FAQs

5

ORMC has 1,251 inpatient beds

96 Adult ER beds

33 Peds ER beds

Each year, the first month of lectures is the “Orthopedic Surgery Bootcamp” series with all topics focusing on the core knowledge to serve as the foundation for the Orthopedic Resident. This includes a splinting lab, lectures such as “Fundamentals of Internal Fixation,” “Fundamentals of Intramedullary Nailing,” as well as lectures geared towards ER evaluation and management. Additionally, Interns are paired with a PGY-3 resident when taking Junior Call during the first 6 months (see more below in “How does Call work”). All interns also attend an AO Basic Trauma Course for dedicated didactic time to learn the fundamentals of internal fixation.

The intern year is divided into six months of orthopedics and six months of off service rotations. The orthopedic surgery blocks are broken down as follows: 2 months on the orthopedic night float rotation and 4 months on the Gold and Green Team Orthopedic Surgery services. These services are primarily General, Adult Reconstruction, and Trauma Orthopedics. Other rotations include one month of each: Vascular surgery, Plastic surgery, Infectious Disease Medicine, Neurosurgery, Burn Surgical Care and Management, and General Surgery Trauma. During the 1 month on Trauma surgery, the resident takes call for the general surgery department. For the other 11 months, the resident takes Orthopedic call as outlined above.

Specific roles and expectations vary by rotation, but in general, there is graded responsibility and a graduated degree of autonomy for residents at each level. Residents are expected to take ownership of the patients that they care for, communicate and work effectively in a team environment and to be invested in their education.

Our program has had a 100% pass rate for the boards over the past 15 years.

The Orthopedic residency is well established and has existed since 1950. Many of the Orthopedics faculty are recognized nationally and internationally, serving on committees for Orthopedic and subspecialty societies, publishing impactful research and holding several patents for Orthopedic implants. As Central Florida’s only Level 1 Trauma Center, the residents care for a high volume of Orthopedic patients. The Orthopedic residents have a reputation for being respectful, intelligent and above all, hard-working, which earns the program a great deal of respect from other services.

During the PGY-1 year, 6 months are dedicated to Orthopedic rotations, and 6 months are off service rotations. The remaining PGY-2 through PGY-5 years are all spent on Orthopedic rotations.

For Adult and Pediatric Orthopedic trauma, there is a first call (PGY-1,2,3), and a second call (PGY-3,4,5) on each night.

First call includes acute care at the Emergency Department at ORMC and Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, as well as inpatient care at ORMC. First call is covered by the Night Float resident(s) Sunday night through Thursday night. Friday, Saturday, and daytime Sunday are covered by a separate weekend call team. While not on the night float rotation, most junior residents are on weekend first call for 2 weekends per month.

Interns are limited to 24 hours per shift. The first six months of the year (July – December), interns share first call duties with a second- or third-year resident in order to hone their skills. Interns will spend one month on night-float with a third-year resident during their first six months. After the first six months, interns cover first call without another junior resident in house. The interns will cover a second month of night float in the spring. As a third year, residents are paired with the interns for first call duties during the first six months, and thereafter take second call. Second call is true “home” call where the second call resident only has to come in to operate for shift work on the weekends or through the week after hours if there is a true orthopedic emergency.

Daily lectures occur from 630-730AM, Monday – Friday. On Fridays, an additional Grand Rounds lecture takes place from 730-830AM for a total of 6 hours of focused educational lectures per week. Additionally, Journal Club occurs at 530PM on the second Tuesday of each month. Several additional Sawbones and cadaveric lab opportunities occur intermittently throughout the year as well in addition to the scheduled didactics. Residents are excused from clinical activities for all didactics.

Residents may dine in the cafeteria using their food stipend which is continuously renewed throughout the year. There is also breakfast, lunch, snacks, coffee, tea, and water available in the doctor’s lounge.

Orlando Health transitioned to Epic in early 2021.

There are opportunities for the resident to earn extra income, as long as they do not interfere with the resident’s ability to achieve the goals and objectives of the educational program and are approved by the Program Director. Moonlighting hours are counted towards the 80-hour Maximum Weekly Hour Limit. PGY1 residents are not permitted to moonlight.

Residents get 3 weeks (15 workdays) of vacation during the year that may be taken as a week at a time, or as individual days. Additionally, each resident gets one week of vacation during Christmas or New Year’s.

Second year through 5th year residents typically have about a week of leave devoted to conferences, separate from vacation time. Research performed at Orlando Health may be presented at conferences around the country. First year residents attend AO Basic Trauma Course which does not count towards their vacation time.

Each PGY-5 resident has an 10-week elective rotation which may be completed within Orlando Health and the Orlando area, at a separate location, or a combination of the two. PGY-4 residents have an approximately 6-week elective rotation which functions similarly to the PGY-5 elective rotation.

Each PGY-3 and PGY-4 resident gets a total of 6 weeks of research time in addition to a 2 week research block for PGY-5 residents for a total of 14 weeks of dedicated research time throughout residency. Having research blocks spread across residency years facilitates longitudinal research participation which more realistically aligns with the most common research project timeline.

Each resident is required to participate and complete a minimum of one scholarly project per RRC standards. The Orthopedic Department has two full time research staff to assist with research projects including assistance with literature search, IRB application/compliance, and coordination with biostatisticians.

Feedback is often most effective at the point of interaction and residents are evaluated by faculty real time while on rotation. Additionally, each resident receives a formal evaluation from each faculty member at the end of each rotation. Twice annually, the Clinical Competence Committee (CCC) meets and performs a global evaluation of each resident. In preparation for the CCC meeting, a “360-degree evaluation” of each resident is obtained twice annually from ancillary staff including OR and floor nursing staff, PAs, administrative members and patients.

We have one Orthopedic Trauma fellow, one Sports fellow, one Hand & Upper Extremity fellow, one Adult Reconstruction fellow and two Pediatric Orthopedic fellows. Given the high clinical volume at ORMC, there are plenty of opportunities for all trainees and the fellows are able to enhance the residency experience serving as junior faculty, as opposed to detracting from it.

Three letters of recommendation are required. We do not require a CORD letter but we will accept it.

There is not an additional application required; however, there is a mandatory additional essay required. Applications should be submitted via the Electronic Residency Application System (ERAS), and all applicants must be registered with the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). The deadline to submit applications is November 1, but applications prior to October 15 are preferred. A supplemental paragraph stating “Why you want to complete your Residency at Orlando Health” is required should be submitted with your ERAS application. The paragraph should be between 100-150 words and can be included at the end of your personal statement that is part of your ERAS application.

COMLEX may be submitted but we still require USMLE scores for all applicants, including osteopathic applicants.

In addition to a diverse and wide array of cases, our volume is quite high. On average, graduating chiefs log more than 2500 cases. The operative experience is spread across all years of training. In 2019 the average number of cases logged for PGY-1 residents was 391 and for PGY-2 residents was 550.

View our past fellowships