Nancy J. Cossler, M.D.
Director, Resident Education
Welcome to the MacDonald Women’s Hospital OB/GYN residency web-site.
We are a medium sized (5 residents/year) University Program housed in one of the only 11 free standing Women’s Hospitals in America. University Hospitals Case Medical Center, of which MacDonald Woman’s Hospital is an integral part, is the primary teaching affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. With the exception of electives, all of your rotations are within University Hospitals' interconnected main campus.
Our faculty support for excellence in education rivals any program in the country. For instance, in the interest of choosing education over service, our faculty cover all resident duties, themselves, every Friday, from 0730 to 1300. This allows all residents access to all didactics scheduled during that time period. (Yes, we really hold the intern’s beeper.)
Not everyone goes into OB/GYN for the same reason. Our program offers 4 elective rotations: one in each of the PGY2 and PGY3 years, 2 in the PGY4. Residents have used these opportunities to participate in an NIH-sponsored Malaria project in Kenya, take a course in medical Spanish, rotate through the Breast Center, work on their research project, or attend an away oncology rotation at MD Anderson in Texas.
We have a life and we want you to have a life. Our weekend call schedule (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) is published 1 year in advance. These calls can be changed only by a resident-to-resident trade. We have lived up to this call commitment through maternity leaves, broken bones, and personal crises. We have a night float, the maximum number of calls per month is 6, and many rotations have 2-4.
Cleveland is a great place to live, featuring the friendliness of the Midwest with housing that is abundant and entirely affordable. We are situated within University Circle, which also includes Case Western Reserve University campus, Severance Hall (home of the world class Cleveland Orchestra), the Botanical Gardens, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Museum of Natural History. Within the city and its suburbs are a wonderful array of ethnic neighborhoods, great public school systems, the expansive Metro park system (aka: The Emerald Necklace), and a clean Lake Erie. Finally, Cleveland is home to the Cavaliers, Indians, and Browns for those who are sports lovers. If you doubt us, ask our residents who moved here from Miami, FL or Pasadena, CA.
We welcome your interest in our program. We are passionate practitioners and teachers of Ob/Gyn. We are looking for kindred souls to join us.