ortho-stereotype.

[Pegasus82]

of course there is a wide variety of personalites applying for and doing ortho.
but is there a stereotyp here?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Hardbody]

of course there is a wide variety of personalites applying for and doing ortho.
but is there a stereotyp here?

Stereotypes always have some truth to them, although they do not hold water 100% of the time (obviously).

Ortho stereotype: Type A gunner, former athlete, semi-arrogant, good looking, tall male.

 

[Pegasus82]

Stereotypes always have some truth to them, although they do not hold water 100% of the time (obviously).

Ortho stereotype: Type A gunner, former athlete, semi-arrogant, good looking, tall male.

what does "type-a-gunner" mean? (Im not from a english-speaking country)

 

[Mooby]

what does "type-a-gunner" mean? (Im not from a english-speaking country)

Type-A refers to more aggressive individuals (The opposite is Type-B's which are more passive)

A "gunner is just someone who is ambitious.

 

[hammena1]

I would replace "gunner" with motivated. A gunner is typically quietly disliked by compatriots for their attempts to shine at the expense of others while most ortho residents are well liked. You have to play nice.

 

[VincentAdultman]

Stereotypes always have some truth to them, although they do not hold water 100% of the time (obviously).

Ortho stereotype: Type A gunner, former athlete, semi-arrogant, good looking, tall male.

Four out of five!

 

[Playmakur42]

Four out of five!

X

 

[Matth52]

I would have to agree with the stereotyping. I work at at sports med center with plenty of orthopedic surgeons and that seems to fit them pretty well. Well I guess it fits me pretty well too, and this is what I want to do.

 

[Frank Hardy]

Stereotypes always have some truth to them, although they do not hold water 100% of the time (obviously).

Ortho stereotype: Type A gunner, former athlete, semi-arrogant, good looking, tall male.

You forgot to include white. Does anyone know what percentage of ortho docs fit this profile?

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

You forgot to include white. Does anyone know what percentage of ortho docs fit this profile?

I'm not sure if there are particularly more white ortho docs than any other surgical specialty, but that doesn't say much.

 

[Pegasus82]

You forgot to include white. Does anyone know what percentage of ortho docs fit this profile?

yeah, not a lot of minorities in ortho. wonder why?

 

[cdql]

I would guess that as you go higher up along the education pathway, there are less and less minorities. (The school I go to has a sparkling minority percentage of less than 5%. I love how they feed us with this diversity BS every year and then turn around and ignore their own advice)

But one can imagine how difficult it must be to get into med school if you are a disadvantaged minority (yes, generalization. not all minorities are disadvantaged)

But if getting in is hard enough, getting all honors, getting the high board scores, building contacts, getting great LORs, etc... etc... must be even tougher. That could explain why there are few minorities in that field. (Just a guess...not trying to incite race wars or anything here!)

 

[Hardbody]

FYI, I know of a very successful spinal ortho pod that is an african-american. Just thought I would give some inspiration to any URM's wishing to obtain ortho, although none of my stereotype traits had anything to do with race.

 

[MossPoh]

FYI, I know of a very successful spinal ortho pod that is an african-american. Just thought I would give some inspiration to any URM's wishing to obtain ortho, although none of my stereotype traits had anything to do with race.

I met one too...went to ucsf for medical and university of chicago for undergrad....really smart guy.


I seem to fit the stereotype pretty well. I am not sure I am "gunner" status..but close to it. 6'5", former powerlifter/football tons of other sports...can be a jackass, white.....like using powertools.lol

 

[thackl]

I never really considered this field much, but sooooo many tell me I'll end up in it

6'6", 225, former 3 sport varsity, remodel homes (POWER TOOLS!) for the last 4yrs in free time (since getting out of engineering). Top-o-the-class and excellent step1...... guess I fit the mold?

What kind of hrs you guys work?

 

[MossPoh]

I never really considered this field much, but sooooo many tell me I'll end up in it

6'6", 225, former 3 sport varsity, remodel homes (POWER TOOLS!) for the last 4yrs in free time (since getting out of engineering). Top-o-the-class and excellent step1...... guess I fit the mold?

What kind of hrs you guys work?

Except for the medschool stuff we seem to be in the same boat.lol I still need to get to the school though! I was a little heavier too...(255 at 8 percent bf during football...swimming dropped it down a bit)

 

[rouge et noir]

Stereotypes always have some truth to them, although they do not hold water 100% of the time (obviously).

Ortho stereotype: Type A gunner, former athlete, semi-arrogant, good looking, tall male.

If I'm not mistaken, but isn't that the stereotype for basically all surgeons in every discipline?

 

[rouge et noir]

I never really considered this field much, but sooooo many tell me I'll end up in it

6'6", 225, former 3 sport varsity, remodel homes (POWER TOOLS!) for the last 4yrs in free time (since getting out of engineering). Top-o-the-class and excellent step1...... guess I fit the mold?

What kind of hrs you guys work?

6'6"? what the hell are you a giant? well you'll certainly tower over most your patients, and other surgeons as well.

 

[Dr JPH]

6'6"? what the hell are you a giant? well you'll certainly tower over most your patients, and other surgeons as well.

Table up please....up....up...more please...table up more please...

 

[RxnMan]

I never really considered this field much, but sooooo many tell me I'll end up in it

6'6", 225, former 3 sport varsity, remodel homes (POWER TOOLS!) for the last 4yrs in free time (since getting out of engineering). Top-o-the-class and excellent step1...... guess I fit the mold?

What kind of hrs you guys work?

You never really stop being an engineer - we're born this way!

I'm also interested in power tools and the fun devices that orthopods use to fix people. How did you adapt to med school? That is, how did you manage the educational transistion from "understanding and knowing how to apply a concept" to, "memorize this book?"

 

[Hardbody]

If I'm not mistaken, but isn't that the stereotype for basically all surgeons in every discipline?

It is the stereotype for other surgeons, but for other surgeons you have to subtract the good looking and tall portion ! J/K

 

[MossPoh]

I always wondered what it ment to be taller as a surgeon. I hate working really far away from things with my hands sometimes. How high do those tables go? lol Back pain from standing there would be a bummer too!

 

[greenbean]

my mom is an ortho-gal ,she does mostly hips though: she's short(4'11"), now overweight, she's very funny, pretty strong and tough,oh yes she's an fmg

when i did my ortho rotation, i found most of the attendings to be: white, jewish, some were very tall some were 5'5"(so not so tall), not all of them were into athletics(definitely not the hand ones or the one of the knee ones), all were hilarious, i loved just talking to all of them

hope this helps

 

[Hardbody]

my mom is an ortho-gal ,she does mostly hips though: she's short(4'11"), now overweight, she's very funny, pretty strong and tough,oh yes she's an fmg
when i did my ortho rotation, i found most of the attendings to be: white, jewish, some were very tall some were 5'5"(so not so tall), not all of them were into athletics(definitely not the hand ones or the one of the knee ones), all were hilarious, i loved just talking to all of them

hope this helps

Wow, that certainly isn't what comes to mind when I think of an orthopod. Good for your mom, she obviously got into ortho when very few women were taken seriously in the field and she is also an fmg. I can't even imagine what kind of hard work she must have put in to reach that level.

 

[tncekm]

I never really considered this field much, but sooooo many tell me I'll end up in it

6'6", 225, former 3 sport varsity, remodel homes (POWER TOOLS!) for the last 4yrs in free time (since getting out of engineering). Top-o-the-class and excellent step1...... guess I fit the mold?

What kind of hrs you guys work?

6'6" 225? You're a rail! (Just messin' bud.)

Try 5'10 230 former wrestler, and of course the loud mouth with the disgusting/witty humor everyone adores

And, I'm premed, but surgery has always been VERY interesting to me.

 

[Frank Hardy]

my mom is an ortho-gal ,she does mostly hips though: she's short(4'11"), now overweight, she's very funny, pretty strong and tough,oh yes she's an fmg

when i did my ortho rotation, i found most of the attendings to be: white, jewish, some were very tall some were 5'5"(so not so tall), not all of them were into athletics(definitely not the hand ones or the one of the knee ones), all were hilarious, i loved just talking to all of them

hope this helps

Wow! Thanks for the encouragement green bean. Although I don't fit your mom's profile I'm definitely not an allstar quarterback or anything. Lean muscles, enjoy working out, love (now) watching surgery online or elsewhere, and hope to join everyone here soon.

 

[thejesus]

I would guess that as you go higher up along the education pathway, there are less and less minorities. (The school I go to has a sparkling minority percentage of less than 5%. I love how they feed us with this diversity BS every year and then turn around and ignore their own advice)

But one can imagine how difficult it must be to get into med school if you are a disadvantaged minority (yes, generalization. not all minorities are disadvantaged)

But if getting in is hard enough, getting all honors, getting the high board scores, building contacts, getting great LORs, etc... etc... must be even tougher. That could explain why there are few minorities in that field. (Just a guess...not trying to incite race wars or anything here!)

just wondering why we ignore ppl of indian and asian descent when considering minorities. together, i dont think they even make up 1% of the total population... in my med school class, they're probably well over 30%. and in ortho, theyre also fairly well represented.

its true though, lots of conservative, white christian males in ortho and surgery in general.

 

[Wahoos]

The sterotype is somewhat true but at the same time, you have a lot of Orthopods that do not fit the mold. There is less minorities (Black, Asian, Hisplanic, etc) in Orthopedics. Less than 8% of the residents are women. When I interviewed 2 yrs ago, every where I go, in a room of 30 people, maybe you see a few minorities, usually less than 1-2 women and lots of white male. I think the field attacts former atheletes because of the option of doing a operative sports fellowship. Most of the Ortho residents are very hard working and motivated, (you do have to do well in school and boards in order to get a spot) It is also a field where everyone tries to help each other.... not maligant. The operations are fun and the tools in the OR available to the Orthopod is unmatched. You do a lot for the patients and can often times restore their quality of life very rapidly. Many cool trauma cases.... scopes for the knee/ankle/shoulder.... joint replacements.... spine surgeries.... hand surgeries.... even Tumor fellowships = big cases of resections.

The Chairman of UVA Orthopedics is African American (Dr. Cato Lawrencin)and has a radiculous CV... MD from Harvard Med, PhD from MIT in tissue engineering, Residency at HSS (arguablly the highest regarded Ortho residency), Fellowship at HSS, and with many many patents / awards / publications of greater than 100 in peer reviewed journals / book chapters / etc, etc. The are also very promient Asian orthopods in Spine, Dr. An in Rush, Dr. Chan in Spine at UVA, etc. etc. Dr. Freddy Fu, Chairman of the U of Pitt Ortho Dept and huge name in Sports medicine, internationally well known. He has maybe 300-400 publications, numerous book chapters and books, many awards, etc. Dr. Wang, former chair at UVA and internationally known for total hip replacement and member of the Hip Society.

About the Tall and good looking part.... you don't need to be tall to do Ortho, just good looking , j/k. I have seen a 6'2" 220 lb male struggle with a distal radius fracture reduction in the ED, (wasn't able to reduce it), then the senior resident who is 5'3", about 110 lbs, and female, reduce the fx in less than a min. Real story. There is an attending that I worked with who is All American Center in Basketball 15 years ago in college, listed at 7'0" and yes, we are all on 1-2 blocks in the OR when operating with him. Orthopods come in all shapes and sizes.

 

[assos]

strong as a bull, and about as intelligent.

 

[Trajan]

The ortho residency director at Hopkins (an AMC alumnus) is 4'3" -- he specializes in peds ortho and id the world's only orthopaedic surgeon with achondroplasia.

Go Albany Medical College!

 

[volkl7]

strong as a bull, and about as intelligent.

please get it right, strong as a bull, and TWICE as smart!

 

[Frumps]

What do you think are the stereotypes of the other surgical specialties...such as: ENT, urology, ophthalmolgy, plastics, general, etc.??

 

[dobonedoc]

Typically they are short.

 

[dobonedoc]

Being short, they are more than "semi-arrogant." I think short and arrogant goes along with a particular syndrome . . .

 

[KitesurfDaEarth]

Plastics tend to be perfectionists
ENT guys are kinda anal
Urologists are very laid back
Neurosurg well......

 

[iliacus]

strong as a bull, and about as intelligent.

LOL...

 

[iliacus]

The ortho residency director at Hopkins (an AMC alumnus) is 4'3" -- he specializes in peds ortho and id the world's only orthopaedic surgeon with achondroplasia.

Wow, that guy may be only 4'3", but he sounds like he has a pair of nads that would make Shaq blush. I can only imagine what he had to get through to be where he's at now. Kudos....I'd let him operate on me.

 

[Jonassen]

Are East Asians in ortho relatively rare? Do they also have the ortho stereotype?
I'm somewhat interested in ortho (of course way too early to say with any certainty), and I fit the ortho stereotype, except not white.

 

[Hiram Coggin]

There is an attending that I worked with who is All American Center in Basketball 15 years ago in college, listed at 7'0" and yes, we are all on 1-2 blocks in the OR when operating with him. Orthopods come in all shapes and sizes.

lol, must be Dr. AK. He dips everytime he walks thru a door.

 

[khjb007]

I'm 5' 8'' and I'm not white and ortho wannabe