Residency Program

 The work-life balance at our program is the best you will find anywhere in the country. Interns only work fifteen 12-hour shifts, and you get 5 consecutive days off in each of your EM months. As an intern, you have 5 EM months, 8 months as a 2nd year, 11 months as a 3rd year. This is a ton more time off than other programs can offer. 

 Our wellness activities are pretty exceptional. Camping at Kilbourne Hole, Franklin Mountains hike, paintball, meditation...it shows we care about socializing and have lives outside of the hospital, even in residency. 

 Everywhere will tell you 'we have really sick patients', and we do, but nowhere else will you work less than a mile from the international border and care for patients who are either (1) managing themselves with unthinkable OTC medication regimens or (2) completely falling through the cracks of the Mexican health care system. That is an education you really and truly cannot receive anywhere else. 

 [Our patients’] gratitude for the littlest of things. You could fill a Tylenol prescription and many would be excited. Start an IV and you could cure them. 

 People are kind, culture is very family centric. Cost of living is inexpensive, and homes are affordable even on a resident’s salary. Public schools (for residents with children) are superior to most other public schools we looked at. 

 My intern year, we told admin we weren't getting enough tubes at our current anesthesia rotation, and the rotation was changed and the following class is now having an amazing anesthesia experience. 

 The relatively short drives to get away to places like Cloudcroft, Ruidoso, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

 During orientation month you get oriented to our program and hospital, learn medical Spanish, and get used to our ED. You will have only 5 clinical shifts where you are strictly extra personnel and not expected to move the meat of the department. This is a great chance to ease into being a resident and learn the workflow. But you also have a TON of time off. You will get to explore the city and bond with your co-interns. My co-residents and I still talk about how amazing our first month was. 

 Monthly Journal Club- present one article per year as a PGY-1 and PGY-2 usually held at an attending physician’s home. 

 The spectrum that exists in a combined County/University system - from the sick, underserved population that know this hospital as their last resort and the number of people that can easily overwhelm us to the state-of-the-art technology we have in Sim and resources available to us through the University. We get a mix of the best of both worlds. 

 We have amazing healthcare, dental, and vision insurance that doesn't come out of our salary and has excellent coverage. We also get a $210 stipend every 2 weeks for food in the cafeteria (which very infrequently if ever is completely used up). 

 Many of my co-residents find themselves buying a house instead of renting thanks to how much cheaper things are here. 

 Approachable, friendly, willing to teach, and enjoyable to work with.