|
"I did all of my core rotations at Kern Medical Center and had the option of doing all of my electives (although I elected not to stay), which by the way were all scheduled for me by the end of my third year....that was great, setting up electives at other places was a huge pain.
KMC was a great place to spend my 3rd year of medical school. I have absolutely no regrets and looking back I would not have changed a thing. Those, however, were not my feelings when I first drove into Bakersfield for my orientation on that very hot July afternoon. Seriously, about 5 minutes after I arrived in Bakersfield I called my wife and told her... that I just can't do it. I think I drove into Bakersfield on the "not so nice" part of town and when I was talking to my soon-to-be landlord, he was like 'yeah the house is about 3 blocks from the hospital' and after seeing the neighborhood around the hospital, I was like there is no way in hell I am living anywhere near this hospital... but you know, to the west and south of the hospital the neighborhoods are shady but if you go straight east, they are great as can be and very safe.
I went in for orientation, met the director of the medical students, Dr. Ragland... awesome guy... the medical education staff were great and I was convinced that I made the right decision to go out there. Bakersfield is actually not that bad of a place to live. Population of about 300,000 or so I think, but very 'country'. 1.5 hours to LA, 4 hours to Vegas, 6 hours to Lake Tahoe, 4 hours to San Fran, 3 hours to Yosemite, 2 hours to Santa Barbara, 2 hours to Sequoia National Forest and General Sherman, within 0.5-1 hour from great hiking in mountains and white water rafting on the Kern River. How do I know these things? Because my wife and I visited all of them while we were there... although Paris, Barcelona, Florence etc would have been nice too if we would have decided to go to England.
KMC is about a 200 bed hospital, so not huge....a place where you get to know everyone from attendings to nurses to residents (all of them). You don't feel you get lost in the hugeness of the place. This is a county hospital. Having a spanish language background is a big plus, but not essential as there are plenty of translators when needed... amazing pathology at this place as the patient population does not take care of themselves- unfortunate but great for learning. My most memorable case at KMC was a 39 year old hispanic male (HIV neg) who presented only with bilateral hearing loss getting progressively worse over the last 2 months. To make a long story short, he was diagnosed with Cryptococcal meningitis and come to find out he had a recent history of cleaning pigeon crap off of his mother's porch on multiple occasions. Also, Coccidiodomycosis is endemic in Bakersfield (Cocci clinic and all). Remember the San Joaquin Valley and Cocci for the boards.
A nice thing about KMC is that they keep track of everything for you in regards to the L6 California letter thing... great if you want to be in California for residency. And the attendings all have UCLA, Stanford and UC Davis on their letterheads when they send out letters of recommendation... big plus. Dr. Amin (chairman of FP and Pediatrics) is very well known. Dr. Johnson (chair of IM) also very well known. Didactic lectures Monday-Friday... some good, some not so good. I also took ACLS for no cost.
This is a great place for students...they don't kill you during your 3rd year... plenty of time for reading. The only overnight call you do during this year is in surgery (for us it was like every 6th night). IM and OBGYN was q5 or so and only until 10pm, no peds call (I wish there would have been some though), FP call was from home q6 and til 10pm. Most weekends off for most rotations. And as far as I am concerned, this is how it should be. Medical students shouldn't get killed with call. We need to stay healthy and have plenty of time to be studying for the boards. Other clinical sites in the U.S. don't have the same philosophy, so inquire. Some of my classmates were doing q3 overnight call during surgery and IM at various places, which is ridiculous if you ask me, but I am sure others would disagree with me.
Ton of procedures as a student (at least there were for me), residents are a good group of people for the most part, attendings will know you by first name by end of year and very approachable, residents pay for medical students meals in the cafeteria with their cards, great weather except for the terribly hot summers, great med ed staff to keep track of everything, very affordable cost of living (my wife and I and 2 dogs rented a 3 bedroom house with 2 car garage, privacy fenced back yard with orange/plum/almond/rose/grape trees, hardwood floors, driveway all on a nice quiet and safe street literally a 1 minute drive from hospital all for $900/month). If you are into Trauma... great trauma rotation... very busy trauma. One of your required months during surgery is on the trauma team. I thought it was an awesome month, very busy and some thought there was too much scut work in tracking down Xrays etc, so others I know do not share my feelings on this rotation. Also not much O.R. time during this month. On a typical weekend day, you will be responding to as many as 15 trauma activations/day, although average more like 8-10.
Depending on what you want out of your clinical years, I would strongly recommend going to KMC. If you decide to go there and do 3rd and 4th year, there are no surprises. Your whole 3rd year schedule will be given to you at the beginning and then your whole 4th year elective schedule will be given to you at the end of your 3rd year- a big plus. The only other facility that is similar to this fashion is Providence in Detroit.
|
