Residency Program Overview
Wake Forest University's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery residency program has five residency positions per year that are fully accredited by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) and the American Medical Association's (AMA) Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The residency positions are filled through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).
A series of rotations are structured to provide training in adult and pediatric orthopaedics, fractures, rehabilitation, and basic sciences. The sequence of rotations is designed to provide increasing individual responsibility in patient management as residents gain experience.
The first year of residency is spent as a categorical orthopaedic surgery intern with rotations in general surgery, emergency medicine, anesthesia, radiology, plastic surgery, clinical orthopaedic surgery, and orthopaedic research/physical medicine and rehabilitation.
After successful completion of intern year, post-graduate years two through five are spent exclusively in orthopaedic surgery on various sub-specialty services including: Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery; Orthopaedic Oncology; Foot and Ankle Surgery; Orthopaedic Trauma; Total Joint Arthroplasty; Sports Medicine; Hand, Upper Extremity, and Microsurgery; and Spine Surgery. Each resident is eligible to sit for the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery certification exams following completion of the program.
House officers receive instruction in all aspects of adult and pediatric orthopaedic surgery in both the inpatient and ambulatory setting. Our program emphasizes diagnostic and operative arthroscopy, microsurgery, hand surgery, trauma, adult reconstruction, spine, foot and ankle, and rehabilitative medicine. The sports medicine program coordinates the care of athletes at multiple levels including the Winston-Salem Dash minor league baseball team, Division I teams at Wake Forest University as well as other local colleges and high schools.
Each of the second year residents manage their own patients in a fracture clinic under the supervision of a rotating faculty member. This clinic is comprised of routine outpatient management of emergency department consults, as well as outpatient fracture referrals from local primary care physicians. Beginning at the third post-graduate level, each resident is responsible for his or her own orthopaedic surgery clinic. Though a faculty member supervises the clinics, residents have primary responsibility for these patients. Resident clinics provide the opportunity to follow patients from the time of initial diagnosis through the course of treatment including operative and post-operative care with access to full ancillary support.