Life for a "General" Orthopod???

The end of PGY-3 year is drawing near and the constant chatter amongst my classmates is that of fellowships.
We have a program that has historically sent every graduate onto a fellowship with the exception of those with military obligations. Sports/Spine/Hand & Joints have been the most popular but I am torn.
Unfortunately, I don't have any recent (non-military) grads to contact for advice/opinions regarding opportunities for general orthopods.

I actually like everything...but in moderation.
Fracture care, Scopes / ligament recon., Primary Joints (minimal revisions), Some spine, Some hand, Some f&a.
Needless to say, VARIETY is the spice of my life.

Just wanted to get some opinions from any graduating PGY-5's, attendings/fellows on a few points...

Is there still a place for the GENERAL ORTHOPAEDIST?

Perhaps I should clarify that--> IS THERE A PLACE FOR THE GENERAL ORTHOPAEDIST IN AN URBAN/SUBURBAN (NON-RURAL) SETTING???

Will spending a year focusing almost exclusively on one subspecialty decrease my skill in other areas? (ie a year doing foot and ankle w/o doing a shoulder hemi or THA seems like my skill/aptitude in those areas would actually decrease).

Ortho seems to be increasingly composed of groups having subspecialists, but I am not interested (at least at this point) in being the "hand", foot & ankle or "spine" guy exclusively... is this unavoidable if you do a fellowship and join a subspecialty ortho group?

Based on the variety of cases ranging from the bread and butter to the complicated reconstructions, it seems like the resident straight out of residency is best equipped for general orthopaedics, as opposed to spending an additional year focusing on complex cases limited to a specific region.
With this in mind, would I benefit from doing a fellowship now (just to do one) or would a general ortho practice be more suitable at least until I developed more of an interest in a subspecialty?

Any input would be appreciated.

I too am at this point. My plan, thus far, is to do a fellowship in trauma and eventually do about 60-40 trauma-general. I dont see why you cold not do this type of combo with any specialty. It seems as though hand and spine guys tend to end up doing just thouse areas and only guys who did those fellowships do those types of cases. Our fellowship trained guys here seem to be pretty diverse. There is one joint attending i have done ACL's, Triple fusions, carpal tunnels and lots of fractures with. He does about 70% joints, of which about half are complicated cases or revisions.

I think the larger the group the more things get compartmentalized.
just my 2 cents.

So why is is that ALL of your chiefs do fellowships?

There is still plenty of room for generalists out there. Although, it may be harder as a generalist in a bigger group in a metropolitan area. Most groups end up having niches develop whether there is fellowship training or not.

The U.S. is in short supply of orthopods right now in most areas, especially the midwest. In our state, we are currently short about 20-25 orthopedists. Most of these jobs are for generalists.

I would consider a fellowship only if you want to subspecialize in an area or if you have a weakness in an area that you need to improve upon. Your skills won't diminish much if it's only been a year since you have done certain cases, but they do diminish if it has been several years.

If you are going to do a fellowship, do it right away. Once you start collecting a pay check and are treated well, it is hard to go back into training.