Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
The staff here are exceptional when it comes to operating and clinical judgment. Every single one of them works hard for resident education. The previous poster is correct in one aspect: our program director is one of the nicest and intelligent surgeons I've ever worked with. He is an amazing teacher in and out of the OR. I'd have to completely disagree with what was said about our chairman. We make sure that every T is crossed and I is dotted when he rounds, but not because we're scared of him...his number one priority is excellent patient care and we want to make sure he knows that the ortho patients are well taken care of. As far as the other staff, Dr. Zamorano is an amazing teacher and gives you great autonomy in the OR. The same thing can be said about almost all our other staff. I can only think of one hat I would even call a little "handsy."
Didactics / Teaching
This used to be our weak point, but in the last 4 or 5 months we have drastically changed our didactics as our chairman/PD noted this weakness. We now have specialty-specific lectures that have been incredibly useful as can be noted in our OITE scores which have drastically improved.
Operating Experience
It's been said in the previous posts, so I won't say anymore...we operate a ton with instruments in hand, not standing on the sidelines.
Clinic Experience
Orthopod211 was quite wrong in this aspect. We have attending covering and present in every single clinic we have. Every once-in-a-while a trauma attending covering fracture clinic might have to run to the OR for an hour or so, but we just throw up the x-ray in the OR and tell the story and get the advice we need. On any given day, we have 3-5 ORs running and 1-2 residents in clinic. Clinic feeds the OR, so none of us are sorry for the clinic...I don't think any of us think of it as "too much clinic."
Research Opportunities
Expansive....almost too much. Sometimes have to tell the attendings that there is just not enough time to start another research project. They're perfectly fine with this. I think we have 30-40 podium or poster presentations at the academy meeting.
Residents
I'm obviously biased, but I personally think that our residents are great. A lot of us are very different but for the most part, we all get along really well. We hang out as much as we can outside of work. A bunch of us go on snowboarding, surfing, volleyball, camping, etc together. We also get great fellowships (ie Rush Sports, Miami Spine, Harvard Sports, San Diego Joints).
Lifestyle
I'm not sure how lifestyle can be much better. As PGY-2's (our hardest year) we get 2 full weekends off a month. After our PGY-2 year, it's all home call. Not sure who Orthopod211 was talking to, but after talking to the guys in our class, we all average around 80 hrs per week. Sure, there are weeks when we go over, but there are also weeks that we go under.
Location / Housing
It's Southern California. I went surfing post-call on Friday and then Saturday morning, and went snowboarding Sat afternoon to Monday (President's Day weekend). The location is incredible.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
I love it here. I can't imagine being anywhere else. I felt compelled to write this after reading Orthopod211's post as I felt a lot of it was untrue. I've made some really great friends here and I know I've made professional contacts that I can ask for help from the rest of my career.
