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Duke
#1
Rotation at Duke. Here's a summary of the experience.
Hours/Workload: Very heavy workload for medical student rotators. Depending on the service (Vascular, Tumor, Spine, Peds and VA), you either get there at 5:30 or 3:30 am (really only one service is 3:30 am and the rest are 5:30-5:45am). Easily worked 80-90 hours a week. Call Q4, usually go home after call. Honestly, the service is saturated with students so you should go home to make room. Wednesday is Academic Day with lecture in the morning and again in the late afternoon, which can make it hard to get into the OR. There is also Brain School which is every two weeks where you have to present and discuss part of a research paper with Dr. Friedman. In addition, you get a packet of papers to read on your first day.
Hospitals: Duke Hospital is HUGE. It has a large coverage area and due to its reputation, lots of patients flock to it. You can also do a week at the VA which is super chill and they let you do a lot.
OR: You came to Duke for tumors, and tumors you will find. Dr. Friedman usually runs 2 ORs at a time for about 4-6 cases a day 4 days a week. You also get to see some endo/open vascular, function, spine and peds. Honestly, I felt crowded on service since we had too many students on at a time (junior + senior students). What you get to do in the OR is very, very resident dependent, but only when the attending isn't around/looking. There usually aren't enough cases for the residents so they are typically double scrubbed which limits your participation.
Clinic: You get a chance to work in Friedman's clinic weekly, which is a great experience and lets you get 1 on 1 time with him.
Overall Impression: The residents seem pretty close overall and were generally fun to work with. The rotation is busy and you spend a lot of time learning to manage patients. You also get a taste of academic nsgy with lots of lectures and journal club. The OR experience was less than what I was used to.
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#2
(12-26-2016, 06:51 PM)guest Wrote: Rotation at Duke. Here's a summary of the experience.
Hours/Workload: Very heavy workload for medical student rotators. Depending on the service (Vascular, Tumor, Spine, Peds and VA), you either get there at 5:30 or 3:30 am (really only one service is 3:30 am and the rest are 5:30-5:45am). Easily worked 80-90 hours a week. Call Q4, usually go home after call. Honestly, the service is saturated with students so you should go home to make room. Wednesday is Academic Day with lecture in the morning and again in the late afternoon, which can make it hard to get into the OR. There is also Brain School which is every two weeks where you have to present and discuss part of a research paper with Dr. Friedman. In addition, you get a packet of papers to read on your first day.
Hospitals: Duke Hospital is HUGE. It has a large coverage area and due to its reputation, lots of patients flock to it. You can also do a week at the VA which is super chill and they let you do a lot.
OR: You came to Duke for tumors, and tumors you will find. Dr. Friedman usually runs 2 ORs at a time for about 4-6 cases a day 4 days a week. You also get to see some endo/open vascular, function, spine and peds. Honestly, I felt crowded on service since we had too many students on at a time (junior + senior students). What you get to do in the OR is very, very resident dependent, but only when the attending isn't around/looking. There usually aren't enough cases for the residents so they are typically double scrubbed which limits your participation.
Clinic: You get a chance to work in Friedman's clinic weekly, which is a great experience and lets you get 1 on 1 time with him.
Overall Impression: The residents seem pretty close overall and were generally fun to work with. The rotation is busy and you spend a lot of time learning to manage patients. You also get a taste of academic nsgy with lots of lectures and journal club. The OR experience was less than what I was used to.
I feel like some of this stuff is now a little outdated.


Rotation at Duke. Here's a summary of the experience.
Hours/Workload: Heavy workload for students. There are generally 4 services for students (Peds, Tumor, Spine, VA). Sub-I's are typically expected to carry and present the entire list in the mornings, which requires you to computer/preround on all of your patients so that you can present the list to your resident at 5am. At the VA, rounds are usually later so you oftentimes show up closer to 6am, but for other services you sometimes show up at 330am to be ready by 5am. From 5am to 6am you typically go see patients with the junior resident and chief resident, and you or your junior will present the patient and the plan to the chief. Call is dependent on the number of students who are rotating. If there is just two students, it is possibly Q2, but oftentimes I think the expectation is that you go Q3 or Q4. Post-call is variable depending on your attending and your resident. I don't think the home students did much post-call stuff, but it seemed somewhat expected for the away sub-I's. I guess it was a matter of getting more time w/ residents--who knows. Wednesday is Academic Day with lecture in the morning beginning at 6:30am and again in the late afternoon from 4:30-6:30pm. There is also Brain School which is every two weeks where you have to present and discuss part of a research paper with Dr. Friedman. These papers typically are pulled from Nature or Science or NEJM or Brain or some big heavy basic science journal. You don't really spend any time in clinic unless you're on call, there are few ORs, and there is someone you want to get to know who is having clinic. This never actually happened while I sub-I'd there but they mentioned it as a possibility. The spine list is anywhere from 10-20 patients, the tumor list is anywhere from 10-30 patients, and the Peds list is anywhere from 5-20 patients. The VA was super light while I was there. Only operated maybe 2 days a week with clinic the other days. List was 5 or 6 patients total.

Hospitals: Duke Hospital is HUGE. It has a large coverage area and due to its reputation, lots of patients flock to it. As a cancer center, they draw from the entire RTP area, and their referral base for everything else is absolutely enormous. You can also do a week at the VA which is super chill and they let you do a lot. If you don't have VA clearance for whatever reason (you are an international student or don't have a VA at your home institution), you do a week on vascular or repeat a week on any one of the services. The ICU at Duke is large (like 30 beds or so) and is shared between neurosurgery and neurology. The floor patients are just like floor patients anywhere else. 

OR: You came to Duke for tumors, and tumors you will find. Dr. Friedman usually runs 2 ORs at a time for about 4-6 cases a day 4 days a week. He is supposedly soon going to hit the age-limit for Duke surgeons, but it'll be interesting to see if Duke will enforce it for one of the most famous surgeons in the field. Other tumor folks are Codd, Fecci, Zomorodi, Sampson (although he might operate only once or twice during your subi since he is so busy). During your time at Duke, you'll also get to see some endo/open vascular w/ Gonzalez, Hauck, Zomorodi (if you get assigned this service), functional (Turner, Lad), spine (MIS w/ Isaacs, basic degen @ VA, Gottfried, Haglund ACDFs and deformity w/ Karikari), and peds. What you get to do in the OR is very, very resident and attending dependent. Can range from just tying knots, all the way to throwing in screws or taking out chunks of tumor. There is only double-scrubbing if it's a light OR day and there are fellows present. This year, there was a spine fellow and a peds fellow. Only saw double-scrubbing a handful of times during my 4 weeks there.

Clinic: It was offered as a possibility, but I never actually did go to clinic because there was always lots of things going on in the ICU or in the OR.

Overall Impression: The residents seem pretty close overall and were generally fun to work with. The rotation is busy and you spend a lot of time learning to manage patients and participating in academic activities. You also get a taste of academic nsgy with lots of lectures and journal club. I personally got to operate a lot, participate in meaningful ways, and learn a lot about the Duke program. For people who are visiting from far away, they offer the opportunity to interview you while you are here.
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#3
Any recent rotators have different opinions?
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