The Training Program

PGY-I Grants exposure to services helpful in preparing a foundation for a well-rounded orthopedic surgeon. Rotations outside of orthopedics includes one-month blocks in general surgical trauma, plastic surgery, infectious diseases, burns/ICU, vascular surgery and neurosurgery. For the orthopedic services rotation, four months are on our general orthopedic green and gold services. These teams consist primarily of orthopedic trauma along with adult joint reconstruction, sports, and foot and ankle components. Each intern also spends one month during the first half of the year on the orthopedic trauma night float service alongside a third-year teaching resident, followed by another month of night float in the winter/spring.

PGY-II Consists of 10 weeks on the general orthopedic green team focusing on trauma, foot and ankle and joint reconstruction. An additional 10 weeks is spent on the general orthopedic gold team focusing on trauma, joint reconstruction and sports. Residents spend 10 weeks together with a fourth-year resident on the hand and upper extremity service as well as 10 weeks on the pediatric surgery service – also paired up with a fourth year resident. The remaining 12 weeks is spent on time split between shoulder, elbow, protected time for research, and a month of nightfloat.

PGY-III Residents are involved in three month rotations in Sports and Spine. Two months are dedicated to Foot and Ankle. Two months on the Trauma team which are primarily operative in working alongside our Trauma Fellow. One month is allocated towards research, and one month is spent as the teaching resident on night float with an intern.

PGY-IV Residents spend three months each as the chief resident on the pediatric and hand orthopedic services working with a second-year resident. This year also consists of a three-month rotation dedicated to adult joint reconstruction. Further exposure to Orthopedic Oncology is obtained by spending one month at UF Health Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville. A unique mentorship also occurs this year working one-on-one with our hip and knee preservations specialist. One month is also allocated towards research.

PGY-V During the chief resident year it is expected that the knowledge gained over the previous four years will be applied in clinical decision making as well as the applied operative technique with staff supervision. Three months are spent as the general orthopedic gold service chief and three months as the general orthopedic green chief. The remaining six months consists of three months as administrative chief and three months of elective rotations in various areas of interest to the individual resident.

Didactics

There is a dedicated hour of conference on diverse orthopedic topics every day except on Fridays for which there is two-hour grand rounds conference. Our conferences are very important to us and are considered “protected time” and are therefore uninterrupted by other services or responsibilities for their entirety. Conferences are well balanced to cover the essential learning objectives that are required for success on board-style exams such as the orthopedic in-training exam and the orthopedic board/licensure examination.

Our academic calendar is a two-year rotating curriculum of orthopedic essentials, interspersed with case conferences and morbidity and mortality presentations, as well as guest lecturers. Lectures are given by attendings as well as residents to keep the resident actively involved in both learning and teaching orthopedics. In addition, once a month we have a dedicated journal club that is attended by both residents and faculty to review current, relevant, peer-reviewed journal club articles.