Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
attendings really interested in teaching. Dr. Bray has retired from operating and will likely retire from program director in next few years but he is an awesome guy. few, if any changes would be expected if/when he steps down.
Didactics / Teaching
residents led teaching lectures on many occasions. they have anatomy lab and all the essentialls. they have a great academic feel and teaching is along those lines.
Operating Experience
seemed pretty good based on my experience. there is enough trauma and joints and sports to go around, even given the addition of a joints fellow (possibly 1 in 2009 and 2 in 2010). there were rarely two residents scrubbed in a case except on trauma. also, they have a shriner's hosp along with the regular peds hosp so peds is definately a plus. they also have awesome trauma attendings and the whole steadman-hawkins sports so they have plenty of attendings to go around. the addition of joints fellows was viewed as a positive by some residents to offload some crazy revisions so the residents could focus on primary replacements while leaving the revisions to the fellows
Clinic Experience
they have a resident and attending clinic. most of the resident pts are indigents so i'm not sure they get a lot of experience managing private clnic pts, except the Steadman-Hawkins clinics but most of this is just shadowing and not real management by the residents
Research Opportunities
this is truely a commnity program with an academic feel. there is a good amount of research resources available and attendings that publish a good amt of papers so opportunities are there. i believe their requirement is one "publishable" paper during residency
Residents
overall, a very good bunch of guys and girls (2 in the class currently). they expanded 3-4 a couple years ago but in 2008 there was one female ms5 and one female intern. they weren't as close as residents in some other SE programs (see MCG and Chattanooga) but they definately stuck up for each other and got along great overall
Lifestyle
Greenville is a great place to live. several residents live bike ride distance from the hospital. they cover 3 hospitals around greenville (30 min drive to some) so there is that but overall it is a great SE town to live in. these are not hospitals to cover on call but rather clinic and OR time
Location / Housing
nearly all residents own a house. very affordable. go to zillow.com to check out a map with overlaid house pricing info.
Limitations
only limitation is that they have a reputation as being a numbers program (i.e GPA and step I score - maybe 250-260'ish). otherwise, seems like a program with a graeat faculty and a great hospital system.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
awesome place to rotate. free apartment, free food (cafeteria, subway and chick-fil-a). this is definately a community program with an academic feel. very cool residents. however, they do not have a SE bias, they have residents from all over the US - not just confined to the southeast. if you think you might be interested in sports, peds, joints or trauma, consider rotating here if you have the numbers
