I rotated at G'town this summer, and they have changed their trauma exposure significantly as of lately.

I rotated for 2 weeks at the Washington Hospital Center, and while there as a student, you are doing trauma with Dr. Debritz, and elective cases as well with numerous other attendings. But the nice thing is, both GW and G'town residents and attendings are on faculty at WHC, and you as a student are able to work with both schools equally even though you are "technically" a G'town extern. The GW and G'town residents also flip-flop between the two schools attendings, so they get a nice experience of two different universities.

I was happy with the three GW residents that I worked with during the two weeks. They did not seem "behind the power curve" at all; they had equal knowledge base and OR skills comparable to the G'town guys. But then again, it was only 3 of the entire residency program, so I don't know if they were the super stars of the program or rather the norm.

As far as trauma is concerned, The G'town residents are going to Fairfax now, which is VERY trauma heavy. So now the residents are getting an adequate exposure to trauma. But you are right; before this new rotation, G'town was extremely white collar. They GUH is private, and you see hardly any trauma. The only trauma you'll experience are closed fractures for the most part. Lots of joints, sports, elective type cases.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks a lot for the info. Additional questions I had were;

1. With the addition of the Fairfax rotation to Gtown's program is their program strong now on all fronts (peds, hand, joints, etc)?

2. I have heard that the patients at Gtown's hospital can be quite demanding (I.e.- lots of pampering). Did you experience this at all?

3. Did the residents seem unhappy with having to travel out to Delaware for their peds experience?

4. I have heard that although Gtown appears academic most of their residents go into private practice. During your rotation did Gtown appear very academic?

5. If you couldto chose a program to match at would you chose GW or Gtown?

Thanks a lot for the info. Additional questions I had were;

1. With the addition of the Fairfax rotation to Gtown's program is their program strong now on all fronts (peds, hand, joints, etc)?
Yes, I feel that their program has become more well rounded with the addition of Fairfax. Dr. Delahay, the main teaching attending at GUH, is a peds guy, but he has been practicing since '74 so he's actually an "everything" guy. To me, he is the best part of the G'town residency and will add more knowledge to you in a short amount of time than anyone else I've experienced. And there are plenty of other great attendings at GUH as well, such as Dr. Edwards (hand) and McGuigan (foot & ankle) that are amazing teachers also.

2. I have heard that the patients at Gtown's hospital can be quite demanding (I.e.- lots of pampering). Did you experience this at all?
Not really any more than any other hospital that I have worked at. No matter what hospital you work at, you are going to have patients that are more demanding than others. I didn't find that there was any increased percentage of those type of patients at GUH. At WHC, the pts were the typical inner city demographics (even though it is technically a "private" hospital) with the same standard diseases (DM, HTN, obesity, CHF, CBP [chronic biscuit poisoning]) that are found in any major metropolitan area. So once again, the overall demographics are pretty well balanced.

3. Did the residents seem unhappy with having to travel out to Delaware for their peds experience?
I didn't hear any residents complain about it at all. The did say that the drive was a little long, but the experience at Dupont (one of the best, if not the best ortho childrens hospitals in the nation) more than made up for the time of travel.

4. I have heard that although Gtown appears academic most of their residents go into private practice. During your rotation did Gtown appear very academic?
It honestly depended where you were working and who you are working with. Some attendings are very academically driven (Delahay), others less so. But I found all of the attendings are very approachable, so if you are more interested in academics I don't think you would have a problem finding a niche you are comfortable in.

5. If you couldto chose a program to match at would you chose GW or Gtown?

I didn't have enough experience with GW to make a definitive educated decision on that topic. I did have good exposure to the GW program at WHC, but I didn't have the opportunity to see any other of their facilities. Before I could decide, I would want to see all of what both schools have to offer. But from my experience at WHC, both are very good programs and it would be difficult to decide based solely upon that short 2 weeks. If you are interested in both, my recommendation would be to spend a little time at both (if possible) to figure out which better fits "you".

1) Did you notice whether Gtown had any ortho fellows there?

2) I know that it is a blessing to get into any ortho program, but i was wondering what you thought about Gtown's overall reputation/prestige/competitiveness/whatever in comparison to hopkins or UMD?

3) I was told by someone that they only really rank AOA applicants..not sure if its true or not. You have any idea?

4) Is it true that you have to walk into the hospital with a shirt and tie as a resident?