Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
With at least 2 staff in each subspecialty area (most of them young, energetic, and approachable), the staff @ MCW are a strength of the program. Our chairman knows the residents well, having personal interaction with each resident during rotations on his service. You would be hard pressed to find a more reasonable, grounded, fair-minded chairman. Our program director is a strong resident advocate who will go to bat for you if need be. He works as a site reviewer for the RRC and has guided our program well over the years, as evidenced by our recent 5 year re-accreditation.
Didactics / Teaching
We recently revamped our teaching conferences to include more structured, topic based lectures, with a set curriculum of topics to be addressed over a couple year cycle. This is intermixed with an appropriate amount of indications, M&M, and basic science lectures. Clinical teaching is very good.
Operating Experience
Operative volume and experience are the single biggest factor in my choosing MCW for residency. Our volume is a good bit above the national average, and the autonomy and independence is appropriate for the level of your training/ability.
Clinic Experience
We get enough clinical experience to learn solid diagnostic skills, treatment decision-making, post-op cares, and office/clinic management. Thankfully, this is not at the expense of operative experience.
Research Opportunities
Both clinical and benchtop research opportunities are available, with strong motion analysis labs for anyone interested. Staff accommodate resident directed research projects well, and often have a few projects of their own available. The one difficulty at our institution (probably not unique to MCW) is the IRB approval process, which can be arduous.
Residents
The program does an excellent job of selecting men and women of character, having good work ethics, strong moral/ethical standards, and a team focus. No-one is undermining anyone else for any reason, as this would not be tolerated by the resident body.
Lifestyle
The work hours are not a problem, with our program director making certain that all rules are followed closely. Average work-hours for me this past year have been in the low to mid 60s. <br />
Home call is an advantage, as it allows time with family when things are slow. Granted, the summer trauma season can be busy, but it allows for good training and is manageable even on the worst nights.
Location / Housing
The combination of a relatively high salary with good benefits, and a comparatively low cost of living, makes our program very livable. Many of the residents can afford to own homes in the area, with their spouses able to stay home with children if desired. Milwaukee is a nice sized city for residency, with pro-sports teams and concert/theater events always available. Traffic is mild for a city of this size.
Limitations
There are very few limitations, and certainly no deficiencies, that I have experienced.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
As stated yearly by our chairman before every interview session, the goal of the program is to turn out well-rounded, competent, capable orthopaedic surgeons who can function comfortably as general orthopeadic surgeons. This is certainly accomplished, even though the majority of the residents graduating the program choose to do fellowships. I have been very happy with the training I have received, and am glad I chose MCW.
