Barrow Neurosurgery

[Guest]

Did anyone do the Barrow sub-i? Does it guarantee an interview?  Was the sub-i worth it,  or are you a fly on the wall?

[Tintinnabulum]

(04-17-2018, 02:13 PM)Guest Wrote: Did anyone do the Barrow sub-i? Does it guarantee an interview?  Was the sub-i worth it,  or are you a fly on the wall?

Have a buddy who rotated out there a few years back and didn’t get the interview. He chalked it up to Them not being able to interview every rotator considering the number of people who apply to that program. YMMV

[Guest]

Fantastic Sub-I.  This was my favorite neurosurgery rotation. Although I didn't end up matching at the Barrow (got an interview), I think it was my most formative rotation and absolutely worth it.

General format of each day:  We were told to present 1-2 patients in the mornings (usually from a case you scrubbed on the previous day), but that's it. No scut and no floor work because the whole point of the sub-i is to get you into the OR.  After rounds, cases are assigned between sub-i's on a rotating 'pick system'. There are usually about 10+ first starts going each morning, so there's a ton to go around.  It wasn't uncommon for fifth pick to still get to scrub a Lawton STA MCA bypass or deformity room where you get to do a ton.

The residents are all super nice and fun to be around; they treat you like a colleague and genuinely like teaching.  There's also a ton of resident autonomy, so they feel comfortable getting you involved in cases.  This was the rotation where I got to do the most, from putting in pedicle screws to first assisting large portions of nearly every case.  I really appreciated the BNI environment while rotating there; the staff and attendings seemed to generally enjoy having subis in a case (as opposed to some other programs where I was told to 'be seen and not heard') and I didn't have to worry about whether or not I was being annoying etc.  I think this lead to a much better educational experience.

Every afternoon, we'd get a 1111 page that tells you to go to teaching rounds for 1-2 hours; these were the most valuable didactics I had on the trail.  They're structured as pre-operative/post-operative rounds.  Mondays/Tuesdays/Thursdays are with Lawton.  He'll know your name from the first day and follows a pretty socratic teaching style that includes the sub-is.  You will be pimped, but it's a very constructive environment; you'll typically be asked to read the imaging and give a guess as to what type of lesion it is/grade the AVM.  Wednesdays are spine rounds with Juan Uribe (minimally invasive) in the same format and Fridays are with Kakarla (deformity).  These sessions were the first time I saw neurosurgical approaches discussed in such an intellectually stimulating and creative way and are part of why I think this rotation is a great educational experiences.  SubI's are expensive and can often suck, but this one felt worth it.

Weekends are all yours.  You're encouraged to explore Phoenix and go play pick-up basketball/soccer with the residents or join them on the Hike from Hell etc.  

Although rotating doesn't guarantee an interview, doing a sub-i here seems to significantly increase chances of matching here.  I think this is generally true of most competitive programs, however some seem more notorious for only taking sub-i's (UCSF, BNI, Columbia).  Pretty sure that everyone that matched at the BNI this year did a subi there.

[Guest]

Even the two day interview was very informative and awesome. Outstanding program. I did feel that not having a medical school/regular med students other than subIs did seem missing. But if people don't care for that and just want to operate, this place is near perfect.

[Guest]

Has anyone heard back for their Barrow Sub-i?

[Guest]

I personally haven't but I know many others who have