University of California (Irvine)  Hot PDF Print E-mail
Residency Programs California
Program Information
Website: http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/ortho/
City: Orange
State/Province: California
University of California (Irvine) Orthopedic Residency Program, Orange, CA


User reviews

Average user rating from: 2 user(s)

Overall rating
7.7
Staff Surgeons
8.5
Didactics/Teaching
5.5
Operating Experience
10.0
Clinical Experience
7.5
Research
10.0
Residents
6.0
Lifestyle
6.0
Location
10.0
Overall Experience
6.0
 

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Resident's Perspective, Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Written by Californiaortho11   -  View all my reviews  - Top 50 Reviewer

Overall rating
9.3
Staff Surgeons
9.0
Didactics/Teaching
8.0
Operating Experience
10.0
Clinical Experience
10.0
Research
10.0
Residents
9.0
Lifestyle
9.0
Location
10.0
Overall Experience
9.0
Program Information
Staff/Faculty/Chairman: The staff here are exceptional when it comes to operating and clinical judgment. Every single one of them works hard for resident education. The previous poster is correct in one aspect: our program director is one of the nicest and intelligent surgeons I've ever worked with. He is an amazing teacher in and out of the OR. I'd have to completely disagree with what was said about our chairman. We make sure that every T is crossed and I is dotted when he rounds, but not because we're scared of him...his number one priority is excellent patient care and we want to make sure he knows that the ortho patients are well taken care of. As far as the other staff, Dr. Zamorano is an amazing teacher and gives you great autonomy in the OR. The same thing can be said about almost all our other staff. I can only think of one hat I would even call a little "handsy."
Didactics/Teaching: This used to be our weak point, but in the last 4 or 5 months we have drastically changed our didactics as our chairman/PD noted this weakness. We now have specialty-specific lectures that have been incredibly useful as can be noted in our OITE scores which have drastically improved.
Operating Experience: It's been said in the previous posts, so I won't say anymore...we operate a ton with instruments in hand, not standing on the sidelines.
Clinic Experience: Orthopod211 was quite wrong in this aspect. We have attending covering and present in every single clinic we have. Every once-in-a-while a trauma attending covering fracture clinic might have to run to the OR for an hour or so, but we just throw up the x-ray in the OR and tell the story and get the advice we need. On any given day, we have 3-5 ORs running and 1-2 residents in clinic. Clinic feeds the OR, so none of us are sorry for the clinic...I don't think any of us think of it as "too much clinic."
Research Opportunities: Expansive....almost too much. Sometimes have to tell the attendings that there is just not enough time to start another research project. They're perfectly fine with this. I think we have 30-40 podium or poster presentations at the academy meeting.
Residents: I'm obviously biased, but I personally think that our residents are great. A lot of us are very different but for the most part, we all get along really well. We hang out as much as we can outside of work. A bunch of us go on snowboarding, surfing, volleyball, camping, etc together. We also get great fellowships (ie Rush Sports, Miami Spine, Harvard Sports, San Diego Joints).
Lifestyle: I'm not sure how lifestyle can be much better. As PGY-2's (our hardest year) we get 2 full weekends off a month. After our PGY-2 year, it's all home call. Not sure who Orthopod211 was talking to, but after talking to the guys in our class, we all average around 80 hrs per week. Sure, there are weeks when we go over, but there are also weeks that we go under.
Location/Housing: It's Southern California. I went surfing post-call on Friday and then Saturday morning, and went snowboarding Sat afternoon to Monday (President's Day weekend). The location is incredible.
Overall Rotation Experience/Conclusion: I love it here. I can't imagine being anywhere else. I felt compelled to write this after reading Orthopod211's post as I felt a lot of it was untrue. I've made some really great friends here and I know I've made professional contacts that I can ask for help from the rest of my career.
Qualification
I am a current resident of this program.
Date of Rotation: 2007-2012
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

UCI, Thursday, 05 February 2009

Written by Orthopod211   -  View all my reviews  - Top 50 Reviewer

Overall rating
6.1
Staff Surgeons
8.0
Didactics/Teaching
3.0
Operating Experience
10.0
Clinical Experience
5.0
Research
10.0
Residents
3.0
Lifestyle
3.0
Location
10.0
Overall Experience
3.0
Program Information
Staff/Faculty/Chairman: Most the the faculty are extremely nice, and the program director is one of the nicest doctors I've worked with. Dr. Zamarano is an amazing traumatologist, great with pts and the best attending you could ask for as a resident. The Chairman is very intimidating--both to the residents and others. The residents are extremely uncomfortable around him, which is apparent when he rounds with them.
Didactics/Teaching: Of the three programs I rotated, the didactics at this program were by far the weakest. A few hours once a week in the morning, with three 1-hour blocks. One given by a resident, one by an attending, and then grand rounds. There may have been a 4th hour of didactics.
Operating Experience: This was very strong. I saw PGY-2's doing some great stuff on the trauma service. Most of the PGY-2's are very comfortable with a lot of autonomy, and this was quite impressive. While better than no services at all, at the main campus, they're split into three services: trauma, spine, and elective. What this means is during the time you're on elective, you cover a hand surgeon, then a F&A surgeon, then a sports case all in one day. It was impossible for the PGY-2s covering multiple attendings in multiple specialties to have read/prepared for the case. I'm sure the attendings understand this, but it still seemed pretty tough for the residents as they tried to learn the material since they're doing a different thing every day.
Clinic Experience: To give full disclosure, all a sub-intern sees is what happens at the main campus, which is where you are during your intern year, your PGY-2 year, and then 6 months of your PGY-5 year. We don't see what happens during the PGY-3,4, and half of your PGY-5 year b/c you're at different sites doing different things. As far as the time you're at the main campus, you are in clinic a lot. There is "resident clinic" a lot--two half days and one full day week (2 days) in addition to "pre-op clinic" which seemed like was happening several hours a week. The residents see a ton of patients in these resident clinics, which may give great autonomy (as the attending covering "resident clinic" often doesn't see the pts), but learning how to examine and "do clinic" from an attending was missing. I'm sure they get this in their 3rd and 4th year, but 40% of every week doing resident clinic seemed like a ton of painful clinic without the benefit of learning from the experience.
Research Opportunities: No exposure to this.
Residents: As a sub-intern, you only really interact with a little less than half of the residents in the program. Of the 7 I worked with, about half are guys I'd like to be my seniors or co-residents, and 3 I would not. I also disagree with the last post that the residents are happy. Some were, some clearly were not.
Lifestyle: Supposedly your PGY-3 and 4 year are great, but as mentioned above I really don't know how it is at the other sites. During your PGY-2 year, you work very hard and are in the hospital a lot. The PGY-2s said they work over 100 hour every week, and from my time there I definitely believe them. They are on call as PGY-2s a lot--averaging at best Q4, but if a PGY2 is on vacation (which is 4 months a year if they each take a month), then they have to go to Q3. They usually get to sleep quite a bit on call, but they're just there a lot.
Location/Housing: Great location obviously
Overall Rotation Experience/Conclusion: Overall, the program has its pros and cons. Like any program, it's not all bad, not all good.
Qualification
I rotated as a medical student at this program
Date of Rotation: summer 2008
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 29 August 2007 )
 
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