I'm not sure if this has been done before. If not, it's long overdue. This is more for future ortho hopefuls to have an idea of what to expect for aways. I'd like to start up an away rotation review thread. Also there should be multiple reviewers of the same program to offer different points of view. Perhaps the masses can decide on the best format. But I'll use mine for now.
Rotation: Georgetown
Location: Washington D.C.
Hospitals: Georgetown University Hospital, Washington Hospital Center
Max rotators: 8
Rotators come back for interviews: No. All rotators are ranked. All rotators meet with the PD and chair separately.
Summary of rotation: Two weeks are spent at GUH and two weeks spent at WHC. GUH is your typical academic hospital (bunch of buildings mashed up together, easy to get lost). All Georgetown attendings are at this hospital. It's a very white collar place for ortho. Residents and students are shirt and tie at all times when not in the OR (which means you arrive and leave the hospital in shirt, tie, and white coat).
There is no clinic for students. The entire 2 weeks is spent in the OR. Weekends are off unless you are on call. You basically come in the morning of weekend call and leave when all the morning work is done. Call at GUH is home call. You only come in at night if something comes into the ER (rare). So there are no post-call days off. Most times there are 3rd years on the rotation with you. They do the H&P for all the non-inpatient patients the day of surgery and scrub in to most cases with you. Also, students don't write any notes, but round and change dressings with the residents in the morning.
Teaching is second to none but can be intimidating. Every Monday and Thursday are what are called "Delahay rounds" where the PD picks patients at random on the floor to round on and the 3rd year student presents the patient from memory. Then the PD just starts pimping everyone in front of everyone: all students and all residents. No one is immune to pimping and everyone except senior residents will eventually be made to look stupid even if you know your stuff. Every Tuesday mornings are what are called "X-ray rounds" where the PD sits down in the conference room with all the 3rd and 4th years. He throws up an X-ray and picks someone at random to read. Then the presenter and everyone in the room just gets pimped really hard. But you learn a lot. On Tuesdays, the 4th years also meet with one of the spine attendings and present a spine and a trauma case. Then everyone gets pimped about the cases. See a trend here? As long as you accept the fact that you won't know everything (and neither will anyone else) you'll actually learn a lot with the right attitude. Grand rounds are on Tuesday evenings which is followed by fracture conference for the residents (students attend too).
WHC is like your typical public hospital so the atmosphere is more chill, but more inefficient. It gets a lot of trauma from in and around DC. There's also the run of the mill elective ortho stuff too (joints, sports, etc.) The Gtown residents and GWU residents are here and there are WHC and GWU attendings there. Whether you are in the OR or clinic is basically random. Clinic is basically a resident clinic so you get to see patients essentially by yourself (and do their injections). Call is overnight and a lot of good stuff (mvc, guns, knives) comes in. Post call day is off after morning rounds. Students don't write any notes, but round and change dressings with the residents in the morning.
