Overall I am incredibly happy here at CU. The residents I get to work with are really here for me when I need them and I feel like we can figure any conflicts out together without bad blood. I’m also excited that our program is slowly becoming more family friendly over the last few years with about 2 resy babies per year. I will leave here feeling surgically and clinically competent as most folks meet there numbers around the end of third year and 4th year you really get to teach the majors and minors. Living in Denver is nice as you have every major sports teams, get most large music artists, and food scene is alright. Hiking mountain biking and winter sports are at your fingertips tips.

The leadership of the program has been able to make a lot of significant changes just in my short time to include: removing night float rotations at the private hospital, expanding residency cohort to 10/year (newly incoming), getting FMLA coverage shifts financially covered for coresidents working extra, changing to afternoon education from the morning after having to rush rounds and sign outs, getting another resident retreat scheduled per year!

Obviously it’s not all sunshine and roses! With call across three hospitals for the current 9 per year cohort, it feels like we work a lot. First and second year were my highest hours per week on average coming in just under the 80 hour per week average most rotations. Obviously there are some real light rotations at least once per year that really are the opposite of that. I think the pay can definitely increase even more after GME bumped it up last year in a large raise to play catch up. Now that the program is expanding the cohort I hope it helps relieve the call burden and the feeling that we are just a ski or climbing injury away from a breaking point.