just wondering...

You dont belong in ortho.

most places start OR at 7:30, so the RESIDENTS have to be done rounding before then. Once you are an attending you can round whenever you want and work as much or little as you want. Your pay will be affected and you partners in the group may not appreciate you not picking up your share of the work. as far as easy call nights as painful as it may seem it is the volume of experience you see that helps build your proficiency although it may not seem that way taking care of a drunk guys boxer fracture at 4am

Just from my experience, there is no easy program but there were some that definitely seemed harder than others. The more "blue-collar" programs from my experience and from what I heard:

-UT Southwestern
-UT - San Antonio
-University of Southern Cal
-St. Louis University
-Wash U
-Emory
-Virginia Commonwealth


That being said, I think that some of these programs are absolutely top-notch. One thing I looked for was whether call as a chief was in-house or home call. But as, Phillyortho said, if you're looking for a cush residency you might want to look in another specialty.

are you saying "blue collar" as in more demanding/more hard work, or do you mean easier?

I think "blue collar" is a euphemism - a way to sugarcoat the fact that you will get your arse spanked. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Seriously though - all of the current residents have known nothing but the 80-hour work week. The current PGY-5's were the first intern class to experience it. The only way the true "blue collar" program could exist today would be for it to violate all of the ACGME work hour restrictions.

My opinion, FWIW, is to find a program not laden with trauma. You want a balanced program that gives you plenty of trauma, along with plenty of elective as well. The ideal program pushes the trauma operative experience into the early years, with less trauma in the senior years. q3 in-house call as a chief in trauma is pretty rough and somewhat laborious since you have likely already put in over 100 nails and you aren't excited to put in another.

The bottom line is that very few orthopods will be doing large volume trauma after graduating. The great part about trauma, though, is it "teaches" you how to operate. You learn all of your basic techniques that you will carry onto your elective services. Hence the reason (IMO) that you would like to get hammered with trauma at the beginning, and have less (and preferrably none in-house) call as a chief. Just my 2 cents on the matter.

I see two scenarios:

1. You are joking.

This is funny. You obviously have been around to see and hear how the lazy (and less qualified) students act on their away rotation. They actually think what they are doing is "work" and somehow harder than what the residents (and even attendings) are pulling off every day. They don't realize that they are simply learning and as intimidating as it may be, things will only get tougher with each level. They bemoan their efforts and usually come across as whiners without so much as a shot of matching (despite being given the courtesy interview for rotating). They are amusing on many levels. Funny stuff.

2. You are serious.

In this case, see scenario 1. You have probably wasted your away sub-I by coming across as above, even if you don't realize it.

Seriously, if you are looking to start after 8:00 and take easy call you really need to consider looking around at other specialties. Not being critical, but you need to realize this about yourself now, before you're two years into an ortho residency and miserable. I doubt there are any programs out there matching your criteria. I trained at what was considered a country club program, but 6:00 (AM by the way) rounding and 12+ hours days were common on some (certainly not all) rotations, and call was primary and up to seven a month for five years, and typically busy. With the new 80-hour work week, things have changed at many programs, but a basic expection of having some sort of work ethic has not.

we start our day at 6 am, there are only 4 total residents i n my program , 1 in each year... and we have a daily list of 25-35 patients, mostly from trauma ( broward general in ft. lauderale, level 1 trauma baby)
anyways, we dont leave untill we are done, and thats usually in the eveingin.
80 hr work week, LOL, i wish

anyways, go be a family practice doc or something if u want it plush, .... ill be put a rod in a femur