Resident Rotations
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First Year Residents
Our five-year program begins with the PGY-1 year in the Yale-New
Haven Hospital System in a diversified experience of monthly
rotations that includes general surgery and polytrauma, vascular
surgery, burn surgery, neurosurgery, intensive care units, emergency
room, anesthesia, rheumatology, other medical services, and orthopaedics.
The content of the PGY-1 year is determined by the orthopaedic
program director and the residents' education committee and is
compliant with ACGME requirements.
Second through Fifth Year Residents
The rotations are composed of five time blocks per year (2.4
months/rotation) evenly divided so that each resident in each
year rotates through the same services and has an equivalent
experience. While five years of orthopaedic residency are mandated,
a total of one year of flexibility is built in to the second
through fifth years as long as each resident has at least 12
months of trauma experience, 6 months of pediatric orthopaedics,
and 18 months of adult reconstructive surgery. This allows ample
block time for research and some elective time as well. Rehabilitation
experience is integrated in virtually every clinical service
and is particularly comprehensive in adult reconstruction, trauma,
sports, hand, spine, and pediatric orthopaedics.
Second Year Residents
During the second year, residents rotate exclusively through
clinical orthopaedic services. These include orthopaedic trauma;
pediatric orthopaedics; a combined sports, hand, and foot service
(designed to give exposure to these popular subspecialties early
in the program); the nearby West Haven Veterans Administration
Medical Center; and the private community Hospital of St. Raphael
in New Haven, where additional experience in arthroscopy, reconstructive
surgery and trauma is gained.
Third Year Residents
Four-fifths of the year is spent at Yale-New Haven Hospital
where the experience includes rotations on the trauma, spine,
and adult reconstruction (joint replacement and oncology) services.
A rotation at Waterbury Hospital involves each resident in a
high volume, highly skilled and efficient hip and knee joint
replacement experience where substantial clinical research opportunities
exist. During the third year each resident is provided with an
elective rotation at Yale that allows one to focus on those subspecialties
that he/she is considering for fellowship education, devote protected
time to research, or combine both in a self-designed experience.
Fourth Year Residents
The fourth year residents spend three-fifths of their time at
Yale, one-fifth at the Veterans Administration Medical Center,
and one-fifth at the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven. At
Yale-New Haven Hospital there are separate sports, hand, and
protected research rotations. At the Hospital of St. Raphael
the resident is chief resident on the orthopaedic service. The
Veterans Administration Medical Center rotation is also a chief
resident rotation with a wide variety of adult reconstruction
surgical cases and hand and upper extremity problems. A combined
outpatient clinic with rheumatology adds essential experience
with the non-operative management of joint diseases
Fifth Year Chief Residents
During the chief residency year four-fifths of the year is spent
on clinical services at Yale and one-fifth is devoted to completion
of research projects begun in the earlier years. The culmination
of one's research is the presentation of results at the annual
disputations conference held at the end of the academic year.
The clinical rotations during the chief year are trauma, spine,
pediatrics, and adult reconstruction.
