Start of Orientation: Met the new residents (interns) today

Well today was the first day of orientation. (The official first day.) Although we start rotating officially next week. It was really interesting to meet the other resident that I’ll probably be working with for the next 3 years. There a really great group of people. I was surprised how friendly all of them were . Out of the 9 I say about 8 or 9 of them were really friendly. The only one that was not, was the oldest resident. But I suspect he feels strange being around such a young group. But overall he was nice. He was just serious.

But its really nice to know they hired good group of people. It was interesting to find out what exactly they did to get here. Today the program director welcomed us and she said that they received 1700 applications. (I later learned from the chief resident that they interview 350 people, and they offered about 5 pre-matches and they matched 4 in the match. They only went through the first 6 people on there match list. Usually programs match about 50-100 applicants depending on the spots. ) SO needless, to say I felt very lucky and blessed. I was surprised at the background of some of the new residents. About 3 of them already did residency back home, and 2 of them were chief residents, and even had they own clinics back home. ( 1 of them was from south korea, and another one from another “far “ country..lol.. I don’t remember.) I know one of them was a house officer in UK for a year. The rest of did research in the states. One of the guys did research at john Hopkins, the other from Michigan state, and etc. Others graduated recently from Ross university, and others were surgical assistants. So overall a very diverse group. Honestly, I tell you. It seemed strange, but it didn’t seem that anyone stood out. They were all IMG’s and only one of them graduated recently. I get the sense that they hired almost a big portion of their decision, based on the personalities of the people. Meaning they hired a REALLY REALLY NICE NICE group of people. I mean everyone is a real joy. Which is strange. I would expect some of them to be arrogant pr_cks. But they were not. Kinda strange… its hard to explain… but that’s the sense I got. Some of them graduated about 15 yrs ago!!!! Lol……

Anyways, it was nice to know that most of them were nervous like me. But we spoke to the 2^nd years and chief residents, who were really nice. IT was just 1 big happy family. I was ready to take our some marshmellows and build a fire so we can all hold hands and sing kumbyya…lol…

Overall a good and exciting day…. I really look forward to starting soon…… GOD is good.

mike