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Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education  Hot PDF Print E-mail
Residency Programs Minnesota
Program Information
Website: http://www.mayo.edu/msgme/orthosurg-rch.html
City: Rochester
State/Province: Minnesota
Residents per class: 10
Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program


User reviews

Average user rating from: 2 user(s)

Overall rating
8.7
Staff Surgeons
10.0
Didactics/Teaching
9.5
Operating Experience
9.5
Clinical Experience
8.5
Research
9.5
Residents
8.5
Lifestyle
9.0
Location
4.5
Overall Experience
9.5
 

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Lives up to the hype - one of the premier programs, Thursday, 03 April 2008

Written by CndP   -  View all my reviews  - Top 10 Reviewer

Overall rating
8.2
Staff Surgeons
10.0
Didactics/Teaching
9.0
Operating Experience
9.0
Clinical Experience
7.0
Research
9.0
Residents
9.0
Lifestyle
9.0
Location
3.0
Overall Experience
9.0
Program Information
Staff/Faculty/Chairman: It's hard to make a sweeping statement about the faculty here, especially based on a 4-week sub-I, as the department is just huge. Even as a resident you won't get to know everyone. But this is arguably the premier place for Hand and Adult Recon, and perhaps Tumor as well. Spine is strong, while Sports is a weakness according to most residents. Trauma is mostly the cold variety, and there's less volume trauma-wise here than at your big city trauma centers. That was a plus for me, but may be a minus for others. Peds is another relatively weak area; residents are sent to Mayo-Jacksonville to do a Peds rotation. Chairman, Dr. Berry, I didn't meet personally, but seemed quite friendly at conference. PD, Dr. Hanssen has a rep for being a blunt, no-BS kind of guy; I found him to be straightforward for sure but also good-natured and helpful. Same goes for Assistant PD, Dr. Turner. Most of faculty were former Mayo residents who did their fellowship elsewhere. This is by design, as it was explained to me that the department has been far happier with grads of their residency than grads of others. The fact that the faculty did their fellowship training elsewhere is seen as a sufficient injection of new blood/knowledge to the department.
Didactics/Teaching: Unique among ortho residencies, Mayo blocks out 6 months out of each resident's PGY2 year for "Basic Science," which is a concentrated series of lectures, workshops, dissections, simulators, etc. designed to put all the juniors on a level playing field for their last 3 years of residency. I went to the Microvascular Skills Lab, which was fantastic. During the 6 months of Basic Science, PGY2 residents are assigned to a service, but they operate or go to clinic just in the morning; the afternoon is protected time for didactic learning. Conferences otherwise are specialty-specific, with the exception of grand rounds. Hand conference is excellent for learning (great cases, incredible faculty all willing to chime in), as is Joints and Tumor, but there's a lot of pimping going on, especially in Tumor conference, where faculty from ortho, radiology, rad onc, and even path all jump on the poor PGY2's who line up to go through cases as if they're French aristocrats waiting to be guillotined.
Operating Experience: Because Mayo's residency is structured in a preceptorship-style format, where 1 resident is attached at the hip to 1 consultant, this could in theory vary a lot, depending on the level of the resident and the personality of the consultant. But all the consultants I worked with, even the somewhat ornery ones, were dead-set on getting their residents operating and teaching them operating skills (the atmosphere is here is very conducive to that). What you won't find, of course, is seniors leading juniors through cases, as there is almost no double-scrubbing. But that means you're always learning from a seasoned pro rather than an unboarded resident just a few years more senior than you. The cases themselves can be somewhat out of the ordinary: off the top of my head I recall an MCP arthroplasty, a massive distal femur prosthesis revision, and an axillary lymph node dissection (!) during my rotation. But there's also a lot of bread and butter stuff, too, especially joints, and you will do A LOT of joints if you come here. All consultants have PA's or NP's to assist in the OR also, and they definitely make things like closing go faster. Sometimes they will volunteer to do the closing or dressing themselves so that the resident can take care of whatever other business there is; otherwise, they will see all the cast room patients (who are there for suture removal, wound checks, etc.), while the resident operates.
Clinic Experience: Residents spend more time in clinic than other programs - approximately 40% vs. 60% in the OR. As most are aware, suits/sport jackets are the rule rather than white coats. Patients are for the most part not formally presented to the consultant; instead, the resident writes a note (which might be handwritten or typed, depending on the service), which is briefly looked over by the consultant.
Research Opportunities: Not all the faculty are heavily involved in research, but within such a huge department, you can find some outstanding investigators. Superb biomechanics and motion analysis stuff here, as well as lots of tissue engineering. Of course the patient databases are unmatched by any other institution, probably in the world, so clinical research is a ridiculous abundance of riches. Most residents do these clinical projects and have no trouble publishing them. There is no great pressure to do so, however, and most residents don't have academics in mind.
Residents: Like the department itself, the residency is huge, so I could only meet a handful of residents during my 4 weeks there. All were good people; smart, humorous, and good-natured, with OR skills that seemed above their level of training. They like to teach, and did more operating here. What really impressed me is how they had nothing but good things to say about their colleagues, as well - the camaraderie is good, even if each resident is not exactly tight with all 49 others.
Lifestyle: You carry your pager 24/7, every day of the year (except vacation), which can be a pain, but this is Rochester, not the big city, so things are generally less crazy. You do have to do patient callbacks, answering questions (that range from legit to crazy) from patients. Reps for Stryker, Zimmer et al. treat residents well, buying them books. Loupes are not provided by the department, but can be purchased using funds allotted for vision/dental care (can be done in the PGY2 year - very helpful as there's a lot of hand experience here). Residents get whatever fellowship they please in hand or joints, and very good ones for all the other specialties.
Location/Housing: Rochester is very small but very affordable - a good place for a family or an adaptable couple, but considerably less so for singles. But the Twin Cities are ~2 hrs or less away, and if you like the outdoors there's plenty of hunting, fishing, canoeing and the like. Most residents own homes and are married. There are 2 hospitals, Rochester Methodist and St. Mary's, but they're less than a mile apart, and there are continuous shuttles in between. Traffic seemingly doesn't exist here, a nice plus that gives you the freedom of really choosing where you want to live.
Overall Rotation Experience/Conclusion: This was a superb experience. The preceptorship style really maximizes teaching and minimizes mindless retracting. The hospital is efficient, and the support staff minimizes scut. The "weaknesses" here are only relative, compared to unbelievable strengths in other areas. Location is the biggest issue for most people, and you need to think long and hard about whether you can be happy in a small town in the Upper Midwest is where you. But keep in mind that there are advantages, too, to living here, like the affordability and lack of traffic (which can matter a lot for poor, time-strapped residents). And lastly, there is a rumor that circulates outside of Mayo that their residents are placed on one of 2 tracks, one of which has the "good" consultants, and the other of which has the bad personalities. Everyone here denies that is the case, and I couldn't find any evidence of it, either, so I believe this is just another unfounded rumor of the sort that unfortunately pervade the residency application process.
Qualification
I rotated as a medical student at this program
Date of Rotation: Fall 2008
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

Mayo Clinic is top tier, Saturday, 08 September 2007

Written by birdman   -  View all my reviews  - Top 10 Reviewer

Overall rating
9.2
Staff Surgeons
10.0
Didactics/Teaching
10.0
Operating Experience
10.0
Clinical Experience
10.0
Research
10.0
Residents
8.0
Lifestyle
9.0
Location
6.0
Overall Experience
10.0
Program Information
Staff/Faculty/Chairman: There is no question that the staff at the Mayo clinic are outstanding, with many being recognized at top names in their respective fields. Dr. Berry, the chair, was very personable when I met him and he came across as a guy who really cares about his residents education.
Didactics/Teaching: While on service, I felt that the residents were given outstanding didactics. As PGY-2s they spend six months on a basic science curriculum, where they are still on services but their afternoons are protected for various lectures, skill labs, anatomy labs and studying. I thought that this was a great way to make the transition from an intern to a more prepared orthopaedic resident.
Operating Experience: Their strengths are joints, hand, and spine. Their "weakness" is trauma. While their weakness really is trauma, I think it is only a relative weakness (because their other areas are so strong). While on service my trauma team had more than enough OR time, in fact we had a call day that we spent 20 straight hours operating. Not only this, but the PGY-2s were getting to perform some of the key parts of various operations (which discredits some of the rumors out there that you don't operate until late in residency.) I also spent time on a joints service and had a similar experience, with the junior residents being very hands on. Lastly, the rumor that fellows steal cases is 100% not true. The fellows are generally not on service with residents at all, but if they are they are with junior residents so there isn't much overlap on the things they would and could be doing anyway.
Clinic Experience: Well it is called the Mayo CLINIC. In all seriousness, in my opinion clinic is clinic, it is the same nearly everywhere.
Research Opportunities: Everyone knows that there is plenty of opportunity to do projects that find their way into JBJS and the likes. The staff there are very open to resident help in their projects. On the flip side (and just at important in my opinion), some of the residents I talked to told me they were not planning on doing any research and they were not being pressure to doing it either.
Residents: They were a good group of people that seemed to go out of their way to make sure I knew what was going on. Even residents from other services would give me a hand when I was a little lost. That being said, you do get a little feeling that the group is more the studying type than the wild partying type, not to say they don't have a good time (I went to several parties with residents while I was there and had a great time) but that is just the feeling I got.
Lifestyle: They certainly adhere to the 80 hour work work week and I though their call schedule was very resonable.
Location/Housing: It is Rochester, MN. That being said, I think it is a great town to raise a family if you are a married resident. Housing is affordable and the education system is great. But there is no question that if you are a single resident looking for a great night life, this is not your ideal program.
Overall Rotation Experience/Conclusion: I definately had a great time while at the Mayo Clinic and plan on ranking it very high, if not number 1. I though many of the myths about the program (don't operate until PGY-3s or 4s, no trauma, too many fellows) were just not true at all. I think that there is little question that this is an elite top-tier program.
Qualification
I rotated as a medical student at this program
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Category: Minnesota