After the first five years of Orthopaedic Surgery Residency

[jArsOfClay]

If anyone is in their Orthopaedic surgery residency and NOT planning on sub-specializing after the first five years: Please Tell me what you plan on doing next e.g. where are you going to work as a surgeon?

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[dobonedoc]

I plan to do general orhto in a small town. I like midwest USA life, and would like the variety. If I decided that I had to live in a popular urban area, I would do a fellowship - without question. Too many established groups to consider trying to break into an area as a general orthopedist.

 

[jArsOfClay]

What is the likelihood of hiring in to an established practice with only the five years (e.g. no sub)

 

[@70mphC2005--->]

Although I'm not a resident yet, I heard most do not specialize. Maybe if you're planning to teach in an Academic institution, you'd want to do a fellowship. Otherwise I usually don't hear of much specializing in private practice.

 

[Kalel]

I have an uncle who is a general orthopedist. He works 3 days per week and makes over one million dollars per year. There definitely is an oversupply of general orthopedists in some areas, but the job market is still pretty good. They had a study a few years ago which showed that areas with more orthopedists per population had more orthopedic procedures being done on the population instead of orthopedist working less in that area, so there is always inventing your own work too. For hand surgeons, my understanding is that most places have 1-2 hand specialists in a 50 mile radius, and these hand specialists make a fortune because they have tremendous negotiating power with insurance companies. Anyways, I haven't done too much research into orthopedics as a career, but the orthopedic residents who I have talked to seem very upbeat about their employment prospects after finishing residency.

 

[Orthopod]

After the interview trail, I found out that a majority of chief residents in ortho are doing fellowships even if they do not choose the academic career, because they would be more marketable when it comes time to look for jobs in private practice. At my school, 3/4 of the chiefs are doing fellowships this year, and none of them plan on going into academics.