Stanford

So the first thing you need to know about Stanford is that it is a teaching hospital. They have medical students, residents, and fellows. The fellows are the primary surgeons while the attendings are there to assist as well as take over in case anything were to happen. There are 2 fellows that are at Stanford for the entire year, so you will get to know them very well. There are 6 primary surgeons that you will work with. There are 6 adult perfusionists and 4 pediatric perfusionists. Because it is a teaching hospital, expect your cases to be long. We do A LOT of arches and circulatory arrest cases. We rarely do only CABGs, but we do a number of CABG/valve combinations. I rarely was able to do 2 cases in one day. Stanford has a large VAD program as well. Also, Stanford has a fair number of ECMO patients. Don't be discouraged if it takes you awhile to be able to go on and off bypass. The perfusionists will take their time to teach you their ways (and everyone's way is different). So it will take a little while to gain everyone's trust before allowing you to fully pump the case. It's nothing against you, they do this with every student. Another thing to know about Stanford is that you will be asked to do a lot of research on relevant topics while you are at the hospital. They really love research projects :)

The pediatric program is at Lucile Packard, which is a great program. They have a large case load and do all sorts of surgeries. There are 2 major surgeons on the pediatric side. If you are interested in doing pediatrics in your future, I would recommend having a rotation strictly at Lucile Packard where you go to this hospital every day for a certain time period. I was able to pump cases while on the peds side, but it was only after I spent a fair amount of time at the hospital.

Overall, I absolutely loved working there. Palo Alto is absolutely gorgeous and San Francisco is about 40 minutes away. However, it is very expensive to find housing. I lived on Stanford's campus for the first 3 months during their summer break, which was nice because I met a fair number of people. I then found housing through Craig's list, which worked out nicely because I was able to see the house and meet the roommates prior agreeing to live anywhere. If you have this clinical rotation, please don't hesitate to email me at CatrinaMcGrath@gmail.com and I can tell you some more details! Good luck!