Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
For the most part the faculty were pretty good with a few exceptions. I worked with Dr. Bhatia (PD) a little and he seemed really great to work with. Dr. Zamorano (other PD) wasn't around very much; I don't know if the residents work with him at another location or what but he isn't around very much. Dr. Gupta (chair) seemed really pleasant to be around; it seemed like he and the chief resident had a great relationship. I only worked with Dr. Jones once because there are a thousand people in his room, but the residents love him and the chief did everything in his cases.
Didactics / Teaching
This is the weak point of the program. I've now done 3 sub-i's and they have, by far, the worst lectures I've ever seen. In my entire month there, I did not see a single lecture from Bhatia, Zamorano, or Gupta. Dr. Jones runs his own lectures on Mondays which are resident presentations and he gives his insight. This doesn't seem to impact the residents though, the PGY-2s and chiefs were some of the brightest I've met. Not sure if they just read on their own or what.
Operating Experience
This is the best part of the program. Man, do they operate. The two chiefs had the best operative skills of any other residents I've seen, and they let their PGY-2's do a ton. This may be resident-dependent though because I heard the third chief sucks. But if you come from this program with bad operating skills, its your own fault. They are doing simple and complex cases with knife in hand. I saw PGY-2s doing cases that were considered "chief-level" at other places. One of the sub-i's even got to do a femoral intramedullary nail skin-to-skin.
Clinic Experience
Its heavy as a PGY-2 but light as a chief. The PGY-2s do this idiotic "Pre-op clinic" where they do pre-op H&Ps on all the elective cases. No learning whatsoever. And its 2-3 days a week.
Research Opportunities
I am really basing this solely on what residents have told me as I didn't do any research on my month there. Residents work mainly in Dr. Thay Lee (famous biomechanics guy) lab or Dr. Gupta's lab (nerve stuff?). Its there if you want it; apparently one of the chiefs is graduating with 10 or so publications but he said he might do academics. One of the PGY-2's already had some projects going.
Residents
This is kind of hit-or-miss. I only worked with 2 of the chiefs and the PGY-2s on my sub-i. The chiefs were awesome and 3/4 PGY-2s were good. But apparently there have been some problems with the other chief and some of the other residents. They all seem to get along well. One of the residents has a volleyball court at his house and they apparently play there a lot.
Lifestyle
They get absolutely rocked as a PGY-2 and a chief. They are consistently there until at least 8 pm every night. They said its only because its early in the year and they want to make sure everything is going well, but I'm not sure how they would get home earlier. THere is just so much work to do and too few residents to do it. They try and get the post-call guy home early (its technically "home call" but I don't know if they ever go home on call), but not always.
Location / Housing
Southern California. Housing is expensive. A few residents live with their parents because its so expensive. A few residents live in Newport Beach together and apparently party hard together.
Limitations
The major limitation is the lectures. Just horrible. If these got better, this would be an absolutely top-notch program. It is definitely not one where you are spoon-fed though. It worries me that there are NO adult reconstruction or sports guys there. They apparently get some joints and sports on other rotations, but all the residents said this was the biggest weakness.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
If you're willing to work hard, you will definitely reap the rewards and come out a top-notch surgeon. The two chiefs seemed happy with their fellowship matches but I can't remember where they're going. This will definitely be in the top of my list, but as someone who probably wants to do sports, I'm worried about not having a mentor and someone in the field to write letters for fellowship.
