Trauma the "core" of Ortho?

Hi, MS3 (soon to be MS4) considering making a (very) late switch to Ortho. There's so much I like about the field, but one big downside is that I'm frankly not comfortable in a Trauma/Emergency setting. The more I've explored Ortho, the more people tell me that Trauma is the "core" of the specialty and one of the most enjoyable things about it. To be honest, nothing about an emergency situation excites me.

I've heard people say that in private practice, you can limit the calls you take and pick a practice that sees less trauma. I know that trauma work is unavoidable, but is it really the biggest part of Ortho? Am I frankly in the wrong field if I don't enjoy it or have any inclination to do it?

Advice from any posters would help - I probably need to decide on a Sub-I and away rotations within the next coming days!

I would say that you need to explore what you don't like about the emegency/trauma situation. You will spend a LOT of time in the emergency/trauma setting throughout your residency and depending on your practice you may spend a LOT of time in the emergency/trauma setting during your first few years while extablishing your practice. I would counsel you to immediately reach out to some of the orthopaedic surgery residents in your program and spend a couple of call nights with them seeing what it is they do in the ER and see if it's something you're interested in or not.

Good luck

wnl