Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Most faculty genuinely friendly, approachable, and interested in teaching. A couple who showed no interest in medical students (I rotated here), but seemed to be more engaged with the residents. Both Stotts (program director) and Aoki (resident selection chairman) seem genuinely interested in getting to know you and your career goals to see if you'd be a good fit for the program. Several younger faculty members, several of whom came back after being residents at Utah; they seem to be a great asset in that they're enthusiastic about teaching and very engaged with current research.
Didactics / Teaching
4 mandatory hours of conference/week in the AM, plus an additional 1-2 hours/week that is subspecialty-specific depending on what service you're on. In particular, I found the Friday morning trauma lecture series very informative and well-done. Most faculty were great teachers in the OR and clinic, as well as some of the chief residents.
Operating Experience
This is actually my only hesitation about the program after rotating here. Residents are in the OR a lot, but spend a lot of that time watching and holding retractors, particularly through the R1 and R2 years, while the chief resident, fellow, or attending did the case. At times I even observed the fellows assisting the attending rather than taking the lead role--this seemed attending-dependent. On most of the services, however, enough volume so that residents were not double-scrubbed.
Clinic Experience
Again, very attending-dependent. In several clinics, residents exclusively shadowed the attending. In others, residents saw patients and wrote notes. Otherwise, it was your standard clinic. Of note, all the medical assistants were really pleasant to work with and helped clinic run smoothly.
Research Opportunities
Plentiful. Funding also does not appear to be an issue. All residents required to undertake one project of publishable quality, and have to present their research plan during a grand rounds-type presentation in June of their R2 year for feedback. Some time provided during your R4 year, but most gets done on your own time. If your project is done before your allotted R4 research time, you are able to do an international rotation elsewhere if you want.
Residents
Very friendly and welcoming. Lots have pretty impressive resumes, and most have significant research backgrounds. However, overall a pretty down-to-earth group. They do take their clinical responsibilities seriously, though, and are good about sharing the workload equitably.
Lifestyle
Seems pretty good. Several of the services have reasonable hours (7 am-4 pm), which many of the residents use to take advantage of the proximity to great skiing. Some ski 30+ days/season. Many are active outdoors. Night float system during the R2 year (10 weeks) helps take some of the pain away from trauma call for everyone else. Peds and hand services have their own call pool, so call frequency can be high but responsibilities are generally not that bad. Both of these are home call.
Location / Housing
In one of the nicest parts of the city, with good housing 10-20 minutes driving distance or less. Many residents buy houses in the Sugarhouse neighborhood, which is a well-maintained 1950s-style residential area just south of the university. No driving to disparate locations, and all rotations are done at the U. of U hospitals. Traffic is very mild.
Limitations
I did not find the large number of fellows to be detrimental to the resident experience; in fact, they typically had distinctly different roles and helped out the residents. As I mentioned previously, my only real concern about the resident experience was much "knife time" residents actually saw while in the OR. Chiefs all have an excellent theoretical knowledge of procedures, and seem to have good skills. Maybe this isn't such a big concern given the trend towards fellowship training in orthopaedics allowing an extra year to gain additional OR skills.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
I believe I would leave this program extremely well-educated in all major subspecialties of orthopaedics. You rotate on each service before the end of your R4 year, so ample exposure in which to make fellowship decisions. Resident life is pretty good, can't beat the proximity to great outdoor activities. Not malignant in any way. I can think of a lot worse places to train.
