Missionary Orthopod in the Making

So this first week that I have spent at Atlanta Medical Center has felt like 1 month already. On my first day, I arrived to the hospital, got lost trying to find the GME office and was sent to clinic because they couldn’t reach a resident to figure out where I was supposed to be. It just so happened that the clinic I was sent to was the one run by the program director, Dr. Kane. At first I got a little scared, but I had to remind myself that clinic is just that…clinic, and I have done clinic before. So I introduced myself to all the folks there, grabbed a chart and started seeing patients.

To be honest, it would be way too much to go through everything that has happened this week, because I have basically lived at the hospital for the most part. However, I can voice my initial impression of the program, from these 6 days of work. The AMC program I believe is highly underestimated. They get the same orthopaedic volume (adjusted for size) as Grady, but they have the benefit in that the majority of their patients are blunt orthopaedic traumas while the majority of Grady Hospital’s orthopaedic trauma is penetrating. And once you get burned out with the trauma at the main AMC hospital, they send you out to work one on one with private attendings that have huge clout in Atlanta and nationally, so you get a great mix.

Something else I have noticed is that this program is really really favored towards southern applicants. When they found out that I was from LLU, a med school in SoCal, I was asked at least 15 times by various attendings and residents:

• How in the world did you find out about us?
• Did you get lost, why are you here?
• Why the hell are you here?
• What made you come all the way to Atlanta?

In a way it was actually pretty annoying at first because I was starting to feel that even if I worked hard for the month, they would think that I didn’t want to come there. I mean, if spending 1 month at a program is not a big enough hint that I am interested in the program, then I don’t know what is. But I think that they are just so used to med students from the south ONLY, rotating and matching that a dude from a Cali medschool is somewhat of an anomaly. Even looking at the other 3 rotators that are on with me now, 2 of them are from the Medical College of Georgia, and the other is from University of Flordia. As the week went on though, I felt as if that bias was starting to recede. I hope that as they get to know me and hopefully like me that they will have no doubt in their mind as to my intentions.

As I am still working hard here at AMC, its impossible for me to not get excited about my upcoming rotation at Hopkins. Unfortunately, the recent news of the shooting of an orthopaedic surgeon there, brought the rotation back into my mind. AMC is definitely a community/academic hybrid program, and I look forward to seeing what the full academic like atmosphere of Hopkins is like.