Maybe 69th is Too High!

Of those anesthesia programs ranked in the top 10 in the nation there is a common denominator. The commonality among most of these schools is that they are affiliated with a college or university. This affiliation is an asset to these programs and not just for obvious reasons. Being a stand-alone institution decreases the levels and layers of scrutiny; scrutiny to which these top-schools are subjected. I believe it helps to foster nepotism and allows one to run a school as a Mom & Pop store might be run (Mom, Dad, & daughter all work at MTSA). Allegedly this nepotism rose to such a level that it allowed the schools accreditation to be suspended by the Council of Accreditation just last year. Reaching for a higher rung on the academic ladder might jeopardize this nepotistic stranglehold in which the school is held.

The uniqueness of MTSA seems to easily allow the hiring of friends and church members thus further buffering any indiscretions or wrongdoing that may be found out about. Running a school in this fashion allows favoritism to be shown through the changing of grades and through the changing of interview scores. It might allow the changing of a student’s grade from a B to an A and it easily allows changing the scores of an applicant from an 8 to an 18. Being a stand-alone school might allow you to focus on who you want to be there (qualified or not) rather than who is most qualified. Being a stand-alone school could make it easier for you to impose the dogma and doctrine of your church upon students even though the school has no affiliation with nor does it receive financial support from any organized religion. Which begs a question: If you had the choice, who would you rather have put you to sleep - a mediocre anesthesia provider who is a great Christian or a top-notch anesthesia provider who is an atheist? Some say there’s been an increase in those failing their board exams. Is that true? Word on the street also says that some new graduates were so incompetent that they were fired from there first job. Is that also true? Maybe 69th is too high!

MTSA also likes to tout the grades of the students, hours spent doing cases, and the amount of cases done by students. Great! As if to say, “Even though we’re 69th we have something to be proud of”. These ARE laudable results. But what are you doing that will help to elevate the school to a higher ranking? Why wouldn’t a school strive to be among the top ten? MTSA likes to talk about the fact they’ve been around for 50 years. Fifty years and you can’t make it into the top 20 or even the top 50? When then?

And let’s talk about the building fund. Let’s talk about the grandiose plan to build a multi-million dollar school – oh, but wait. Some of the bigger contributors wouldn't sign on to that project and one reason for that is because of the paltry number of contributing alumni. Tisk tisk! Perhaps if you spent more time concentrating on the quality of the program and less time making sure that everything is SDA-certified then those alumni you refer to as non-SDA would not disdain you so much and pony up with some cash. Not many alumni like the school well enough to contribute. Instead of a new building you had to settle for a new addition and some remodeling - the cost of which has to be paid for by a few who are cajoled into giving. Again, 50 years and you can’t seem to get more than just a few of the folks whose earnings are among the top 10% in the nation to give you a nickel. That’s very telling! Very telling indeed. At least priorities are in order - Mom, Pop, & daughter are still firmly entrenched. Sad really, very sad.