San Mateo
I’m writing this from 30,000 feet. In the last several hours I have seen the Grand Canyon, snow covered Rockies, cracked desert earth, flat fertile plains, the Pacific Ocean, 2 major US cities from the ground, sunshine, clouds, and rain.
I’m en route to home…to my wife…to my friends…to an excerpt of my regular life. In 6 days, I’ll be doing this again, but moving the other way. To see christine again, and justin, and neil, and ryan, and hopefully ketaki and a few others…it is exciting and comforting and warm after a month of forging relationships and making temporary friends. I met good people, but they are not yet my people.
I wanted to write and reflect on my experience. For you, dear reader, if you care; but ultimately for me, come February when big decisions will be made about our future. I want to be able to see how I felt at the time of my experience. So I plan on doing this for my externships and for my interviews (no residency directors allowed!).
San Mateo Medical Center: San Mateo, California. A small hospital, 3 floors. 34 psych beds. 4 residents per year. 2 do psych, 2 do medicine/neuro; then the midyear switch. The hospital is nice. Up to date technology. Easy to navigate. No sense of bustling people. Old people sitting on benches in one of the two courtyards is how I think of it. Random docs say good morning and smile in the hallways. No one walks with haste. Cafeteria is small but better than expected. Lots of bbq, free food to interns. Tons of tax money, so bountiful resources. Elaborate network of stepdown/step-up programs in psychiatry. Staffed by friendly knowledgeable folks.
Residents are fantastic. Helpful, diverse by any definition, caring, smart, hardworking but not in the self-sacrificial sort of way so prevalent in academic medicine. Not social creatures outside. I mean, they are, but lots of married w/kids situations. Sense of community exists but not of the bond you see from people sharing in sacrifice. All in all for the best.
Program itself is a treasure. Small, competitive. The only residency program in the hospital. Not directly linked to any med school, but shared faculty with Stanford and UCSF. Didactics are a small group format. No powerpoints. Just see one, do one for everything. Residents take on a huge load of responsibility for teaching those beneath them. True sense of independent learning. Community hospital paradigm. Quintessence of such, in fact.
Program director smiles a lot. Won’t give you any sense of assurance. Wants people who want badly to be there, who share a sense of social responsibility; of medicine to the very ill simply because they are in need. Was a researcher until 5 years ago. Now half-time clinician, ¾ time medical education. Very badly wants all of the above in a resident but with research interests beneath the surface. He may have found his guy in me.
San Mateo area is just fine. Lacks the raw appeal of san diego or—to a lesser extent—orange county. Beautiful sights from atop monstrous peaks. Weather is good. Low 70s into the 60s in the fall, which brings clouds. Maybe low 60s or 50s with rain in the winter months. Many days bring the marine layer cresting over pine-laden peaks, which often burns off by lunch. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Traffic is full but moving. Great train access all throughout the bay area. Easy to get to San Jose, SF, or Oakland; or to many spots offbranching/in between. Cost of living is ridiculous. Easy to find million dollar condos. Cheapest are around $600k. Even there, often $500/month in condo fees. Single family homes easily in $700s, and often >50 years old. San Francisco is a beautiful city with a ton available to do. Zero emission buses that are clean and that everyone uses without class distinction. Great surfing is around if you can bear the frigid waters.
Externship Rating:
Undefined sense of desire: 9.5/10
Happiness with Christine there: 9/10 (tons to do; everything we want…except our friends)
Geography: 8/10
Program structure: 9/10 (independent learning; attentive to resident issues; great teaching; broad teachings in psychotherapeutic styles; “thrown right in there”; apprenticeship-like)
Residents: 8.5/10 (a little difficult to crack at first)
Caseload: 10/10 (6 patients max)
Call schedule: 10/10 (to 10pm once a week; no weekends ever unless moonlighting)
Salary: 10/10 (highest in country; abundant moonlighting after first year)
Prestige: 9/10 (well known on west coast as a producer of great psychiatrists)
Gateway to future I want vs probable in-residency happiness: 10/10 (great program that has very happy residents; all the regular faculty are recent residents. No one wants to leave!)
Total: 93/100
So this is my frontrunner for residency by a mile. Interview is on 12/13. I’ve been told by residents and faculty that I’m “an excellent match” and they have offered to support my application unsolicited. I am honored by their support, and by their heartfelt measures to so wholly want to remain in touch into the future. The residency director is notorious for never giving away his hand (so to speak) to applicants so I didn’t look for much from him. I am pleased with our meeting and how the things I said and have done are congruent with his vision. I am encouraged that he said he had been inquiring about my performance and had been hearing positive things.
I worked very hard this month. It was difficult to be away from christine like that, but ultimately it is an investment that could pay dividends in time together and financially; and from these, quality of life.
I am by no means probable to match at San Mateo, but I have done what I can thus far to help things out. I have a strategy on how to follow up this successful month in hopes of really locking in one of the four coveted spots that 200 applicants vie for each year.
But for now, nothing but 5 whole and 2 small pieces of days to spend reading, lounging, and enjoying with special appreciation all of the very wonderful people in my life.
Next stop, the city of Orange. UC-Irvine for child psych, with a quick interview trip up to seattle before bringing it all back home in time for thanksgiving.
I’m en route to home…to my wife…to my friends…to an excerpt of my regular life. In 6 days, I’ll be doing this again, but moving the other way. To see christine again, and justin, and neil, and ryan, and hopefully ketaki and a few others…it is exciting and comforting and warm after a month of forging relationships and making temporary friends. I met good people, but they are not yet my people.
I wanted to write and reflect on my experience. For you, dear reader, if you care; but ultimately for me, come February when big decisions will be made about our future. I want to be able to see how I felt at the time of my experience. So I plan on doing this for my externships and for my interviews (no residency directors allowed!).
San Mateo Medical Center: San Mateo, California. A small hospital, 3 floors. 34 psych beds. 4 residents per year. 2 do psych, 2 do medicine/neuro; then the midyear switch. The hospital is nice. Up to date technology. Easy to navigate. No sense of bustling people. Old people sitting on benches in one of the two courtyards is how I think of it. Random docs say good morning and smile in the hallways. No one walks with haste. Cafeteria is small but better than expected. Lots of bbq, free food to interns. Tons of tax money, so bountiful resources. Elaborate network of stepdown/step-up programs in psychiatry. Staffed by friendly knowledgeable folks.
Residents are fantastic. Helpful, diverse by any definition, caring, smart, hardworking but not in the self-sacrificial sort of way so prevalent in academic medicine. Not social creatures outside. I mean, they are, but lots of married w/kids situations. Sense of community exists but not of the bond you see from people sharing in sacrifice. All in all for the best.
Program itself is a treasure. Small, competitive. The only residency program in the hospital. Not directly linked to any med school, but shared faculty with Stanford and UCSF. Didactics are a small group format. No powerpoints. Just see one, do one for everything. Residents take on a huge load of responsibility for teaching those beneath them. True sense of independent learning. Community hospital paradigm. Quintessence of such, in fact.
Program director smiles a lot. Won’t give you any sense of assurance. Wants people who want badly to be there, who share a sense of social responsibility; of medicine to the very ill simply because they are in need. Was a researcher until 5 years ago. Now half-time clinician, ¾ time medical education. Very badly wants all of the above in a resident but with research interests beneath the surface. He may have found his guy in me.
San Mateo area is just fine. Lacks the raw appeal of san diego or—to a lesser extent—orange county. Beautiful sights from atop monstrous peaks. Weather is good. Low 70s into the 60s in the fall, which brings clouds. Maybe low 60s or 50s with rain in the winter months. Many days bring the marine layer cresting over pine-laden peaks, which often burns off by lunch. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Traffic is full but moving. Great train access all throughout the bay area. Easy to get to San Jose, SF, or Oakland; or to many spots offbranching/in between. Cost of living is ridiculous. Easy to find million dollar condos. Cheapest are around $600k. Even there, often $500/month in condo fees. Single family homes easily in $700s, and often >50 years old. San Francisco is a beautiful city with a ton available to do. Zero emission buses that are clean and that everyone uses without class distinction. Great surfing is around if you can bear the frigid waters.
Externship Rating:
Undefined sense of desire: 9.5/10
Happiness with Christine there: 9/10 (tons to do; everything we want…except our friends)
Geography: 8/10
Program structure: 9/10 (independent learning; attentive to resident issues; great teaching; broad teachings in psychotherapeutic styles; “thrown right in there”; apprenticeship-like)
Residents: 8.5/10 (a little difficult to crack at first)
Caseload: 10/10 (6 patients max)
Call schedule: 10/10 (to 10pm once a week; no weekends ever unless moonlighting)
Salary: 10/10 (highest in country; abundant moonlighting after first year)
Prestige: 9/10 (well known on west coast as a producer of great psychiatrists)
Gateway to future I want vs probable in-residency happiness: 10/10 (great program that has very happy residents; all the regular faculty are recent residents. No one wants to leave!)
Total: 93/100
So this is my frontrunner for residency by a mile. Interview is on 12/13. I’ve been told by residents and faculty that I’m “an excellent match” and they have offered to support my application unsolicited. I am honored by their support, and by their heartfelt measures to so wholly want to remain in touch into the future. The residency director is notorious for never giving away his hand (so to speak) to applicants so I didn’t look for much from him. I am pleased with our meeting and how the things I said and have done are congruent with his vision. I am encouraged that he said he had been inquiring about my performance and had been hearing positive things.
I worked very hard this month. It was difficult to be away from christine like that, but ultimately it is an investment that could pay dividends in time together and financially; and from these, quality of life.
I am by no means probable to match at San Mateo, but I have done what I can thus far to help things out. I have a strategy on how to follow up this successful month in hopes of really locking in one of the four coveted spots that 200 applicants vie for each year.
But for now, nothing but 5 whole and 2 small pieces of days to spend reading, lounging, and enjoying with special appreciation all of the very wonderful people in my life.
Next stop, the city of Orange. UC-Irvine for child psych, with a quick interview trip up to seattle before bringing it all back home in time for thanksgiving.
posted by jerm at 00:32
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