baltimore

[Dru]

St. Agnes Hospital, Baltimore

[ocd]

can anyone please comment on their experience at st. agnes? i'm thinking of doing surgical electives there, but i think i remember overhearing a student a few months back saying that it was a bad surgery rotation with no chance of doing/seeing anything and an automatic "c" with no chance of getting a better grade than that. is this true?

[ocd]

can anyone please tell me anything about their experience or what they heard about st. agnes? (especially about surgery)

thanks.

[blue202md]

No cigar !!!! This rotation is one of the worsts . The hospital is infested with IMG's... but I mean .. from INDIA. They all speak in their language, whether it be about patients or about the weather. They all eat Indian food with their bare hands. And once in a while, you see them wear Indian clothes too. If I didn't know better, I thought I was in India! But worse is the attendings, which heads exploding and the smell of aromatherary.. of arrogance. Students write no notes, no rounds, no procedures, no nothing. You just follow your intern around all day updating STUPID access files and better yet "oh can you get the printout" or "can you call the pharmacy" or "can you call the lab for results" or "what time is the conference" or some other ** that will definitely help you in step 2

[pierrefonteau99]

What about for surgery, please somebody comment?

[teratos]

No cigar !!!! This rotation is one of the worsts . The hospital is infested with IMG's... but I mean .. from INDIA. They all speak in their language, whether it be about patients or about the weather. They all eat Indian food with their bare hands. And once in a while, you see them wear Indian clothes too. If I didn't know better, I thought I was in India! But worse is the attendings, which heads exploding and the smell of aromatherary.. of arrogance. Students write no notes, no rounds, no procedures, no nothing. You just follow your intern around all day updating STUPID access files and better yet "oh can you get the printout" or "can you call the pharmacy" or "can you call the lab for results" or "what time is the conference" or some other ** that will definitely help you in step 2

I'm not sure the ethnicity/eating habits of people have much to do with your ability to learn in the rotation. I have yet to see anyone wearing Indian clothes. I have seen people speak in their native language. I do not find this acceptable when there are others in the room who do not speak the language.

I take exception to the comment about the comment about the attendings. I don't think my arrogance is that obvious. I don't know about the rest. Did you tell the guy who directs the student program about the problems? I will suggest some sort of anonymous suggestion box next time I see him. The program used to be great for students. I know you guys get stuck updating the lists all the time, calling the labs etc., and I think that sucks. My opinion is that the interns should do all of this stuff themselves, and I have told most of the people involved in the program as much. Following around the interns is often what you make it. If you have any specific suggestions, please PM me. it will be kept anonymous, and I would like to see the program be the best it can be. G

[snazzy]

Can anyone tell me anything about the surgery rotation at St. Agnes?

Also, is it true that I need to do other rotations there before I can start?

Thanks?

[cdnzed]

No one has offered a recent recount of their surgery rotation here. Anyone with any current information about their surgery core please share.

Thanks in advance.

[Clad128]

Based on what I've heard from students doing their surgery rotations elsewhere, St. Agnes Hospital actually seems to be a good place to do your rotation. There are 12 students for the core rotation (Ross, AUC, SGU), split into 3 teams. The 3 teams are: Gold (General Surgery/Endoscopy/Breast Center/Clinic), Blue (General Surgery/Bariatric/Thoracic/Oncology), and Red (Vascular/Plastics/Urology). You are on call q4d, but it's not that bad. There is one student on call from each team every day. You do a short call, then 4d later another short call, then 4d later a long call (so really you are only on long call q12d). You have to be at the hospital during the week at 5:30am to pre-round, then rounds start at 6am, followed by morning conference at 7am. All OR cases start at 7:45am. You get A LOT of OR time (sometimes too much, but I'm not too fond of surgery) and as the attendings and residents become more familiar with you they let you do things besides suction the smoke and retract. Students hold the cameras for all laparoscopic cases, some students have been allowed to open, and most attendings let you help close at the end.

When you're not in the OR, you have time to study (some days) and help the interns with floor duties. Most teams try and round by 4pm, so on a good day you are done by 5pm. This is very unpredictable though, and there have been many instances where I am here until 7pm. Expect to stay the latest if you are the student on call from your team. Long call obviously stays overnight, and short call stays until 8pm at the latest (barring the occasional late case where you may be here a bit later).

All in all, surgery has not been as bad of an experience as I thought it would be (please note that I do not, nor did I ever want, to be a surgeon), especially now that the former chiefs are gone. The current chief residents (there are 3) are wonderful on most days (hey, we all have our bad days right?) and I have always been treated with respect. I have gotten to do bedside I&D's, bedside debridements, and put in femoral lines during codes. Most of the residents (not really the new interns) try their best to teach/pimp you on a subject daily, which actually keeps you on your toes and raises the learning curve. There are 3 tests that the students have to take during the rotation, but they are not that difficult...the content comes from the student lectures that are held and from "required" reading.

Contrary to a previous post, everyone does not get C's. Most students actually get A's and B's. Your grade is based on senior resident evaluations, your grades on the exams, and of course whatever the teaching attendings hear about you from other attendings (i.e. if you act like an *** or are lazy, your grade will reflect that). You are allowed to see your resident evaluations throughout the course of the rotation.

I think that covers it all. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[cdnzed]

..thanks for replying!

Based on what I've heard from students doing their surgery rotations elsewhere, St. Agnes Hospital actually seems to be a good place to do your rotation. There are 12 students for the core rotation (Ross, AUC, SGU), split into 3 teams. The 3 teams are: Gold (General Surgery/Endoscopy/Breast Center/Clinic), Blue (General Surgery/Bariatric/Thoracic/Oncology), and Red (Vascular/Plastics/Urology). You are on call q4d, but it's not that bad. There is one student on call from each team every day. You do a short call, then 4d later another short call, then 4d later a long call (so really you are only on long call q12d). You have to be at the hospital during the week at 5:30am to pre-round, then rounds start at 6am, followed by morning conference at 7am. All OR cases start at 7:45am. You get A LOT of OR time (sometimes too much, but I'm not too fond of surgery) and as the attendings and residents become more familiar with you they let you do things besides suction the smoke and retract. Students hold the cameras for all laparoscopic cases, some students have been allowed to open, and most attendings let you help close at the end.

When you're not in the OR, you have time to study (some days) and help the interns with floor duties. Most teams try and round by 4pm, so on a good day you are done by 5pm. This is very unpredictable though, and there have been many instances where I am here until 7pm. Expect to stay the latest if you are the student on call from your team. Long call obviously stays overnight, and short call stays until 8pm at the latest (barring the occasional late case where you may be here a bit later).

All in all, surgery has not been as bad of an experience as I thought it would be (please note that I do not, nor did I ever want, to be a surgeon), especially now that the former chiefs are gone. The current chief residents (there are 3) are wonderful on most days (hey, we all have our bad days right?) and I have always been treated with respect. I have gotten to do bedside I&D's, bedside debridements, and put in femoral lines during codes. Most of the residents (not really the new interns) try their best to teach/pimp you on a subject daily, which actually keeps you on your toes and raises the learning curve. There are 3 tests that the students have to take during the rotation, but they are not that difficult...the content comes from the student lectures that are held and from "required" reading.

Contrary to a previous post, everyone does not get C's. Most students actually get A's and B's. Your grade is based on senior resident evaluations, your grades on the exams, and of course whatever the teaching attendings hear about you from other attendings (i.e. if you act like an *** or are lazy, your grade will reflect that). You are allowed to see your resident evaluations throughout the course of the rotation.

I think that covers it all. Let me know if you have any more questions.