Ortho Residency Question

[twsurfsnow]

Good morning,

I am a first year dpt student at UMiami and am wondering how competitive ortho residencies are for PTs and what I can do now to build my chances at earning one right out of school? I finished my first semester with around a 3.5 GPA which included 6 credit gross anatomy. But I know I want to be board certified in ortho, so I will definitely be applying right out of school, just wondering if any insight can be provided to what programs look at and how competitive they are?

Thank you

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[RPC2011]

APTA has great resources about the various residencies offered across the country. I believe the website is abptrfe.org specifically. Competitiveness continues to rise as they become more popular. The current ortho residency I just started interviewed 6 and took 3 for their program. If you have any further questions feel free to ask.

 

[engmedpt]

APTA has great resources about the various residencies offered across the country. I believe the website is abptrfe.org specifically. Competitiveness continues to rise as they become more popular. The current ortho residency I just started interviewed 6 and took 3 for their program. If you have any further questions feel free to ask.

What are you getting out of it?

 

[noyceguy]

Good morning,

I am a first year dpt student at UMiami and am wondering how competitive ortho residencies are for PTs and what I can do now to build my chances at earning one right out of school? I finished my first semester with around a 3.5 GPA which included 6 credit gross anatomy. But I know I want to be board certified in ortho, so I will definitely be applying right out of school, just wondering if any insight can be provided to what programs look at and how competitive they are?

Thank you

Mostly just save up your money so you can afford the overpriced tuition.

 

[BiffTheFlashRogers]

Mostly just save up your money so you can afford the overpriced tuition.

Aren't a growing number of residencies now no tuition + salary?

 

[PTMattI]

The few that I know of offer a reduced salary to offset the cost of the tuition

 

[noyceguy]

Aren't a growing number of residencies now no tuition + salary?

I have seen some listed with a salary of around $35,000. So an effective tuition of $30,000 (give or take).

 

[Sheldon]

Good morning,

I am a first year dpt student at UMiami and am wondering how competitive ortho residencies are for PTs and what I can do now to build my chances at earning one right out of school? I finished my first semester with around a 3.5 GPA which included 6 credit gross anatomy. But I know I want to be board certified in ortho, so I will definitely be applying right out of school, just wondering if any insight can be provided to what programs look at and how competitive they are?

Thank you

You don't have to complete a residency to earn the OCS credential, FWIW. However, all things being equal I've seen the difference between PTs who take the OCS and pass without residency training versus those who do residencies and then pass the OCS.

And, there are two types of residencies: 1) In-house 2) Hybrid. The in-house residencies are typically year-long intense programs with reduced salary (albeit I've not seen one as low as what is being mentioned here) while the hybrid residency allows you to work full-time at your current job while you complete the hours and classes intermittently over the course of 1-2 years. Hybrid programs such as EIM, NxtGen, NAIOMT, among others, exist and should not be discounted or over-looked.

Good luck!

 

[DesertPT]

Just think about the fact that if you are doing it just to have those OCS letters after your name, you are doing it for the wrong reasons. Not making any assumptions about you, btw. I wouldn't say the OCS has become dime-a-dozen, because it is a respectable cert. But any PT who has been working in ortho for a couple years can study for the exam and take it, as long as they are willing to cough up the bucks. As this is the area where the largest number of PTs work, the OCS has become reasonably common. There are probably 7-8000+ OCS's in the country, and I would venture to guess that the majority of them did not complete a residency. I would also guess that if being an OCS didn't cost $130/year we'd have a lot more of them. Maybe @Sheldon can correct me if I'm off base here.

In my opinion you should think about a residency only if it is something you want for your personal knowledge base, growth and clincal/professional abilities. Ask yourself if you would still do it if it did not lead directly to you becoming an OCS. And PT residencies are still so hyper-variable that it takes a lot of research on your part to find one that's a good fit.

And don't spend the rest of PT school looking at the non ortho portions of your curriculum as hoops that must be jumped through either. Keep an open mind. Most people go into PT school liking ortho, because that is the area in which most applicants have the most personal experience. But some people fall in love with neuro, some with peds, some with acute care, some with geriatrics, etc. A select few will fall in love with areas like cardiopulmonary, wound care, hand therapy, etc.

Sorry, off my soap box now.

 

[SnowyDPT]

Will Ortho jobs eventually be limited to PTs who do get the cert and complete a residency?

 

[engmedpt]

Will Ortho jobs eventually be limited to PTs who do get the cert and complete a residency?

Eventually at some point. Its economics for something that gets harder and harder to get into and then they'll low ball you since its supposed to be training. Thats what happened to clinical pharmacy and my brother in law who hires for hospitals literally says the same thing with some of the physicians hired. Fellowship, fellowship, fellowship.

Although they have to do residency since its in law and their practice has much higher risk and immediate value to the patient since they diagnose disease and prescribe meds/ perform surgery.

Its optional for now, and I think that's a good thing, but eventually it will get tacked onto job descriptions. Until I see stats from residency outcomes, that's how I'll feel about it. If stats come out showing significant training value and outcomes then I may change my mind and start to support it.

It's still probably a good option for some people.

Edited for jesspt down below.

 

[AlanWattsBlues]

Its optional for now, and I think that's a good thing, but eventually it will get tacked onto job descriptions. Until I see stats from residency outcomes, that's how I'll feel about it. If stats come out showing significant training value and outcomes then I may change my mind and start to support it.

I wonder if there are any articles out there beyond this one (which didn't find a bump in patient outcomes with residency training):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25579690​

Kinda surprised me... but then all of this stuff gets so complicated. It's not just "did you do a residency?", it's "did you do the right residency?"

In trying to come up with a game plan for how to develop better clinical skills in an ortho environment, I'm not sure if a residency is at the top of my list. Really what I want to see is an article that profiles the top 2% of PTs based on FOTO scores so that I can try to reverse engineer how they got to where they are. Not an RCT, but it's something.

 

[engmedpt]

I wonder if there are any articles out there beyond this one (which didn't find a bump in patient outcomes with residency training):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25579690​

Kinda surprised me... but then all of this stuff gets so complicated. It's not just "did you do a residency?", it's "did you do the right residency?"

In trying to come up with a game plan for how to develop better clinical skills in an ortho environment, I'm not sure if a residency is at the top of my list. Really what I want to see is an article that profiles the top 2% of PTs based on FOTO scores so that I can try to reverse engineer how they got to where they are. Not an RCT, but it's something.

Yep.

 

[SnowyDPT]

At this point in time, is it the right decision for new grads to do a residency? Or have we not gotten to that point yet

 

[engmedpt]

At this point in time, is it the right decision for new grads to do a residency? Or have we not gotten to that point yet

That's your decision


Using the previous posts as reference, it's like you're asking if economics are competitive enough to push residency or if there is evidence showing its a done deal on being a good route to go for education which isn't being shown right now according to Alan

 

[DesertPT]

Although they have to do residency since its in law and their practice has much higher risk and immediate value to the patient since they diagnose disease and prescribe meds/ perform surgery.

Thank you, I had forgotten what doctors do

 

[engmedpt]

Thank you, I had forgotten what doctors do

I'm stating a rationale for why their residency is required to practice and pharm, pt, others (ot, vet except surgery) don't have that at least as of now. Higher risk. Not sure why describing distinction between residencies is a bad thing

 

[jesspt]

Will Ortho jobs eventually be limited to PTs who do get the cert and complete a residency?

Very unlikely. At least not within the next several decades.