- Staff / Faculty / Chairman
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From top to bottom, UW provides residents exposure to well experienced/published surgeons who are all approachable, excellent teachers and distinguished in their respective fields. Just to name a few, there is Dr. Routt (pelvis guru), Dr. Benirschke (he developed the Zimmer periarticular plate), Dr. Hanel (wizard when it comes to hand surgery), etc... Almost all of the attendings teach at AO courses, scope courses, and its easy to come across many of the published material from the attendings in JBJS, JOT (eg, Dr. Nork, Dr. Hansen, Dr. Leopold)
Currently the chair position is TBD but the interim Chair, Dr. Chapman is an endowed chair for Synthes spine and very well respected in the the spine community. The past chair, Dr. Matsen, wrote the book, "The Shoulder."
The ancillary staff at Harborview, UW, VA, Childrens are amazing. For example, there are NP's at Harborview to help the intern out with floor work. At Childrens, there is a hospitalist to take all the pain medications and tylenol calls while you concentrate on taking care of ortho consults.
- Didactics / Teaching
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Monday morning conference occurs from 7-10 am, these are dictated on a 2 year rotating curriculum that focus on anatomy, clinical presentation & exam, OITE q's, and are usually followed with either a dry sawbone or wet anatomy lab.
Grand rounds occur once a month every Wed, these are usually televised on UW TV.
Each service is different in terms of the teaching sessions, for instance, at Harborview there is fracture conference every Mon afternoon, every Fri there is chapter review of Skeletal Trauma that alternates with hand dissection.
- Operating Experience
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Each rotation offers different experiences.
Harborview Trauma, it depends, but there usually is a a fellow & attending in one OR and the chief and attending in the other. The junior gets to chose between and the experience varies depending on the complexity of the case from holding hook for really complex cases such as acetab fx, to drilling & placing screws, reaming and placing nails, suturing etc. Its not common for the junior to operate skin to skin but it does happen for junior level cases such as an isolated lateral malleolus fracture.
VA experience is awesome, the junior does all amputations from toes, rays, BKA, TFA and occasionally assists in TKA & THA. The upper levels operate with a ton of autonomy and operate on total shoulders, TKA/THA/TAA, DHS, etc...
F&A you work with Dr. Bernirske, Hansen, Sangeorzan.
UW you get total joints, sports, shoulder with Matsen etc...
Peds is peds.
VM you operate with community physicians and operate on a ton of joints.
Tumor operative experience is a potpourri of everything since Chappie Conrad basically does everything from large amputations to THA.
- Clinic Experience
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The gem for this program is the trauma experience at Harborview that is seriously second to none. Its a level 1 trauma center that covers Washington, Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, & northern Oregon.
It gets pretty busy during the summertime and your consults range in the mid to high 20's but during winter the consults dwindle to plateau fracture
5. L open 5th PIPJ fracture-dislocation
6. L2 vertebral body fracture with retropulsion & neuro deficits
7. C1 fx and C2 Type II dens fx, T4 & T8 vertebral body compression fx
8. R both bone forearm fx
9. T1 inferior facet fx, T3 spinous process fx, R coracoid fx
10. L mangled foot from lawnmower accident
11. L lateral malleolus fracture
12. R supracondylar femur fx
13. R midshaft humerus fx, R both both bone forearm fx, open L hand with MC fx, L distal 1/3 femur fx, R comminuted mid-diaphyseal femur fx, R both bone forearm fx
14. L open pilon fx
15. R posterior wall post column acetab fx and L IT proximal femur fx with reverse obliquity pattern
16. C1 & C2 fx, R scapula fx with extension into glenoid
17. C1 fx
- Research Opportunities
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The opportunities are tremendous. Having a wealth of resources in attendings you will find something that interests you. To graduate you need to have at least one "publishable" project.
- Residents
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We spend a lot of time outside the hospital such as BBQs, skiing/boarding, having a beer, etc...
All of us are different and come from various backgrounds but share one common thread, we all work hard.
- Lifestyle
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Even during the busiest year of your residency, your 2nd year, you still have time to do things outside such as ski/board since Mt.Baker, Crystal and Stevens are a short 2 hour drive away. There are plenty of trails to go hiking. If your not into the outdoors, there are a ton of restaurants, the nightlife is sweet, you can find live music any day of the week from punk/alternative at the croc to jazzy blues at paragon.
- Location / Housing
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Housing is not cheap but affordable, about 1/2 of my class own homes.
The good thing about Seattle are the numerous small neighborhoods and each has its own flavor. For instance, there is Capital Hill which is a flavor of metro/hipster, Queene Anne is young professionals, Greenlake/Wallingford is for young families, etc...
Seattle it rains quite a bit, but the summer here is amazing! When it rains it drizzles and there are bouts of sunshine to break up the gloomy days.
- Limitations
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The sports is not the strong suit for this program but it is improving. We've added one of our recent grads as staff and he is bringing in more sports exp into our program.
The operative exp at Harborview depends on the complexity of the case, but for other services such as hand your operative exp is excellent.
Its a large program but its nice because we all know each other and most of us spend time outside the hospital together.
- Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
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I never rotated here as a medical student but wish I had, it would have been a great experience.
For future rotators, if you decide to come here for a sub-I, it will probably be the hardest you will work while in medical school but you will come out having done distal femoral traction pins, splints, reductions, knee injections, etc... You will also see things some people never see while in residency.
We do NOT interview all rotators.
We only interview those that do a spectacular job and will make excellent residents. Again, we do NOT interview all rotators.
We attract the best of the best and if you rotate here its your chance to show us why you are creme de la creme.
For interviewees, when you come here check out the local area, get to know the residents and you'll find that we are all normal people who you can easily have a nice conversation with and hang out.
Residency training here will prepare you for any fellowship, you might not have the same case load as some community programs but you will come out of this program "fearless" in terms of your operative skill and orthopedic surgery knowledge.
