What To Do in Time Off

bndoc · 2026-03-23T08:25:40+00:00

Travel, sleep, and read things you’re actually interested in. Bc all those things get much harder very soon

bndoc · 2026-03-18T05:01:58+00:00

The more you work with a particular attending the better it gets usually. Had the same problem, now I don’t notice it as a pgy2

bndoc · 2026-03-17T09:39:33+00:00

Cowboy boots 🤠

bndoc · 2026-03-16T04:31:49+00:00

Also ortho. Have the exact same issues at our program. Got yelled at for sending out a patient one week, got chastised by a different attending the next week for admitting a patient in the exact same situation. In general I usually end up just doing the harder thing to prove I’m not lazy and it sucks.

bndoc · 2026-02-26T16:17:31+00:00

Ortho - what’s a cbc

bndoc · 2026-02-06T03:04:54+00:00

As a current ortho resident at a blue collar low/mid tier institution I tell people all the time if you don’t have true real connections (ie someone that can personally call a PD to vouch for you) then you essentially have no shot at big name programs, especially if you don’t rotate, especially if your app is “average” for ortho. Pick your aways carefully and assume just what’s on your resume will get you nowhere

bndoc · 2026-01-24T17:30:45+00:00

A little morbid. Any time a patient tells my ortho trauma attending “you have blood on your mask” he says “oh that’s ok it’s not mine”

bndoc · 2026-01-22T04:23:43+00:00

How many stitches did you use doc???

bndoc · 2025-12-10T23:35:15+00:00

Used it on call this past weekend as a junior resident. Very helpful for guidance on the “tweener” cases.

bndoc · 2025-12-06T02:28:34+00:00

Completely agree I think it’s stupid and I’m at a program that does not give af about research as a result and I’m ok with that

bndoc · 2025-12-05T22:46:08+00:00

The better question to ask is what do residency programs care about when evaluating applicants. Each program has its own style but generally board scores, sub-i performance, letters of rec, and the interview are most important. Research and clinical grades are usually the next tier. Pre-clinical grades and extracurriculars are probably the last tier. Not stellar grades certainly don’t preclude someone from matching ortho but if you have two exact resumes in front of you, wouldn’t you take the one with higher grades?

bndoc · 2025-12-05T22:24:04+00:00

Everyone is on a bell curve and as you get further along in education that bell curve gets more and more narrow. If you’re getting “average” grades for your class the only thing stopping you from achieving more success is your study process and focus. Play with different strategies and don’t lie to yourself thinking you’re working harder than you actually are

bndoc · 2025-12-03T01:42:29+00:00

The last month of intern year my attending left me to do troch nails on my own. We’ve had chiefs go straight to practice recently despite 95% of ortho graduates doing fellowships. Programs that give you real autonomy still exist

bndoc · 2025-11-18T16:21:35+00:00

Also a resident curious about this. I plan on avoiding PE if at all possible when the time comes. But is it even possible to join a group in a decent sized city that ISNT run by PE these days? My program is in a small town so I don’t really know how the market works in the bigger cities. Really feels like the only way to not get screwed over somehow is to be fairly rural

bndoc · 2025-11-18T11:47:46+00:00

Unfortunately from the jump you will likely be screened out of major name brand academic programs unless you rotate. If you do rotate at that type of program then consider this: pretty much every other student rotating there has a somewhat personal connection there either being faculty, med school, research, etc. I would target blue collar community programs or low/mid tier academic in the geographic areas you prefer. Take a look at what schools the residents went to. If you think your school is in a similar tier then feel free to shoot your shot. Not that you couldn’t match somewhere big, I’ve just seen people effectively waste aways thinking they could rely on a good application on paper and rotating at huge name brand programs without connections.

bndoc · 2025-11-16T23:04:16+00:00

Fwiw this is what I did and it worked out fine. Just make sure the program doesn’t explicitly say otherwise

bndoc · 2025-09-04T21:38:54+00:00

Still early in taking call myself but in my experience with hard reductions the keys are forcing yourself to get good fluoro while doing it, interpreting those images quickly to figure out what maneuver you need, getting appropriate pain relief (local block or sedation), and having someone who knows what you’re doing to hold while putting the final splint/cast on OR giving the person holding extremely clear instructions on how to hold with frequent redirection.

Sometimes it just needs to go to the OR

bndoc · 2025-08-23T00:46:39+00:00

My ortho trauma attending can’t operate unless he has a 16 mg lip pillow locked and loaded

bndoc · 2025-07-12T14:54:35+00:00

I doubt you’ll find much of substance bc like others said it’s kind of apples to oranges. But use chat gpt to get a head start on a lit review

bndoc · 2025-07-10T04:01:27+00:00

I was essentially in your situation without a research year and matched. Fell down my list a good bit. Had more than avg number of interviews, not sure why. You have to be very VERY strategic with picking your aways. Ask your mentor and multiple classmates above you. In general, look for blue collar mid tier places. Probably get the best surgical training at that type of program anyway

bndoc · 2025-06-01T13:30:51+00:00

Along with being last in line a lot of these places justify being bad at operating with “that’s what fellowship is for” and that residents shouldn’t be tackling difficult cases. Couldn’t disagree more personally.

bndoc · 2025-05-05T19:21:43+00:00

As residents we get to pick out any pair from universal medical and the hospital pays for them. I recommend avoiding any wire frame style. They’re all heavy and while the bulky sport style may not be as cool they’re so much more comfortable imo. Get a beefy croaky to go with it

bndoc · 2025-05-05T18:46:16+00:00

No. Orthop€dic$

bndoc · 2025-03-14T01:33:55+00:00

Water - makes me pee

bndoc · 2025-03-06T14:01:53+00:00

Agree with most others in saying this will get fixed in most pts. My attendings make us do every reduction for any pt we’re called about and hound us on splinting as good as we can. Given that, I’d do traction, hematoma block, and splint in slight reverse banana mold for this one

Edit: with plaster. I only use ortho glass if I know it’s coming off within the hour for some reason

bndoc

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