Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Dr. Baker is the program director. He is quiet and somewhat hard to read. The residents seem to like respect and like him. Most of the attendings are non-academics. The level 1 trauma experience/service is probably the strongest part of the program. Dr. French and Dr. Poka are academically minded and run a nice trauma conference once a week at Grant.
Didactics / Teaching
Didactics are 4 times a week most of the year. 3 out of the 4 days a week are resident driven consisting of reviewing things like OKU or OITE questions. The one day of trauma conference is the strongest part of the diadactics.
Operating Experience
Varies depending on which attending. The residents on the trauma service need to compete with two trauma fellows to get knife time. I rotated on Sports, Hand, Joints, and at Doctors. From what I saw, most of the time the residents (including chiefs) were glorified assistants instead of doing large portions of the cases.
Clinic Experience
This is probably one of the stronger aspects of this program. The program is service based so you spend time in clinic with your attendings.
Research Opportunities
As I mentioned above, nearly all of the attendings with the exception of Drs. Poka and French on the trauma service at Grant are not academically minded. Very few of the residents are active in research.
Residents
The residents are pretty nice. This is not a malignant environment. On the other hand, it is also a fairly large program (they take 5 residents/year now) so it doesn't have the same feel as some of the smaller programs where everyone is hanging out. Regardless, most of the residents are good guys.
Lifestyle
A big strong point of this program. It is service based and many of the services have very nice hours. The call schedule is not too bad. I've heard rumors of very nice moonlighting opportunities during senior years as well.
Location / Housing
Columbus is very livable. Housing is cheap, traffic is not bad, and downtown has a few attractions.
Limitations
Many students rotate through here making this program very competitive. I've heard that you are at a big disadvantage if you don't have stellar board scores. Also, I've heard talk that female applicants are not looked upon highly here (by the attendings, not the residents).
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
I rotated here as a student.
