Did you match at a public hospital?

[sophiejane]

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Congrats to all the newly-matched MDs and DOs to be!

I was wondering who chose and matched at a public hospital, and why. Also, anyone currently at a public hospital (especially in the midwest)--I'd love to hear what you think.

There has been a lot of bashing of places like Cook County on these boards and I am just curious to hear opinions from people who have rotated through or are currently residents or interns at public hospitals think of the education they are getting.

 

[fourthyear]

Matched last year in a program with both public and private hospital experience, which I think is the best balance. But of all those on my rank list, more were public and that's what I'd choose if I had to choose one hospital only.

The experience of seeing patients who present with the wildest things is often only found at a public hospital where pateints have had very little access to medical care and don't discover problems till they're near-catastrophies. And, you have to figure it out b/c you're the first to see them (unlike a big specialized private place where you see wild stuff, but it's referred to you after someone else has done the full work up already) Seeing some of that off-the-wall stuff may help you someday in the future.

Residents generally get a more primary role in patient care at a public hospital - they're you're patients, not just the attending's.

Plus, you get the satisfaction of warm-fuzzies from caring for people who really need medical care. None of us are making much money during residency anyway, who not take this time to help provide medical care for the underinsured? Later on you can choose to only care for the paying customers, but for now, why not take the opportunity to work at one of the many hospitals which could truly not survive without the affordable labor of residents? You work at a private hospital, you make hospital administrators and owners richer; you work at a public one, you get to provide care for people who really need it and might not get it if there were no public hospitals.

 

[Pegasus]

What a GREAT post above...I matched at a community hospital..one of the few that I ranked..but now you have me totally confident that I will strive in this setting..

Most EM docs are community, and you want to be the best prepaired that you can me...Im so excited to have the opportunity to get this experience

 

[sophiejane]

There was a really interesting presentation at the AMSA national conference last week that made a great case for training in a public hospital. The basic argument was that if you train in a solely academic medical center, you will get to do less, and while you will see more "zebras", you will basically be less prepared to treat the types of patients most people see on a day-to-day basis than if you train in a public hospital. After all, we will all be treating the general public unless you go into academic medicine.

 

[IndyXRT]

I think it's best to look for a program that gives you a range of different hospitals to work in. In my current program, I rotate between an academic hospital, a private hospital, a VA medical center, and the county hospital. Each hospital has its own good and bad points. I think it's important to experience as many different types of practice environment as possible, so you can make an informed decision as to what type of setting you want to practice in after residency.

 

[drusso]

Originally posted by sophiejane
There was a really interesting presentation at the AMSA national conference last week that made a great case for training in a public hospital. The basic argument was that if you train in a solely academic medical center, you will get to do less, and while you will see more "zebras", you will basically be less prepared to treat the types of patients most people see on a day-to-day basis than if you train in a public hospital. After all, we will all be treating the general public unless you go into academic medicine.

Sophie,

What about JPS? That's about as PUBLIC as it gets!

 

[sophiejane]

So I hear. I'm looking forward to rotating through JPS.

There have been rumors of Parkland in Dallas getting some serious funding cuts. We'll see....

Good advice about rotating through different types of hospitals. I am sure that it can be a more pleasant experience working in hospitals in academic centers with lots of funding and staff, so I imagine that is why they seem to be more popular with students and residents.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Originally posted by IndyXRT
I think it's best to look for a program that gives you a range of different hospitals to work in. In my current program, I rotate between an academic hospital, a private hospital, a VA medical center, and the county hospital. Each hospital has its own good and bad points. I think it's important to experience as many different types of practice environment as possible, so you can make an informed decision as to what type of setting you want to practice in after residency.

Good advice...we do the same and I think the only thing we're really missing is a good county hospital experience or something with some penetrating trauma (downtown Harrisburg gets a lot but it goes to the community hospital instead of us).