Review Detail
8.3 4 10
Florida
August 14, 2007
14232
USF
(Updated: December 10, 2011)
Overall rating
8.9
Staff Surgeons
9.0
Didactics/Teaching
8.0
Operating Experience
9.0
Clinical Experience
8.0
Research
8.0
Residents
9.0
Lifestyle
10.0
Location
10.0
Overall Experience
9.0
Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Fantastic program director - Dr. Doug Letson. He's a true resident advocate and will soon make this program a top-tier place to train.
Didactics / Teaching
They have three hours of didactic teaching every Wednesday morning at 6:30am and a variety of service dependent conferences throughout the week. The residents get pimped during the weekly fracture conference, but the rest of the didactics are generally lectures. I didn't think the pimping was malignant at all, and the residents know the literature better than any other residents at other programs that I rotated.
Operating Experience
Above average. Not a crazy, nail a hundred femurs a day sort of experience, but I got the feeling that you would be very well-trained in bread and butter procedures and more complex procedures with the resources available at FOI.
Clinic Experience
The residents are in clinic 1-2 days a week depending on the service and the majority of the services have a resident-run clinic once a week. The residents do everything on their own, but there is always an attending around to run questions by if they need it. I got to see a lot of patients on my own and then presented to the chief resident who would help me come up with a treatment plan. The residents were very helpful and tried to teach the sub-i's whenever they could. They also have an indications conference once a week where they present the previous week's clinic patients where they have to defend their surgical indications in front of a panel of experts in their field so that by the time they finish residency they know how to properly indicate patients for surgery.
Research Opportunities
Research is strongly emphasized because the program director is really into research. From what I heard, the residents are required to have three publications before they graduate (usually a case report, review article and clinical study) as well as submit a research grant proposal. Some residents thought that this was a little much, but in the end it's probably good for your career.
Residents
Great group of guys.
Lifestyle
Unbelievable. Second to none.
Location / Housing
Tampa is fantastic.
Limitations
The only problem I personally saw with the program (and what kept it from being in my top 3 programs) is the lack of in-depth experience on trauma at Tampa General Hospital. This is a top trauma fellowship, but the USF residents are kind of lost in the crowd as residents from several other programs are rotating at TGH also. I think if USF were to expand their experience at TGH and take more call, it would GREATLY improve the residency, in my opinion.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
A great, under-rated place that will be top tier with the proper leadership and some adjustments.
Qualification
I rotated as a medical student at this program
Date of Rotation
2009
JS
Jerry Stephens
Top 50 Reviewer
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