Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Big names. Big personalities to go with them. Everyone knows Dr. Zuckerman and he's a great resident advocate. The PD Dr. Egol is a bit brusque but also a resident advocate.
Didactics / Teaching
Excellent. Lots of conferences - indications, fracture, etc. Zuckerman does a biweekly conference that is basically a pimp session. I will say that although I wouldn't call these conferences malignant, I found the atmosphere...unpleasant. Still, fear can be a great motivator and the residents knew their stuff.
Operating Experience
Excellent, albeit only for the PGY-3/4/5. The PGY-2s at HJD were either in clinic, on the floor or in iCare, HJD's version of an urgent care center. My PGY-2 got into the OR once the entire month, and it was to help remove an ex-fix. I think one of the big perks at NYU, however, is that once you are a PGY-3, you spend most of your time in the OR and you work with many different surgeons so that you get an exposure to different ways of approaching an operation - such as doing a THA through an anterior approach. Like in all programs, some of the attendings don't like to give up the knife but others basically sat back and let the resident do the entire case.
Clinic Experience
Clinic is clinic.
Research Opportunities
Excellent. Dr. Egol is constantly pressing the residents to pump out some publications.
Residents
Huge program. Lots of residents. I liked most of them, didn't like some of them but when you have 62 that's bound to happen.
Lifestyle
Average. In terms of hours and workload, not too bad. However, the intense atmosphere of the place wore on me and I was only there for a month. Most of the residents seemed OK with it, so maybe it's a self-selecting group that ends up there.
Location / Housing
In my opinion, the best location of any of the Manhattan programs. You can live in the lower east side, east village, west village, lots of cool places. Seems like it's hard to get subsidized housing unless you're coming from far away. If you're from the tri-state area, forget about it. Obviously your rent is going to suck.
Limitations
The only problem I personally saw with the program (and what kept it from being in my top 3 programs) is the lack of in-depth experience on trauma at Tampa General Hospital. This is a top trauma fellowship, but the USF residents are kind of lost in the crowd as residents from several other programs are rotating at TGH also. I think if USF were to expand their experience at TGH and take more call, it would GREATLY improve the residency, in my opinion.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Great program overall with big names, big research, and a good breadth of training opportunities. That said, I didn't feel like I necessarily wanted to be in that atmosphere for 5 years. Others may love it though, so to each his own.
