FAQ’s

How many residency positions does your program have?

·         Our program trains 7 residents per year for a total of 28 residency positions in years 1-4.

Where are your rotations? Do you rotate at only one site? Will I have to travel?

·         We cover two hospitals: University of Cincinnati Medical Center (UCMC) and The Christ Hospital. We also have some experience at various other sites round the city including the Cincinnati Health Department clinics, other UC clinic locations, our REI office in West Chester, the VA hospital, etc.

·         In general, travel is minimal and most anywhere you would be going is within the city of Cincinnati. The amount of time you spend not at one of our two hospitals varies by rotation. Christ Hospital and UCMC are just 1.5 miles apart.

What is your call schedule like?

·         We take call on the weekends. You will usually take call at UCMC but will also take call at The Christ Hospital when on a Christ rotation. Weekend call is typically a Friday night/Sunday day combination or a Saturday 24-hour call. We have approximately two golden weekends per month.

What is your didactics schedule like?

·         Our program recently transitioned to a new didactics schedule. Didactics now occur on Wednesday mornings from 7:30a-11:30a. They previously occurred for 1.5 hours on both Wednesday and Friday mornings. We will be evaluating this new change throughout the year to see how the residents and faculty like it.

Do you get money for food or educational materials?

·         We do not have a stipend for food or educational materials. Instead, the money that would have gone to these is wrapped up into our salary.

Is parking free?

·         Yes, all residents will have a parking pass for the North Garage at UCMC, which is connected to the hospital via a tunnel (no need to go outside!). Parking is also provided at The Christ Hospital.

What is the food/coffee situation like in the hospital?

·         UCMC has a cafeteria, Starbucks (a real one!), Mark Pi’s (Chinese), and a 24-hour cafe (combo of Copper Moon coffee and Nature’s Table food). We also have coffee makers and a fridge/microwave in our resident lounge.

·         The Christ Hospital has a cafeteria, Starbucks (“We serve Starbucks”) and Au Bon Pain. There’s also a residency lounge on the first floor with a latte machine, yogurt cups, granola bars, and drinks (for free!) :)

What is your vacation schedule like? How do you handle holidays?

·         Each resident will have four 5-day vacations (M-F) each academic year. These will be scheduled prior to the beginning of the academic year. There are only certain rotations that are able to take vacations on. For the most part, we can honor some vacation requests if we know about them when planning the following year’s schedule. You are not guaranteed to have the flanking weekends off, but we do our best to make sure you have at least one.

  • For holidays, we split Thanksgiving and Christmas, each being a 5-day call. In general, half of residents will work Thanksgiving and the other half will work Christmas.  You can decide amongst your class if this goes back and forth each year, etc.

Could you describe the workflow/responsibilities of the L&D team?

·         The L&D team at UCMC is a 4-person team (one from each class year). The R1’s responsibilities include acting as the primary provider for all postpartum patients, managing normal laborers with the R3, and doing all primary c-sections with the R4. The R2 is in charge of triage, repeat C-sections, breech sections, and multiple gestation sections. The R3 is in charge of L&D and antepartum. The R4 oversees all and is able to help where needed.

When is sign-out?

·         For UCMC, sign-out time varies a bit depending on day of the week/weekend. Morning sign-out on L&D is at 7 AM except Wednesdays it is at 6:45 AM to ensure everyone gets to didactics on time. Evening sign-out is at 6 PM except Wednesdays it is at 7 PM to ensure the night team has 10 hours off in between shifts and on Fridays it is at 5 PM.

Do you function in a night float system?

  • Yes, we have a night float system. Residents do blocks of nights 4 weeks at a time. During your nights block, residents do not take call on the weekends. You will start your work week on Sunday evenings at 6 PM and will end your work week after sign-out on Friday mornings.

What fellowships does Cincinnati have? What is the working relationship with the fellows like?

·         The University of Cincinnati has fellowships in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and Maternal-Fetal Medicine. We also work closely with the Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery fellows and faculty at the Christ Hospital. You will also have the option to rotate with our Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology fellows and faculty at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

What off-service rotations do you do, if any?

·         Our residents do two off-service rotations during their PGY1 year. These include a SICU rotation and an EM rotation.

Do we work with residents from other programs?

·         The University of Cincinnati has 56-accredited residency and fellowship programs. As such, we do have opportunities to work with and interact with residents from other programs. Residents from the Emergency Medicine residency rotate in our OB Triage for four weeks at a time. In addition, we work with other residents on our off-service SICU and EM rotations during intern year. We also frequently interact with Anesthesiology residents whether in the OB ORs or in the main OR. We also work with Peds residents from Cincinnati Children’s as they rotate on the Newborn service or in the NICU!

Do residents meet their case numbers?

·         Yes, residents will meet the ACGME case number requirements during their 4 years of training at UCMC.

Do you get robot trained?

·         Yes, all residents in surgical specialties at UCMC, including gynecologic surgery, are robot trained and certified. We also have faculty, both at UCMC and The Christ Hospital, that are dedicated to teaching traditional, straight-stick laparoscopy as well.

How many ORs are available on L&D?

·         There are three fully functioning ORs available on our L&D unit. This is where C-sections will take place as well as other procedures such as postpartum tubal ligations, cervical cerclage placements, etc.