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The accounts submitting these are at least brave enough to sit down and give honest feedback.
Forum Members PMSR/RRA Residency Reviews
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The accounts submitting these are at least brave enough to sit down and give honest feedback.
Hey they're doing their best bro.
We don't get a lot of submissions or reviews in general anymore so I respect them for it.
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For what its worth this is the most comprehensive place for residency reviews, the alternatives aren’t all there, wish there were even more of them and more diversity of programs reviewed most of all.
For sure, any reviews are good. I think that is awesome.
Need honest reviews, recent ones... we made a book every year at Barry where 3rd years finishing clerkships put reviews for the next incoming 3rd years (hope they still do that).
I'm just floored sometimes at how two students can visit the same program or see the same attendings/alumni/hospital and have such different takes. It is all based on comparisons they've seen or what their expectations are, I suppose.
Depends on who you ask. Yes, both of those are closed. Overall the program list hasn’t changed much, your Ascension Wisconsin, Gundersen, Kaiser SF, JPS, UPMC, West Penn, JFK and others which I forget lol, are still there if you wish to rotate. Hopefully more updated powerhouse/name program reviews come about.
What Id say the applicant pool preferences have for the most part surprised me. A lot more focus on location than training, few programs Id say are in the goldilocks zone of good training and location, many of those in a high rank in my class didn’t end up in powerhouses when one would speculate they could’ve, alas, everyone has different priorities.
Anonymous submission
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General Program / Hospital Info: Vanderbilt university medical center.
PMSR/RRA, take 1 resident a year
Hicks, Deeter, Trenner, Masternick, Garfield, Sieber, Tilley, Tighe (2nd grad class, hired at the VA).
Didactics
- Like most newer programs, early graduating classes may not fully reflect program strength. However, you will come out competent and well-rounded (if you're committed to learning).
- If you’re specifically seeking very high-volume/ complex trauma cases, this may not be the best fit.
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General Program / Hospital Info: Vanderbilt university medical center.
PMSR/RRA, take 1 resident a year
- Located in Nashville, TN. It's about 15 minutes walking distance from downtown.
- Large, continuously expanding medical center; Level I trauma hospital.
- Residents also rotate at the nearby VA hospital.
- Podiatry @ VUMC is under orthopedics, which significantly influences case distribution:
- Anything proximal to the midfoot typically goes to ortho.
- Most rearfoot/ankle cases come from ortho rotations (a few months in PGY-2 & PGY-3) and the VA.
- Pay is one of the highest for residency programs. There's a lot of benefits (lead aprons, AO courses, textbooks, work phone, Boardwizards etc paid for by the program; you also have GME funds.). In addition to assigned PTO/ vacation, you get 1 week off either Christmas / New year.
- No free meals; podiatry residents take home call at Vanderbilt only.
- Students spend 2wks at VUMC and 2wks at the VA
Hicks, Deeter, Trenner, Masternick, Garfield, Sieber, Tilley, Tighe (2nd grad class, hired at the VA).
Didactics
- Weekly board preparation sessions.
- One student presentation at the end of your rotation, you are assigned a topic.
- Solid case variety. I saw the following cases:
- Calcaneal ORIFs
- Broström procedures
- Charcot reconstruction
- External fixation
- MIS cases (program director heavily involved in MIS)
- Bunions and usual pod forefoot cases.
- You also have first assists who help with cast applications in OR and closing. This is helpful esp if residents need to cover other cases/ attendings have two ORs.
- Ortho rotations include a high volume of rearfoot fusions.
- Not a lot of DM limb salvage though
- Overall positive experience.
- As a student, you will be sent to Deeter's clinic in Franklin 1x/wk.
- Residents on service also have VUMC clinic. If assigned to the VA, you're a VA resident for that time period.
- Large academic center with strong support for research.
- Plenty of opportunities and mentorship if you’re interested.
- Typical day is 6am - 5/6pm.
- Call schedule is mostly weekends; weekday coverage is largely handled by PAs and staff. No night/ weekend call at the VA. Weekend call (even if you're off-service) by residents.
- Students usually come in one weekend day (typically Saturday) for rounds.
- PGY-1 year is mostly off-service; when off-service, you’re treated similarly to MD/DO interns.
- While residents appeared stressed and complained, the call schedule didn’t seem excessive to me.
- Resident room is one of the nicest at VUMC. I mean, it wasn't fancy but I have seen worse places.
- Friendly, supportive environment from residents and attendings. Southern charm in full force
- Attendings expect preparation but are patient and invested in teaching surgical skills.
- Nashville offers a great social scene and access to outdoor activities (e.g., nearby national parks for hiking).
- Exposure to multidisciplinary practice models (NPs, PAs, scribes working with podiatrists), including at the VA.
- VA experience includes a diverse patient population—not just wound care; good exposure to non-operative trauma.
- Lots of construction. Traffic can be challenging; living close to the hospital is recommended but expensive.
- No free parking (common for large academic centers and hospitals in big cities).
- Ortho create limitations on podiatry case scope.
- Significant time spent at the VA (roughly half of training).
- A lot of driving: surgery centers to main campus. At least the VA is next door to the main campus.
- Large campus means a lot of walking.
- Call schedule may feel heavier than it initially appears. Students rarely get good insight into call structure.
- Like most newer programs, early graduating classes may not fully reflect program strength. However, you will come out competent and well-rounded (if you're committed to learning).
- If you’re specifically seeking very high-volume/ complex trauma cases, this may not be the best fit.
I clerked there as a student. Horrible horrible program. They still had "4th years" at that time since it used to be a four year program then switched to three years so those "4th years" were still there. One of them had a terrible personality, showed me major attitude since day 1 for some reason. They barely did anything during the cases and struggled with the simplest cases (as someone graduating, I can assess that now looking back). Only good experience was the Ortho doc (forgot his name) I scrubbed with there was awesome and he involved me way more in his cases than the "4th year" who was scrubbed with him. You stay in-house while on call and you share call with Ortho PAs I believe. Yes you do get post call day off but understand that you will find yourself reducing a shoulder dislocation as well while on call. The OR nurses all were super toxic even to the residents. I cursed at that place everyday before entering the building during my 4 week rotation. Absolutely do not recommend, one should consider scrambling before matching into that place.
Anonymous submission
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Program Name: Ascension St. Vincent Evansville
General Program/Hospital Info: You will primarily be working at Ascension St. Vincent, Ascension St. Vincent Ortho, and two of the Deaconess hospitals. They are all decent sites. Some have more modern facilities than others, but overall there is not a lot of driving as an extern. There is more driving involved as a resident, since residents cover more sites.
Attendings: Kelly, who is the director, Daines, Baxter, Denton, and others. A lot of my time was spent with the Tri-State Orthopaedics group. They were all quite nice and good teachers.
Residents: They take two residents per year. All of the residents were quite good and seemed to get along well with each other. I worked a lot with the PGY-2s and PGY-3s, but not as much with the PGY-1s. Overall, everyone was great and taught me quite a bit when they could.
Didactics: Standard board review and case review are held weekly on the same day, usually Tuesday mornings.
OR Experience: For students, the OR experience is generally not the strongest, in the sense that you will not scrub very much. When you do scrub, you will participate mostly in dirty cases. They want to see your hand skills, and they do help and teach you, but the student role usually does not go much beyond that, which is fair.
For the residents, they all seemed quite comfortable in the OR. There was a noticeable gap in confidence between the second-years and third-years, which I found somewhat out of the ordinary, though only marginally. I think this may have been more of a personality difference between the two pairs than anything structural.
Residents do get to do quite a bit in surgery, depending on the attending. If you are a second-year with Daines, you will be assisting no matter what, and he may hand you drills or drivers, but usually nothing beyond that. Once you are a third-year, you get much more autonomy with him. With the other attendings, it is more of a tag-team approach unless it is a dirty case, in which case the resident generally gets full autonomy.
I saw a lot of trauma and ankle procedures there. In fact, this was probably the only program where I felt the case mix was somewhat lopsided toward rearfoot procedures over forefoot procedures, at least during my month. That seems to be part of the program’s focus: sports medicine, elective rearfoot/ankle work, trauma, and arthroscopy. They are excellent at those things. The arthroscopy was probably the best I saw, likely because they do so much of it, and they were also very efficient with fracture management. Overall, the surgical experience was very solid. It is more of a tag-team learning style, with some independence sprinkled in, so it seemed like a balanced experience for the residents.
Clinic Experience: Students go to resident clinic, which is primarily RFC and post-ops from St. Vincent Main. It is somewhat busy, but overall it was a good experience. Residents also learn billing and coding there. You will also go to Tri-State Ortho for Dr. Kelly’s clinic. That is mostly shadowing, but still a good learning experience.
Research Opportunities: Research is available if you want it, but it is not a major focus of the program.
Lifestyle: Decent overall, but call can be brutal. Ascension St. Vincent is a Level II trauma center, and Tri-State Ortho is the trauma provider for the hospital. The DPMs at Tri-State take all of the foot and ankle trauma. I believe it is one of the highest-volume trauma centers in the Tri-State region. The closest higher-level trauma centers would probably be University of Kentucky or Ascension St. Vincent Indianapolis, but many Trauma I cases likely get routed to UK. Either way, you will get a lot of surgical exposure.
Most of the residents, except one, were married and had kids. They seemed close and sometimes spent time together with their families. So the lifestyle is manageable, but when you are on call, it is very busy.
Pros:
Surgery, and a lot of it.
Very elective-heavy.
Strong rearfoot, ankle, trauma, sports medicine, and arthroscopy exposure.
Evansville is a nice, quiet area. It is a mid-sized Midwestern city, but close enough to other places like Louisville.
Nice hospital benefits.
Residents seem to come out with decent to great jobs. The most recent example I know of is Dr. Baxter, who went straight to Tri-State Ortho after completing residency there.
Cons:
More hand-holding in the OR than I would have liked, especially in elective cases.
If you want a research-heavy program, this may not be the best fit.
Heavy call.
Academically, you will probably need to do more self-study than you would at a program with a more established academic structure.
Overall Conclusion: This was a great program with really strong numbers. The main drawback was the level of autonomy in elective cases; I wish there had been a bit more. Apart from that, I would give the program a solid recommendation. You will see a lot of interesting cases, especially rearfoot, ankle, trauma, sports medicine, and arthroscopy, in a nice, quiet area with a very cohesive team.
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Program Name: Ascension St. Vincent Evansville
General Program/Hospital Info: You will primarily be working at Ascension St. Vincent, Ascension St. Vincent Ortho, and two of the Deaconess hospitals. They are all decent sites. Some have more modern facilities than others, but overall there is not a lot of driving as an extern. There is more driving involved as a resident, since residents cover more sites.
Attendings: Kelly, who is the director, Daines, Baxter, Denton, and others. A lot of my time was spent with the Tri-State Orthopaedics group. They were all quite nice and good teachers.
Residents: They take two residents per year. All of the residents were quite good and seemed to get along well with each other. I worked a lot with the PGY-2s and PGY-3s, but not as much with the PGY-1s. Overall, everyone was great and taught me quite a bit when they could.
Didactics: Standard board review and case review are held weekly on the same day, usually Tuesday mornings.
OR Experience: For students, the OR experience is generally not the strongest, in the sense that you will not scrub very much. When you do scrub, you will participate mostly in dirty cases. They want to see your hand skills, and they do help and teach you, but the student role usually does not go much beyond that, which is fair.
For the residents, they all seemed quite comfortable in the OR. There was a noticeable gap in confidence between the second-years and third-years, which I found somewhat out of the ordinary, though only marginally. I think this may have been more of a personality difference between the two pairs than anything structural.
Residents do get to do quite a bit in surgery, depending on the attending. If you are a second-year with Daines, you will be assisting no matter what, and he may hand you drills or drivers, but usually nothing beyond that. Once you are a third-year, you get much more autonomy with him. With the other attendings, it is more of a tag-team approach unless it is a dirty case, in which case the resident generally gets full autonomy.
I saw a lot of trauma and ankle procedures there. In fact, this was probably the only program where I felt the case mix was somewhat lopsided toward rearfoot procedures over forefoot procedures, at least during my month. That seems to be part of the program’s focus: sports medicine, elective rearfoot/ankle work, trauma, and arthroscopy. They are excellent at those things. The arthroscopy was probably the best I saw, likely because they do so much of it, and they were also very efficient with fracture management. Overall, the surgical experience was very solid. It is more of a tag-team learning style, with some independence sprinkled in, so it seemed like a balanced experience for the residents.
Clinic Experience: Students go to resident clinic, which is primarily RFC and post-ops from St. Vincent Main. It is somewhat busy, but overall it was a good experience. Residents also learn billing and coding there. You will also go to Tri-State Ortho for Dr. Kelly’s clinic. That is mostly shadowing, but still a good learning experience.
Research Opportunities: Research is available if you want it, but it is not a major focus of the program.
Lifestyle: Decent overall, but call can be brutal. Ascension St. Vincent is a Level II trauma center, and Tri-State Ortho is the trauma provider for the hospital. The DPMs at Tri-State take all of the foot and ankle trauma. I believe it is one of the highest-volume trauma centers in the Tri-State region. The closest higher-level trauma centers would probably be University of Kentucky or Ascension St. Vincent Indianapolis, but many Trauma I cases likely get routed to UK. Either way, you will get a lot of surgical exposure.
Most of the residents, except one, were married and had kids. They seemed close and sometimes spent time together with their families. So the lifestyle is manageable, but when you are on call, it is very busy.
Pros:
Surgery, and a lot of it.
Very elective-heavy.
Strong rearfoot, ankle, trauma, sports medicine, and arthroscopy exposure.
Evansville is a nice, quiet area. It is a mid-sized Midwestern city, but close enough to other places like Louisville.
Nice hospital benefits.
Residents seem to come out with decent to great jobs. The most recent example I know of is Dr. Baxter, who went straight to Tri-State Ortho after completing residency there.
Cons:
More hand-holding in the OR than I would have liked, especially in elective cases.
If you want a research-heavy program, this may not be the best fit.
Heavy call.
Academically, you will probably need to do more self-study than you would at a program with a more established academic structure.
Overall Conclusion: This was a great program with really strong numbers. The main drawback was the level of autonomy in elective cases; I wish there had been a bit more. Apart from that, I would give the program a solid recommendation. You will see a lot of interesting cases, especially rearfoot, ankle, trauma, sports medicine, and arthroscopy, in a nice, quiet area with a very cohesive team.
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Anonymous submission
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Program Name: Old Dominion University, formerly EVMS
General Program/Hospital Info: The program is run primarily through the Sentara hospital system in the Virginia Beach, Suffolk, and Norfolk area. Most of the hospitals are quite nice and modern. The main exception is Norfolk General, which is older and somewhat run-down in certain areas, but it is also a massive Level I trauma hospital, so that comes with the territory. Overall, the hospital system is well established, busy, and provides broad exposure across multiple sites.
Attendings: Leavitt (newly appointed director), Bruno (former director), Agnew, (director before Bruno), Chung, Klimaz, Solomon, and others. Most of the attendings are more reserved in personality, with Dr. Bruno being the major exception. Overall, the attendings were all strong, knowledgeable, and good teachers in their own ways.
Residents: They take two residents per year. The residents all seemed to get along well with each other, and the culture was very surgery-focused. They were hungry to operate, wanted to do more, and were constantly trying to maximize their experience. The dynamic was intense, but I learned a ton while I was there. It is not a passive environment; it is the kind of place where residents clearly want to be busy and are motivated by the volume and complexity of the cases.
Didactics: Weekly journal club and case conferences. Nothing too unusual or outside the ordinary, but the standard academic structure is there.
OR Experience: The OR experience was great. There was a good amount of autonomy across most cases, with the exception of cases with Dr. Chung, who is very particular about certain things. That said, he does allow the third-years to do much more, so the autonomy seems to increase significantly with seniority.
During my month, I saw a lot of diabetic limb reconstruction, along with some trauma and a smaller amount of elective procedures. Most of the surgeries I saw were at Sentara Leigh Hospital, but the residents were busy in cases across the system. No matter which hospital they were at, they seemed to have plenty of surgical exposure. The program had a strong reconstructive feel. There was meaningful exposure to complex cases, including diabetic limb salvage, external fixation-type pathology, TTC-type procedures, and other higher-acuity rearfoot and ankle work. The residents appeared comfortable in the OR and were given real responsibility. This was one of the stronger programs I saw in terms of resident operative involvement and autonomy.
Clinic Experience: I was only in resident clinic once. It was very slow and consisted mostly of minor post-ops and some routine care. I am honestly not entirely sure why they run the clinic in its current form, but it is there. I did not do much during that clinic experience. That said, you can, and I would argue should, go to the attendings’ clinics. You will learn quite a bit from them. Dr. Solomon’s clinic in particular stood out. He is very well versed in ultrasound and radiology, and I learned a lot from my brief time with him both in cases and in lab. The attending clinics seem to provide much better educational value than the resident clinic itself.
Research Opportunities: Research is available. They have done posters, and while I am not sure about the publication volume, there are a lot of institutional resources if you want to pursue research. The attendings, especially Dr. Leavitt, seem very open to helping residents work on whatever research projects they are interested in. It is not necessarily a research-heavy program by default, but the infrastructure and support are there if you want to take advantage of it.
Lifestyle: Busy. Very busy. The residents were often rounding early and driving all over the place between sites. There is a lot of movement across the hospital system, and the day-to-day can be demanding. That said, it still seemed manageable. Residents could still do things outside of the hospital, but this is not a light lifestyle program. The workload is real, and the driving adds to that.
Pros:
A lot of surgery.
Strong exposure to diabetic limb reconstruction, especially during my month.
Good OR autonomy.
Strong rearfoot, ankle, reconstruction, limb salvage, and complex case exposure.
Well-established hospital system.
Affiliation with a medical school.
Residents appear to get the same or similar perks as MD/DO residents in other specialties, if I recall correctly.
No orthopedic surgery residency at ODU, which may help with access to certain cases.
Very nice area, especially Virginia Beach.
Residents are intense, motivated, and surgically hungry.
Attendings are knowledgeable and generally willing to teach.
Cons:
A lot of driving between sites.
Some attending personalities may take time to get used to.
Lifestyle is on the harder side.
The resident clinic is not particularly strong, at least from what I saw.
The culture is intense, which can be a positive or negative depending on your personality.
Overall Conclusion: Old Dominion University is a great program, especially if you are interested in complex reconstruction, diabetic limb salvage, external fixation, TTCs, and higher-acuity rearfoot and ankle work. It also offers a good diversity of cases within a large, well-established medical system. The program is busy, the residents are surgery-hungry, and there is meaningful autonomy in the OR. The lifestyle is demanding, and the driving can be annoying, but the training is strong. You will likely come out well trained and able to handle most things once you finish residency.
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Program Name: Old Dominion University, formerly EVMS
General Program/Hospital Info: The program is run primarily through the Sentara hospital system in the Virginia Beach, Suffolk, and Norfolk area. Most of the hospitals are quite nice and modern. The main exception is Norfolk General, which is older and somewhat run-down in certain areas, but it is also a massive Level I trauma hospital, so that comes with the territory. Overall, the hospital system is well established, busy, and provides broad exposure across multiple sites.
Attendings: Leavitt (newly appointed director), Bruno (former director), Agnew, (director before Bruno), Chung, Klimaz, Solomon, and others. Most of the attendings are more reserved in personality, with Dr. Bruno being the major exception. Overall, the attendings were all strong, knowledgeable, and good teachers in their own ways.
Residents: They take two residents per year. The residents all seemed to get along well with each other, and the culture was very surgery-focused. They were hungry to operate, wanted to do more, and were constantly trying to maximize their experience. The dynamic was intense, but I learned a ton while I was there. It is not a passive environment; it is the kind of place where residents clearly want to be busy and are motivated by the volume and complexity of the cases.
Didactics: Weekly journal club and case conferences. Nothing too unusual or outside the ordinary, but the standard academic structure is there.
OR Experience: The OR experience was great. There was a good amount of autonomy across most cases, with the exception of cases with Dr. Chung, who is very particular about certain things. That said, he does allow the third-years to do much more, so the autonomy seems to increase significantly with seniority.
During my month, I saw a lot of diabetic limb reconstruction, along with some trauma and a smaller amount of elective procedures. Most of the surgeries I saw were at Sentara Leigh Hospital, but the residents were busy in cases across the system. No matter which hospital they were at, they seemed to have plenty of surgical exposure. The program had a strong reconstructive feel. There was meaningful exposure to complex cases, including diabetic limb salvage, external fixation-type pathology, TTC-type procedures, and other higher-acuity rearfoot and ankle work. The residents appeared comfortable in the OR and were given real responsibility. This was one of the stronger programs I saw in terms of resident operative involvement and autonomy.
Clinic Experience: I was only in resident clinic once. It was very slow and consisted mostly of minor post-ops and some routine care. I am honestly not entirely sure why they run the clinic in its current form, but it is there. I did not do much during that clinic experience. That said, you can, and I would argue should, go to the attendings’ clinics. You will learn quite a bit from them. Dr. Solomon’s clinic in particular stood out. He is very well versed in ultrasound and radiology, and I learned a lot from my brief time with him both in cases and in lab. The attending clinics seem to provide much better educational value than the resident clinic itself.
Research Opportunities: Research is available. They have done posters, and while I am not sure about the publication volume, there are a lot of institutional resources if you want to pursue research. The attendings, especially Dr. Leavitt, seem very open to helping residents work on whatever research projects they are interested in. It is not necessarily a research-heavy program by default, but the infrastructure and support are there if you want to take advantage of it.
Lifestyle: Busy. Very busy. The residents were often rounding early and driving all over the place between sites. There is a lot of movement across the hospital system, and the day-to-day can be demanding. That said, it still seemed manageable. Residents could still do things outside of the hospital, but this is not a light lifestyle program. The workload is real, and the driving adds to that.
Pros:
A lot of surgery.
Strong exposure to diabetic limb reconstruction, especially during my month.
Good OR autonomy.
Strong rearfoot, ankle, reconstruction, limb salvage, and complex case exposure.
Well-established hospital system.
Affiliation with a medical school.
Residents appear to get the same or similar perks as MD/DO residents in other specialties, if I recall correctly.
No orthopedic surgery residency at ODU, which may help with access to certain cases.
Very nice area, especially Virginia Beach.
Residents are intense, motivated, and surgically hungry.
Attendings are knowledgeable and generally willing to teach.
Cons:
A lot of driving between sites.
Some attending personalities may take time to get used to.
Lifestyle is on the harder side.
The resident clinic is not particularly strong, at least from what I saw.
The culture is intense, which can be a positive or negative depending on your personality.
Overall Conclusion: Old Dominion University is a great program, especially if you are interested in complex reconstruction, diabetic limb salvage, external fixation, TTCs, and higher-acuity rearfoot and ankle work. It also offers a good diversity of cases within a large, well-established medical system. The program is busy, the residents are surgery-hungry, and there is meaningful autonomy in the OR. The lifestyle is demanding, and the driving can be annoying, but the training is strong. You will likely come out well trained and able to handle most things once you finish residency.
Anonymous submission
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General Program / Hospital Information: Cleveland Clinic Foundation
McKee, Botek, Hild, Cann, Herbert, Shook, among others.
Didactics
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General Program / Hospital Information: Cleveland Clinic Foundation
- Level II trauma center with plans to transition to Level I status in the coming years. The main campus is large.
- Strong vascular surgery, cardiology, and transplant services, contributing to a high volume of complex wounds and limb salvage cases.
- The podiatry program is relatively new and does not yet have a graduating class.
- Training sites include the main campus in Cleveland, as well as Fairview, Avon, Medina, South Pointe, Lutheran, and Hillcrest.
- Pay and benefits are average.
- They take 3 residents per year. Although Pgy-1 is 5 including 2 interns from the Oklahoma program.
- Distinct structure with resident autonomy:
- PGY-1 residents primarily cover the main campus
- PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents rotate through regional hospitals and elective surgery centers
McKee, Botek, Hild, Cann, Herbert, Shook, among others.
Didactics
- Weekly academics every Tuesday at 4 PM on the main campus (mandatory, in-person). Typically include rep-sponsored lectures followed by case discussions or presentations from other specialties (e.g., anesthesiology, rheumatology) and podiatry faculty.
- Periodic conferences with other podiatry programs, largely focused on case presentations and limb salvage.
- Monthly student presentations on assigned topics.
- Strong orthopedic presence with a dedicated foot and ankle team. Ortho generally manages acute rearfoot and ankle trauma, while podiatry focuses on infections, limb salvage, and soft tissue cases. If ortho doesn't want to deal with a foot/ ankle case, they transfer to podiatry.
- Surgical experience varies by site, with regional hospitals offering more electives.
- High surgical volume (although repetitive) particularly at the main campus.
- Common surgeries include limb salvage, reconstruction, fusions including rearfoot (they seem to favor 1st MPJ), ankle fractures, Achilles and other extrinsic tendon repairs, bunion and hammertoe corrections.
- Attendings vary, some are critical of some surgical techniques so don't do them. Some want you to earn OR privileges. Very little exposure to arthroscopy and minimally invasive surgery (MIS). Others are critical of podiatrists trying to do 'more than the usual' as they don't think pods are trained for some things. Some are just cold esp to students.
- Scheduling is relatively balanced between clinic, inpatient care, and the OR for students.
- Case mix varies by attending and may include diabetic foot care, wound care, and sports medicine.
- Student involvement is often observational; resident autonomy depends on attending preference.
- Encouraged by faculty, though residents do not have the time for it.
- They were unable to convince me about a good work life balance. They work 6days/ week most of the time (PGY1-3). It's my belief that they routinely clock more than 80 hours/ week.
- The main campus is typically covered by two PGY-1 residents. One handles inpatient/consult responsibilities, the other is for surgical/clinic duties.
- Although the patient list doesn't seem bad for PGY-1s, there is also a high rate of patient turnover. Residents do have slower weeks but seems to be rare. It is a continuous workflow of discharge/ sign off and new consults.
- Regional hospitals are comparatively less intense but present a different type of workload, often with more elective cases.
- High degree of resident autonomy in patient evaluation and treatment planning. Although no resident run clinic.
- Broad exposure to complex pathology and its effects on the foot, particularly in medically complicated patients.
- Strong experience in limb salvage and infection management. You learn to be efficient and decisive.
- It's demanding. Frequent call. Students are generally expected to be present on weekends to assist with service needs, particularly given the workload. Although many residents give students the weekend off.
- Lots of walking in first year. Lots of driving in 2nd and 3rd years to surgery centers and multiple hospitals when on call
- I got the feeling that I was affecting workflow efficiency on some days. So student experiences varies depending on timing, service demands, and resident on service .
- Limited rearfoot and trauma exposure compared to some programs. Residents have a 1 month trauma rotation in 3rd year.
- Minimal hands-on experience with procedures like ex-fix despite heavy limb salvage.
- There is a reliance on multiple consulting services (I spied on resident's notes, it makes for great patient care though).
- Variability in teaching styles and operative opportunities among attendings.
- Overall culture feels task-oriented, with high expectations for efficiency. Learn as you work and learn when you're not working.
- Well-suited for individuals seeking high-volume, pathology-heavy training with significant autonomy. Also good for individuals who want name recognition on CV.
- Less ideal for those prioritizing work-life balance or hand holding.
- Rearfoot and trauma exposure may be limited.
- It is a very demanding training environment.
- It will be interesting to see how much longer Oklahoma program will continue to send/ be allowed to send their interns.
This is so dated. Dial is no longer the residency director, it’s Medda. The program reputation has faded. I got really weird vibes when I was there. They have a token black person and they make sure that you know about it the whole month you are there. It’s basically a country club. Try Cape Fear or Emory
A few years ago there was a bunch of scrambling at Cape Fear. Do you have an explanation for that? Was it an anomaly?
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Wake forest was my least favorite rotation
I never saw another program where the residents were so “busy” while at the same time not doing any hands on or surgery
Hospital hours could be 4 am - 9 pm but every case I saw was double sometimes triple scrubbed w the attending doing majority of case
It was definitely an anomaly. It’s just because people don’t know much about the program. They don’t have an instagram page like Wake Forest and Fayetteville is a smaller town. But it’s a great program.
It's good to have views on this. NC is a popular and fast-growing place, and it'll continue to be.
I always had good exp in all my interactions with Dr. Dial and the guys who were in his former group all liked him (I had my NC license awhile, visited a few times, CME there, interviewed a couple times). He's universally well-respected in the area, very well trained. NC overall is tough due to ortho being strong in any major city there, many residencies/fellowships, but he broke barriers to podaitry doing some RRA and does the cases well. (there are many other DPMs in NC doing high level stuff also, just more under the radar)
My understanding was that none of the NC programs were fantastic simly due to the refer patterns in NC (plenty of DM stuff for pod, but slim on trauma and recon due to ortho). I'm sure it's an ever-evolving situation.
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Master @Feli What state would you recommend graduating PGY-3s to focus attention on? Like you mentioned, there are alot of chatter on Southern states such as NC, SC, and KY
The good Detroit and the Cincy area programs usually pretty good programs that don't get as many apps as they probably should (not near pod school, not sunny warm states).
Likewise, the NC or Fla or Cali or TX residencies in popular locations will be over-applied to in most years for what they are (although there are some real good ones like Orlando, JPS, a few of the CA Kaisers, etc).
I went to 4 diff cities for my 5 clerkships... all depends on where the good training is. Thinking also tends to get inbred if people just focus on one area. I was just trying to find the best program in terms of volume and not living to work (a couple I saw were good... but exactly that). That was back when fellowships were viewed as superfluous and only a dozen or two of them were around (and only a small handful maybe worth doing... much like today, except present day has about a hundred not worth doing instead of a dozen not worth doing, lol).
Podiatry is such a risk these days with so much debt, so to go somewhere with questionable residency volume/training is a big fail imo (and we have tons of those programs/spots "accredited," esp now that fellowships take cases/attendings out of residencies). If you can get good residency training and pass Abfas, and fellowship training is optional not needed for skills, then that year is a swing of usually $100k+ in your favor.
...If you mean for jobs, that is a wild card. As you see here again and again, most people with hospital jobs just go anywhere they can. That typically means connections or TONS of cold calling. They go rural, flyover country, CAH, govt job, wherever. I went to IHS at one point. It's sad our profession is that way, but it absolutely is. Any non-PP associate job gets absolutely bombed with applications. Once you get Abfas cert and have hospital job exp, then you can try for more suburb/urban jobs, but a lot of those don't hire pods or already have one. You are still likely in big town / small city territory once you get exp... a ways out from a major city. That is "success" in podiatry: getting a job at a place most MDs would only go if they are from the area or really struck out somewhere better.
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Program Name: Plainview Hospital at Northwell Health, Plainview, New York
General Program/Hospital Info: Main hospital is Plainview Hospital, but they also cover Syosset and South Shore Hospital
Attendings: Dr Prevete (Director) very respected amongst the podiatric community from what I’ve seen, and about 6-7 other really good attendings.
Residents: 1 per year. Very knowledgeable and personable.
Didactics: They have journal club, grand rounds, workshops and during my month we had bioskills labs, but I don't know how often they have it.
OR Experience: Main focus at this program. They have a lot of everything in my opinion. They had dirty cases, elective cases, trauma cases, external fixation, reconstruction cases, charcot cases, ankle fractures and TAR. I was surprised to see the amount of surgery and the variety in a program with only 1 resident per year. Apparently, they are done with their surgical case numbers at the beginning of 2nd year (while I think they said they were doing mostly all their out-service rotations during first year, so that was impressive to hear). They have a lot of hands on experience, like I only saw residents doing skin to skin cases from 1st years to 3rd years. The attendings are helpful when needed, but they always let the residents do it as long as it’s safe for the patient obviously. They pretty much never double scrub, only single-scrub.
Clinic Experience: I'm unsure. We didn't go to clinic as students during my months since there were so many cases. But I know residents sometimes had clinic, maybe like a day here and there? I know they mentioned their priority is the surgical exposure, so idk how much clinic you get as a resident, but the opportunity is there, they are associated with a few clinics covered by the attendings.
Research Opportunities: I think they have good opportunities. I know some residents were working on papers to publish, but I didn't see how it worked.
Lifestyle: Surprisingly I felt like the residents had somewhat of a good work-life balance (well, for residents of course). The program seem to be very respectful of their residents, meaning they didn't have them do unnecessary work. Residents are busy, but it's to be expected. They technically might be more often on call each than some programs I saw with 4-5 residents per year, but it really seemed manageable. They have a nice team energy between residents and they appeared to have a healthy environment. No residents seemed overworked or exhausted, they all came in with a smile on their face, so I feel like lifestyle seemed good.
Pros: Surgery, surgery, surgery. The main pro for this program is the surgical volume. I was surprised as this was my only program in New York, and I had heard rumors about how New York programs have low surgical numbers and especially very low ankle/rearfoot numbers, but they exceed the numbers of all the programs I externed at (and I had some very heavy hitters in there). Otherwise, they seem to be very well rounded. The are busy, but the good kind that makes you learn. Feels like you can get anything you want out of this program. They also have a lot of autonomy.
Cons: From my point of view as a student, I feel like there wasn't too much clinic. But at the same time, I think it was only that we didn't see it as students. If you are looking for a clinic heavy program, that may not be the program for you.
Overall Conclusion: This program was a real surprise for me. I externed at this program because I wanted to travel to the East Coast and I heard about this “new” program with their new director (Dr Prevete). I didn’t have high expectations, but I definitely should have had. It was one of my favourite program to extern at, and had this program been on the West Coast, I would have jumped on it. The only reason I didn’t go there was because of my family (wife and kid take priority), but this program is a true hidden gem and I’m looking forward to watching from afar how well known this program will become in the next years.
If you are scared about the rumors about New York Programs, I can confidently tell you, don’t be for Plainview. This program was better than pretty much all the well known West Coast/heavy-hitter programs I visited. It felt like a heavy-hitter program without the toxic competition and the need to overwork their residents for unnecessary work. However, if you want a program where you’ll get your hand held for 3 years and have a 4-5 days a week of clinic schedule, this is not for you.
Disclaimer: I wrote most of this last year, and since i knew this was the only program I externed at that didn’t have any reviews on here, I wanted to make one. My other programs already had reviews, but feel free to text me if you would want more information on my other externships from last year: PSL, Swedish, Kaiser Santa Clara, or JFK.
General Program/Hospital Info: Main hospital is Plainview Hospital, but they also cover Syosset and South Shore Hospital
Attendings: Dr Prevete (Director) very respected amongst the podiatric community from what I’ve seen, and about 6-7 other really good attendings.
Residents: 1 per year. Very knowledgeable and personable.
Didactics: They have journal club, grand rounds, workshops and during my month we had bioskills labs, but I don't know how often they have it.
OR Experience: Main focus at this program. They have a lot of everything in my opinion. They had dirty cases, elective cases, trauma cases, external fixation, reconstruction cases, charcot cases, ankle fractures and TAR. I was surprised to see the amount of surgery and the variety in a program with only 1 resident per year. Apparently, they are done with their surgical case numbers at the beginning of 2nd year (while I think they said they were doing mostly all their out-service rotations during first year, so that was impressive to hear). They have a lot of hands on experience, like I only saw residents doing skin to skin cases from 1st years to 3rd years. The attendings are helpful when needed, but they always let the residents do it as long as it’s safe for the patient obviously. They pretty much never double scrub, only single-scrub.
Clinic Experience: I'm unsure. We didn't go to clinic as students during my months since there were so many cases. But I know residents sometimes had clinic, maybe like a day here and there? I know they mentioned their priority is the surgical exposure, so idk how much clinic you get as a resident, but the opportunity is there, they are associated with a few clinics covered by the attendings.
Research Opportunities: I think they have good opportunities. I know some residents were working on papers to publish, but I didn't see how it worked.
Lifestyle: Surprisingly I felt like the residents had somewhat of a good work-life balance (well, for residents of course). The program seem to be very respectful of their residents, meaning they didn't have them do unnecessary work. Residents are busy, but it's to be expected. They technically might be more often on call each than some programs I saw with 4-5 residents per year, but it really seemed manageable. They have a nice team energy between residents and they appeared to have a healthy environment. No residents seemed overworked or exhausted, they all came in with a smile on their face, so I feel like lifestyle seemed good.
Pros: Surgery, surgery, surgery. The main pro for this program is the surgical volume. I was surprised as this was my only program in New York, and I had heard rumors about how New York programs have low surgical numbers and especially very low ankle/rearfoot numbers, but they exceed the numbers of all the programs I externed at (and I had some very heavy hitters in there). Otherwise, they seem to be very well rounded. The are busy, but the good kind that makes you learn. Feels like you can get anything you want out of this program. They also have a lot of autonomy.
Cons: From my point of view as a student, I feel like there wasn't too much clinic. But at the same time, I think it was only that we didn't see it as students. If you are looking for a clinic heavy program, that may not be the program for you.
Overall Conclusion: This program was a real surprise for me. I externed at this program because I wanted to travel to the East Coast and I heard about this “new” program with their new director (Dr Prevete). I didn’t have high expectations, but I definitely should have had. It was one of my favourite program to extern at, and had this program been on the West Coast, I would have jumped on it. The only reason I didn’t go there was because of my family (wife and kid take priority), but this program is a true hidden gem and I’m looking forward to watching from afar how well known this program will become in the next years.
If you are scared about the rumors about New York Programs, I can confidently tell you, don’t be for Plainview. This program was better than pretty much all the well known West Coast/heavy-hitter programs I visited. It felt like a heavy-hitter program without the toxic competition and the need to overwork their residents for unnecessary work. However, if you want a program where you’ll get your hand held for 3 years and have a 4-5 days a week of clinic schedule, this is not for you.
Disclaimer: I wrote most of this last year, and since i knew this was the only program I externed at that didn’t have any reviews on here, I wanted to make one. My other programs already had reviews, but feel free to text me if you would want more information on my other externships from last year: PSL, Swedish, Kaiser Santa Clara, or JFK.
I thought DPMs in NY couldn't do TARs no matter how much training you had. Is that not the case? I know they submitted an appeal but didn't think it got approved yet due to the strong Ortho presence there?
And just to be perfectly clear, I did love all my programs, and none of them were bad — they were all great tbh. But this program was up there with all the more “well-known” programs, and that was a huge surprise for me! Like heavy case load, extremely hands-on, strong academics, heavy rearfoot-ankle program. As a student, I just loved it.
Mmh honestly, I can’t say much about it since I’m doing residency on the West Coast and I don’t follow the evolution of the scope in NY, but I can say I saw TARs and residents were actively implicated just like all of their cases, a lot of skin to skins.
Does anyone know about university hospital in NJ?
