12-26-2016, 07:18 PM
First off, it's a chill subI. Nobody really cares if you take call or not and there's so many residents that nobody looks after you. You have no responsibility to round or take notes (this might change this year as the people who matched this year apparently told the program director to make the SubI more legit)
You're entire job is to be helpful in the OR- you go to cases all day. The Jefferson case volume is impressive.They have 3 endovascular rooms running everyday (which students barely go to), and they have 1 hospital dedicated to neurosurgery where they do vascular and tumor. They have 2 skull base attendings, 2 tumor attendings, 2 functional attendings, 2 epilepsy, 3 vascular attendings and 5 spine attendings. Many attendings run two-three rooms at once and PA rules state that attending doesn't have to be in the room for time out so this lets the residents start many of the cases on their own. This usually amounts to 6-8 rooms running per hospital. Even with 2 spine fellows, 1 skull base fellow, 2 endovascular fellow, and usually 1 enfolded epilepsy fellow, many rooms often go uncovered. I got to do a lot in the OR as many of the residents are very nice and want you to have fun in the OR- and many of the attendings are incredibly nice (Judy, Andrews, Evans, Farrell come to mind).
When you're not in the OR, you usually stick with the intern who has the pager and you either see consults on your own or just tag along with them depending on the resident. Many of the residents were awesome- obviously like every program there's 1 or 2 less friendly but for the most part they look after each other and are a good team (the three they matched this year are all very nice as well)
As for a letter, Dr Sharan the program director is the guy to ask. He can seem extremely intimidating (he doesn't respond to emails and won't talk to you on purpose in the beginning) but this is his way of removing himself from the match process to make an unemotional decision. In reality he's one of the most supportive program directors I've met and always has the residents best interests in mind and from all accounts wrote me a very strong letter. Rosenwasser the chair is barely around but the work he does on the business side of things is very helpful for the hospital and the program which allows Jeff to be the most profitable and highest volume program in Philadelphia.
All in all, a great place to rotate.
You're entire job is to be helpful in the OR- you go to cases all day. The Jefferson case volume is impressive.They have 3 endovascular rooms running everyday (which students barely go to), and they have 1 hospital dedicated to neurosurgery where they do vascular and tumor. They have 2 skull base attendings, 2 tumor attendings, 2 functional attendings, 2 epilepsy, 3 vascular attendings and 5 spine attendings. Many attendings run two-three rooms at once and PA rules state that attending doesn't have to be in the room for time out so this lets the residents start many of the cases on their own. This usually amounts to 6-8 rooms running per hospital. Even with 2 spine fellows, 1 skull base fellow, 2 endovascular fellow, and usually 1 enfolded epilepsy fellow, many rooms often go uncovered. I got to do a lot in the OR as many of the residents are very nice and want you to have fun in the OR- and many of the attendings are incredibly nice (Judy, Andrews, Evans, Farrell come to mind).
When you're not in the OR, you usually stick with the intern who has the pager and you either see consults on your own or just tag along with them depending on the resident. Many of the residents were awesome- obviously like every program there's 1 or 2 less friendly but for the most part they look after each other and are a good team (the three they matched this year are all very nice as well)
As for a letter, Dr Sharan the program director is the guy to ask. He can seem extremely intimidating (he doesn't respond to emails and won't talk to you on purpose in the beginning) but this is his way of removing himself from the match process to make an unemotional decision. In reality he's one of the most supportive program directors I've met and always has the residents best interests in mind and from all accounts wrote me a very strong letter. Rosenwasser the chair is barely around but the work he does on the business side of things is very helpful for the hospital and the program which allows Jeff to be the most profitable and highest volume program in Philadelphia.
All in all, a great place to rotate.