Residency Interview - The Fourth

Despite being invited to meet with the residents for dinner before interview day, I was not be able to join them due to a drive through Ohio's more rural parts. It was probably for the better since I was still wrapping my head around an interview early in that afternoon. 

Doctors Hospital

The west side of Columbus, Ohio felt very similar to my childhood stomping grounds; the suburban unencumbered traffic patterns with residences and businesses lining the streets. Prepared to leave my hotel early, I met another interviewing student at breakfast. We are not hard to spot as anxiety is obvious, professional attire the norm and portfolios a calming distraction. Doctors Hospital seemed to be at the center of community health with a steady flow of people coming and going. Dressed in standard suit and tie form I made my way into the educational building for the weekly didactic session among residents, faculty and fellow interviewing students. It was comforting to see other students I had met on the interview trail, once again proving how small the community within a specialty truly can be. I found the discussions by teaching staff and guests to be rather enlightening. To top off the morning session, we finished with a splinting lab before heading to the conference room for interviews.

After brief introductions were made by all in attendance, half of the group toured the facility while the others interviewed. The facilities were impressive. With so many residents in house, they have their own lounge with a mini fitness center and sleep rooms. The simulation lab was extensive and appeared to be well used by those in training. The ED was super clean, but did not seem to be as busy as one would expect for the middle of the day. One nice feature is that all the gurneys are the OB/GYN type, so that finding one when you really need it would not be a problem. The rest of the hospital was either on its way to being remodeled or in the process of getting the upgrade.

One of the strengths of this particular emergency medicine program is their involvement with the local community emergency crews. It seems that they are very involved in both ground and flight transport with regular training sessions to help educate regularly. On the flip side, with so many residency programs in one facility there are the expected clashes when one service wants to get their fair share, but has to step aside to let another service take over. In this sense, the program does not have unopposed care of all their patients. Nonetheless, trauma and pediatrics were external rotations done at inner city hospitals that get high patient volumes and acuity. With the tour complete, we started the individual interviews.

The interview was conducted by the program director, his assistant and three residents. It was a very laid back session with free-flowing conversation and questions. To my surprise, amid the questions an EKG was given to me to diagnose and manage the patient. Fortunately, I had some understanding of the tracing and could formulate an educated response and treatment, thus effectively "saving" the patient's life. This interview was somewhat unique in that the questions asked were not all typical of an interview I have experienced. They definitely required some thinking on my toes and hopefully provided insight into who I am as a person even if they weren't always well formulated answers. Overall, I left the program feeling good about the experience and enthusiastic about its potential.

Question of the Week

If you were given a large sum of money and could no longer work in medicine, what type of work would you do?