Personality and program fit

Do Miami for sure.

Depending what you want --> Harbor-UCLA and St. Mary's in San Francisco fit into what you want as well.

Good luck

Let's consider the applicant that wants the opposite of what you want.

A program where people have a lazy mentality, little comraderie among the residents, and a bunch of married folks. Not cool, antisocial, can't catch a ball, and boring residents would be a plus as well.

I guess you could make an argument for single or married, but who in the hell would wany any of the other attributes? Do you think there are actually programs out there with the above "personality"?

Just a clarification: I don't know if there are programs like this or not, but in my experience, all of the programs at which I interviewed met all of the "good" traits above (taking single vs married out for now).

Are there actually programs out there (in orthopaedics) which fit the bad traits above?

Yes....with the exception of "lazy mentality"....

"boring" is in the eye of the beholder....

I'm glad swbkrn started this topic, because I'm looking for the same things. Other than UMiami and Boston U, are there any others on the east coast that fit that profile?With some emphasis on single/unattached. Thanks.

This is a very valid topic and there are definitely programs that fit each of the descriptions above. It is important for guys like T.S. and swbkrn to figure this out before you rotate aways! It is really difficult because everyone thinks "their" program has all of these covered. Don't really want to post my opinions but if you want this type of info on East/Southeast programs I am more than happy to respond to a PM.

It's a tough subject to get good info on because some people "get it" and some don't.

Dude, you really have to look at a much bigger picture than just hanging out with a bunch of single jocks. Places like Miami are very top heavy and old school. Which means you will be the beeeaaach for a few years before holding the knife and getting comfortable with it. When you do start holding the knife, a very keen sense of anxiety will set in regarding how you will get comfortable with bread and butter ortho. I humbly recommend you look at programs that are a bit more progressive and aren't at a work farm like Jackson Memorial or USC-LAC. Also, I would also recommend a program where the chairman/program director really behave like a chairman/program director as opposed to the program coordinator that runs the show with an iron fist. These bitches can really make your life a living hell if you don't kiss their asses properly on every interaction. Although it is ortho residency is 5 long years, this time will fly by fast and you need to master surgical skills, because the lawyers and patients are very unforgiving. I am not implying by any means that the fellow comrade residents at Miami are not well trained. I rotated there myself and found the chiefs to be on top of their game, but I also saw how ruthlessly the juniors were crapped on. There are several programs that have one on one interaction with the faculty. You perform primary joints during your intern year!! So you are not hold hook for 2-3 years and your knowledge comes straight from the expert in field, not from the senior resident. Just a few words of advice, good luck.

stylnnmd: I'm very curious to hear what you consider to be a top heavy program. Miami was probably one of the most hands on programs I have ever seen...Top Heavy? I've heard miami called a lot of things - but most people who have seen other programs will never call it top heavy.
Miami oldschool? Damn - What are you looking at? Wearing scrubs everyday is old school? Having an R3 teach the intern through all ER consults old school? I sure don't see miami fitting into what you call "old school" either....

In fact, your whole post is practically BS. Miami drills it's residents on bread and butter...and their operative load is intense. As a student, intern, resident, you are using the knife....and you know what to do with it....

No idea what you mean by the iron fist PD vs. Chair comment....u can elaborate if you wish....


Please tell us of this magical program that you tell of. Sure, get 1 on 1 faculty advice...ive seen that too....it looks good on paper....but then your comrades are constantly GONE! It's a lot more...

Look - Residency falls into a lot of categories.....You have to determine what are best for you....

it looks like early operative experience with a lack of "top heavy" trumps all your other stuff.....however, we don't hear:'

1) Location
2) Resident comraderie
3) Amount of resident interaction on a day to day basis
4) Quantity of cases for everyone
5) Happiness....remember that thing we all had when we were 5yrs. old

Just shows you that you can get 10 different opinions from 10 people on every program. It's hard because you can't visit every program but you also can't really listen to other people. I would recommend doing aways based on location or other important tangible factors and not on opinions of others. The good news is that as you see on this site, most people end up liking/loving where they end up and end up very defensive of their program, even if it was not their top choice.

wadup to my dawgs md007 and StewieGriffin,

here's 2 cents ... programs do have there own personallities ... driven by the chairman and/or residency director .... depending on how this peron runs the program will dictate the baseline personallity ... the residents make up the rest of the personality ... in general, just based on the age of most residents coming out of medical school into orthopaedics, 25-28 y/o male, most tend to be in the phase of play hard ... we hope they work hard as well ... so i think besides just matching, it is probably better to look at location that suites you ...

as far as weighting of program, top heavy meaning you don't operate a lot intil you are in your upper levels, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th orthopaedic year. i personally believe that the important thing to look at is, are the residents doing level appropriate cases ... this is the most improtant ...

i will explain as an intern or 1st year ortho, doing a complex case as a first assist will #1 frustrate you attending because of the lack of understanding of what needs to be done and how to do it and #2 you won't take much out of it except for the coolness factor.

i do believe you need to be a good 1st assist to be a good surgeon, good first assists can anticipate, to anticipate you have to know the case and ways of getting there ....

so for me, complex cases sometimes are adult swim (meaning attending or fellow level cases) and others are kiddy pool ... in kiddy pool cases, what should happen in a upper level assists a lower level, 1 improving the upper levels ability to anticipate (an extremely improtant trait) and to get visualization (typically provided by the attending staff)

so, that's my take on weighting of programs and prgram personalities ... i know it was more like a few dollars than a few cents

my bad .... i am bored sitting in the staff lounge allowing my chief resident to spread his wings