This is a good question. I wish I had a good answer for you but I don't. I suppose I will know a lot more once I'm in practice for a while. The docs and fellow residents I work with certainly enjoy themselves. It is a long road and we do expect to be well compensated for our services. I think some dissatisfaction comes from the reimbursement cuts in orthopedics over the last 10 years. Yes we are still one of the highest paid MDs and I the right setting you can still make big bucks. But it is nowhere near as lucrative as it once was and I'm sure that is frustrating
Orthopedic Surgery, ask a resident anything
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Glad to hear you are interested. I think you should pursue all of your interests early in med school by seeking out mentors, Talking to senior med students, attending conferences, and participating in research. Scores of course are important. Of the interests you mentioned you should focus most of your energy on Ortho and IR because you can always decide to bail and do medicine (not as competitive). Yes, networking helps, but it can also hurt you if you don't make a good impression. I would mainly focus on getting a well rounded education and being a good all around residency candidate. These types of med students have no problem getting into whatever specialty they want, even if they make a last minute decision.
What do you think strengthened your chances of matching with an Ortho residency? Any weaknesses you wish you could have worked on? I work in an orthopedic clinic right now and am in love with it so I'm definitely interested.
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1. When salaries are reported to medscape, is that after accounting for malpractice?
2. We are going into/in a projected boom of TKA/THA - does this necessarily mean a great increase for orthopods in the market?
3. With new EHR like Echo and the cost of surgical equipment, what is the future of orthopaedic private practice looking like?
4. I saw that on Medscape hospital-employed orthopods report a much higher satisfaction with salary (although it was around 50K lower I believe). Could you delineate the hours worked and call between the typical private practice and hospital setting?
5. How much does AOA matter? Getting AOA at my school is going to be a challenge to say the least...
2. We are going into/in a projected boom of TKA/THA - does this necessarily mean a great increase for orthopods in the market?
3. With new EHR like Echo and the cost of surgical equipment, what is the future of orthopaedic private practice looking like?
4. I saw that on Medscape hospital-employed orthopods report a much higher satisfaction with salary (although it was around 50K lower I believe). Could you delineate the hours worked and call between the typical private practice and hospital setting?
5. How much does AOA matter? Getting AOA at my school is going to be a challenge to say the least...
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What is GU? General Urology? If there is "general" urology, are there other urologies?
Genitourology
Thanks for all the input RueTay.
I'm a MS3 getting ready to apply to Ortho this coming year. Couple questions I had....
1) What's the best way to figure out which programs are "family friendly"? Is it by observations while on interviews? Or something more objective like call schedule, level II trauma center, volumes, ect.? It seems like Orthogate reviews are all done by residents putting in a plug for their own program and all say the same thing lol
2) After having my Gen Surg rotation and seeing how beat down and miserable most the residents and faculty are, I'm wondering what the difference is compared to Ortho? Strictly in terms of lifestyle I mean....because I know many Gen Surg people don't choose to do that specialty and would've been more interested in a surgical subspecialty. So besides enjoying their work more, is there more of a "work hard play hard" mentality/personality in Ortho where there's a desire to get your stuff done and get out and have some time to enjoy?
3) And final quick question....Is it common for Ortho programs to have their interns NOT take call? Or am I misreading something when I look up programs?
Appreciate it.
1) family friendly is tough to define. Best to ask some of the 4th year med students who have been out on the interview trail to get their opinions. In general a family friendly program would have better call schedules, lots of other residents with families, they would be in smaller and more affordable towns so you can get a house and have shorter commute times.
2) we work hard but I feel like we have a lot more fun than the gen surf folks. There are fewer surgical emergencies certainly so we do less operating in the middle of the night. I guess I don't really understand your question. The work hard play hard thing has more to do with the individual than The specialty.
3) interns work hours restrict them to 16 hrs at a time in the hospital. This means if they are on overnight it has to be through a night float system. Or interns take Ortho call during the day and also do some night float.
The FM guy would have no surgical training. Certainly no orthopedic surgical training. They could still treat nonop sports injuries like sprains, strains, and maybe even stress fractures. They would refer anything operative.
That's really just a joke. I just think musculoskeletal anatomy is much more interesting than visceral anatomy.
Most 4th year medical students would do one home Ortho rotation (1month sub I). Then 2 away rotations at programs they want to go to for residency (each one month).
D
deleted421268
does it matter if one goes Osteopathic or Allopathic School for best chance to land oath residency? Considering this whole merger thing coming up in future. Also what does one need to do while in med school to get an ortho residency position?
Both are competitive. Without a doubt I think the Ortho training is better going the allopathic route. Especially with regards to academics. Job opportunities are more readily available to MD orthopods. It's anybody's guess what will happen after the merger. Right now very VERY few DOs match into MD Ortho residencies and I think that will not change right away just because of the merger. There will have to be a slow steady culture change that occurs before we see significant MD/DO residency mingling.
Your last question is answered extensively throughout earlier posts in this thread. Merry Christmas!
Your last question is answered extensively throughout earlier posts in this thread. Merry Christmas!
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This question applies to basically all surgical specialties not just ortho, but would you say the best (as in having the best surgical outcomes) ortho surgeons are simply the ones with the best hand skills? If so, do you think the way surgical candidates are chosen during the match should be re-worked to assess that particular skill rather than stratospheric Step 1 scores and research?
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It's both really. Good Scores research and letters are what get you to the table. By that I mean they get you an interview. The interview day Is a chance for programs to try to weed out the strange outliers and get a feel for who might fit in well at the program. Lots of programs actually will test your manual skills and three dimensional dexterity like how you handle a drill, knot tie, arthroscopic simulators, etc.
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Family friendly for a man or woman? Very different.
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Shouldn't this be "primary caregiver of the child(ren) vs not"? That could be either partner in a relationship. That person also may or may not even identify as male or female either.
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Shouldn't this be "primary caregiver of the child(ren) vs not"? That could be either partner in a relationship. That person also may or may not even identify as male or female either.
Whomever squats it out may be different than the primary care giver. And while times are changing, most are women.
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So as I said. Not man vs woman. Most is not all. And you forgot about adoption. So no one may "squat" it out.
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Adoption = non issue.
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Thank god that ortho is still the most conservative field in medicine and that you'd be shown the door if anyone ever heard you say something like this
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Hey thanks for doing this, I really appreciate it!
How significant of a disadvantage do you think it would be to go to a school with no home Ortho program?
I'm currently trying to decide if its worth the extra 30k a year to go to a private school (Tulane) that has an home program vs my state school (FIU) which doesnt even have a home hospital lol.
Also, have you ever heard of someone couples matching for ortho? Scary to think about couples matching when it's hard enough matching alone.
How significant of a disadvantage do you think it would be to go to a school with no home Ortho program?
I'm currently trying to decide if its worth the extra 30k a year to go to a private school (Tulane) that has an home program vs my state school (FIU) which doesnt even have a home hospital lol.
Also, have you ever heard of someone couples matching for ortho? Scary to think about couples matching when it's hard enough matching alone.
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Couples matching happens all the time.
Not sure about school choice and an extra 120k for a career path you might pursue. That said going after ortho without a home program would really suck, is there a program in the area?
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Sup Rue.
I really dig trauma/EM, how often do y'all cross paths? Doesn't ortho see a lot of ER pts on call et cetera? How often do you guys operate on patients in critical shape because of the musculo-skeletal problems? Or is most of what you do on athletes with torn ACLs, and what not?
Sorry if this question seems odd
I really dig trauma/EM, how often do y'all cross paths? Doesn't ortho see a lot of ER pts on call et cetera? How often do you guys operate on patients in critical shape because of the musculo-skeletal problems? Or is most of what you do on athletes with torn ACLs, and what not?
Sorry if this question seems odd
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Well its not just ortho, but any other competitive speciality too (although given past experience I'm pretty certain I'd love ortho provided I'm competitive enough).
U Miami's program is about a 20 min drive away, but I'd imagine its monopolized my UM students
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Lol. Nothing repels ortho like critical care. Literally nothing.
CMS is an example of a decent med school without a home Ortho program. You just have to do one extra away rotation to make up for it. You will miss out on some of the mentorship and long term resident and faculty relationships if you don't have a home program.
Couples matching makes everything harder, but it can be done. We have a few In My program who successfully did it
We are in the ED often. Almost everything you do on Ortho trauma comes through the ED. We reduce, splint, place traction pins, aspirate, and do other small cases in the ED.
The only times we operate on critically ill patients are when we have to. Life or limb situations, damage control orthopedics in severe poly trauma patients, a cut spinal cord compression, compartment syndrome, necrotizing fasciitis, etc
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Do you get enough protein daily?
Do you work more than 40 hours/week?
Do you work more than 40 hours/week?
Lots of advancements and development by industry. More implant options, Beter materials. Lots of advancements in sports, hip/knee arthroplasty. The areas are really countless. The field has expanded dramatically in the last 20 years. Big shift towards shorter hospital stays and outpatient minimally invasive surgeries with fewer weight bearing restrictions and better postop pain control.
And everyone makes less money
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I may get into ortho. Can you tell my why you like ortho?
You may not get in
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Not like that, I'm saying I may become interested in Ortho. I already do not want to become a pathologist because people said its a lonely gothic world. I just want to do internal med, but again this may change if you persuade me.
I know what you meant. I'm just messing with you. Don't look for me or anyone else to persuade you. None of us care what you go into. You could go be a librarian for all I care
Hey Rue, thanks for doing this man. I'm about to make my ortho rank list, and could use your advice. I'm not location bound, and genuinely just want the best orthopaedic training possible. I'm fortunate enough to have a good list of programs to choose from, but am still trying to figure out what factors are most important in making my rank list. So far my list of importance goes: 1) operative experience 2) ability to be happy at the program 3) career opportunities coming from said program
Is there anything you've learned in residency so far that you think is really important when it comes to ranking programs?
Thanks again for the help.
Is there anything you've learned in residency so far that you think is really important when it comes to ranking programs?
Thanks again for the help.
That sounds like as good of a list as any in terms of criteria for ranking programs. There are many many great programs so go with your gut feeling. Reality is you can do well and the vast majority of programs and they all do certain things well.
Also, Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know. Keep that in mind when you rank because you probably know a few programs really well and there are others you spent like a day at.
Set it and don't look back. In the end there is no way of knowing if you put together the right rank order together anyway. Not a bad idea to let 1 program know they are your #1
Do you think digital xray on the chest is very dangerous, midly dangerous? I was looking online and the equations to calculate sievert is convulated. I understand that every organ has its own predisposition to a greater or lesser damage. But the technicians and the desk clerks will tell me it's like 5minutes in the sun, which I'm not sure if that's accurate as sun is uv Ray different energy and perhaps not as penetrating...
I guess people say that it accumulates meaning, the xray knocked out the electron of a dna perhaps mutating it, and that then can be passed down to subsequent generations... Thanks for the help.
I guess people say that it accumulates meaning, the xray knocked out the electron of a dna perhaps mutating it, and that then can be passed down to subsequent generations... Thanks for the help.
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what in the world does this have to do with ortho?
It said ask anything in relation to orthopeadic surgery and X-rays will be involved and he/she might know the answer.
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Lol. Oh honey...
We are very conscious about limiting exposure to radiation for our patients, especially younger ones.
But...
Tell me how "knocking out the electron of a dna perhaps mutating it," from a chest X-ray, could be passed down to subsequent generations.
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Once you figured out that you liked surgery, how did you decide on ortho? Were there any other surgical specialties that were interesting to you before you finally 'knew'?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Ooo thanks for answering.
I meant subsequent generation of the cells that continue to divide through time will inherit that mutation during cellular replication.
When you say young, do you mean 10 years and younger. I feel paranoid because I've gotten three chest X-rays this past year and I'm less than age 30... None of those X-rays were helpful and Some of these doctors made me get an mri anyway, which I thought would be better for my symptoms... Hopefully, my cellular repair mechanism is up to par.
If only I was rich, I would use cash pay and get that darn mri without trying to juggle through doctors who are being stingy....
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1. SDN isn't for medical advice.
2. This is loosely ortho related at best, talk to your PCP.
3. Dude, you're fine. Calm down.
