Oklahoma Program

i rotated there a year ago (Fall 2005) and really liked the program. the residents are an outstanding group of people-very personable, hard working, fun to be with. i also really enjoyed the faculty i worked with- they are strong in trauma and peds (the services i rotated on). the main hospital, childrens and VA are on one campus so there isnt a lot of driving you have to do for different rotations. oklahoma city/surrounding suburbs are a safe and cheap place to live. the program is family friendly if that applies to you. the only concern i had was the joints experience which was weak but i have been told that they are correcting this issue. the chiefs all had lined up really good fellowships. this is a solid residency program that i think flies under the radar- check it out.

I'm currently a 4th year resident at Oklahoma and will try to answer some of your questions. I have been very happy with my experience at OU. It's a very good mix of oversight and independence. As stated, I would probably say our strengths are trauma and peds, but I am getting plenty of experience in all areas. I am going to be a general Orthopedist in the Air Force and will be comfortable operating from the beginning. Our VA rotation goes a long way in gaining independence doing knee scopes, shoulder scopes, knee replacements and hip replacements. I also did 2 total shoulders and 1 hemi in one week. These are all with me being the primary surgeon.

Atmosphere - Very family friendly. Can't remember any residents getting divorced. Probably about 80% married. Also no residents have left our program (voluntary or involuntary) in about 8 years. Lots of residents having babies so very understanding.

Residents - This is the reason I liked OU so much. All the residents seem to get along and have fun together. No competition between each other and always looking out for each other and covering for each other.

OR experience - see above. We have plenty of residents that go into general orthopedics and are very comfortable operating. You definitely don't have to do a fellowship but we have plenty that do if that is what you want.

City - My wife and I were very concerned about moving to Oklahoma City when we found out we matched here, but we have really fallen in love with it. It's a very nice size town. It's big enough to have many nice restaurants, pro basketball team (just lost the hornets but may get the sonics), AAA baseball team, etc but small enough to not have much traffic. I live in Edmond (just north of OKC) and can get to the hospital in 15 minutes. Cost of living means you can buy a nice house in a safe neighborhood on a resident's salary and still be only 15 minutes from work. Don't underestimate that importance.

Advantages - We have no away rotations or traveling. The department is very established and strong. We have three endowed chairs. OU Medical Center is strong and continues to build.

Weaknesses - We are not very strong in research (this was actually a plus for me as my interest was in general orthopedics). If you desire to do research, the opportunites are definitely there but you will have to work a little harder and more legwork than at other places. This has not seemed to hurt any of the residents from getting into good fellowships though.

I would be happy to answer any other questions anyone has. If you are really interested, I would definitely recommend doing a rotation here.

Mayday,

I sent you a PM.

Can anyone give an update about this program? I see they increased their resident size and I am wondering how it affected the program.

What are the program strengths and weaknesses?
How early do the residents get to operate?
Any other information about the program would be great.

I'm a resident at OU. The increase in size will start with this years interns. We also added another PGY2. So we don't know the impact yet.
But, it will be for the better. We have a few rotations that extra residents are needed and the extra resident a year will fill those areas nicely. We just recently went to a night float system for trauma call and it has been a good experience so far and will be even better with more residents.

OU is a good program. You will learn how to operate and learn alot about orthopedics. I think we have a good mix of clinical and didatics. We have done well as a program on the OITE. Depending on how motivated you are, you can start operating as early as your intern year. You do 3 months of ortho as an intern and can get in the OR if you want to. You definitely operate alot starting your second year.

Strengths of the program are definitely trauma. Maybe even a little trauma heavy, but I know in with me that is really were I learned to operate. Peds is also strong. Peds attendings will hand you the knife day one and let you do the entire case. We get good sports experience and I feel really comfortable with arthroscopy. Hand, shoulder, elbow are all good. Our foot and ankle experience has gotten better because we just added a full time attending that is awesome and lets you do almost all of the cases. Spine is what you make of it. I'm not interested in spine so I just worked hard and learned what I needed to but not much more. But, if you are interested you could have a good experience. (we have 2 spine guys). We have a tumor guy so we don't have to go somewhere or to a course to get tumor exposure and it is a really good experience and you learn alot about tumor. We all do well on that section on OITE usually. Our main weakness, in my opinion, is joints. We don't have a full time joints guy, but our tumor guy does the most so you will learn from him and we have a VA where we do a lot of joints. I feel comfortable doing a primary total knee or hip. We just don't see many revisions. If you are into research this might not be the place for you. We are lacking in that area.

In the last few years, most people are doing fellowships and getting good spots and good places where they want to go. But, we have a few that go directly into private practice and do well.

I really like our program. I think it prepares you to be a good surgeon.

okortho, I sent you a pm