Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
The chairman Dr Gelberman was very nice. He is dedicated to this being a top program for years to come and has turned down many other chairman positions elsewhere. The faculty is a who's who of ortho with great mentors in every field. I was impressed with the camaraderie between the residents and the staff as well, everyone seemed very happy here.
Didactics / Teaching
Top notch, have and impressive core curriculum and have dedicated didactics Tue-Thurs run by faculty and then grand rounds on Wednesday after lecture. Specialty conferences are Mondays and/or Fridays depending on the service. All were very good and well attended by staff who gave their own clinical pearls. Also, the ORs are not open during resident didactic time, so it's not as if Attendings are off doing cases while residents are in didactics.
Operating Experience
I though this was another strength of the program. The residents were well versed on the science/biomechanics behind the procedures they were doing as well as the technical aspects of doing them. On one of my teams it was a PGY3 and an attending. The PGY3 did almost every case skin to skin with the attending assisting. I actually saw fellows assisting residents. The program director emphasized that their first priority was to their residents.
Clinic Experience
Pretty standard, maybe 40% of the time is spent in clinic on services other than Trauma. Generally residents saw the patients and presented to attendings. Residents were expected to know management and from what I could see were pretty knowledgeable. Night float and trauma services make it so that you can handle anything that comes into the ER by the end of PGY2, and the ER is a pretty busy level 1 trauma center.
Research Opportunities
Tons of opportunities, good clinical research going on in all departments, and tons of basic science opportunities. There are 9 PhD staff and they are recruiting 3 more and they are all moving into brand new lab facilities soon. Three months of protected time for research (1 PGY2 and 2 PGY3) in which you are expected to complete a reasonably substantial project. Most residents do clinical but there was some basic science. Can do a year if that's your cup of tea.
Residents
Cool bunch of guys and gals that seemed to work hard, but liked to have fun and were fun to be around. A good group. Seem to get along really well with staff creating a very collegial atmosphere.
Lifestyle
They work hard on certain services (Trauma and night float especially) but have an easier time on rotations like sports and hand. Pretty standard I think.
Location / Housing
St Louis was actually nicer than I though. The central west end was nice and Forest park was beautiful. Certainly not New York, but a very nice city and not everyone is looking to live in a metropolis. Gets HOT in the summer but winter isnt bad. Rent can eb a little steep in walking distance to BJH but is very affordable overall.
Limitations
A very well rounded experience. I really can't think of many limitations. Some say that it is stuffy here, but I did not see that at all on my rotation. It seemed that the residents and attendings got along fabulously.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Had an awesome experience and will likely rank it very high, if not number 1.
