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Orthopedic Surgery Residency

Dear Prospective Orthopedic Residents:

Welcome to the Orthopedic Surgery Residency at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in Temple, TX. We are an ACGME-accredited orthopedic training program of four residents per year located in the heart of Central Texas. We have fellowship-trained faculty in every subspecialty and provide comprehensive care at a Level 1 Trauma Center.

Our program has a rich history of producing excellent clinicians and surgeons. While many of our residents choose to do fellowships to gain advanced subspecialty-level training, we take pride in the fact that all of our residents feel confident in the full spectrum of general orthopedic surgery by the time they graduate. In fact, one of the highlights of our program is that we regularly have residents who choose to enter general orthopedic practice right out of residency.

The culture of our program is defined by hard work and dedicated patient care. The residents and faculty have excellent relationships such that the residents are awarded early operative experience and strive to provide the very best care for each patient while on an attending’s service. Our mentorship rotation model, in which each resident works 1:1 with an attending, creates immense trust such that residents are able to maximize the benefit they see from each subspecialty rotation.

Our culture is also defined by the strong bonds among the residents and faculty. Daily didactic sessions allow the entire cohort of residents to spend time as a group every single day. Activities like monthly journal clubs hosted at attending’s homes and special events like the annual Lake Day celebration allow residents and faculty to spend time together outside of work.

Please explore the video below and the rest of the website for additional details about the program. We are proud of our program’s storied history and culture of excellence. We invite you to consider visiting us for an away rotation or consider applying to join our residency family.

Sincerely,

Russell A. Ward, Program Director

The Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine - Scott & White Orthopedic Surgery Residency is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Our five-year program offers large faculty-to-resident ratios with faculty members who offer training in sports medicine, spine surgery, hand and upper extremity surgery, joint replacement, foot and ankle surgery, pediatric orthopedics, musculoskeletal oncology and orthopedic trauma at a high-volume facility.

We accept four residents per year.

Curriculum

Through one-on-one rotations with fellowship-trained faculty, our "mentorship" model provides residents with the optimal training environment, allowing for appropriate supervision, resident-specific education and continuity of care. Except for the trauma service, residents are essentially never “double-scrubbed”—they get to sharpen their clinical decision-making and develop a deep bag of operative tricks by learning directly from the faculty, even as junior residents. The rotation schedule creates a balanced experience with rotations in all subspecialties, including at least two rotations in the major orthopedic subspecialties of trauma, total joint replacement, sports, pediatrics, foot & ankle, and hand.

All of our rotations take place at one of three locations: Baylor Scott and White Medical Center, McLane Children’s Hospital, and the Central Texas Veterans Affairs Hospital (VA). These three campuses each sit less than 2 miles away from each other, making the commute to work convenient.  The proximity promotes resident comradery by allowing the entire team of residents to spend time together every day.

PGY-1

PGY-1 interns spend half the year on general surgery rotations and half the year on orthopedic rotations:

General

  • Musculoskeletal radiology (1 month)
  • Plastic surgery (1 month)
  • Pediatric surgery (1 month)
  • Surgical intensive care (1 month)
  • Surgical Skills Curriculum / Research (1 month) - interns follow a surgical skills course designed by the residents and faculty to introduce them to all manner of basic surgical skills. From suturing to microsurgery, from arthroscopy to external fixation, interns are taught the fundamentals by senior residents and faculty over the course of this month. In addition, the interns are given dedicated time to begin developing their own research project.
  • Orthopedic:
    • Orthopedic Trauma (3 months) - the intern is primarily responsible for seeing consults throughout the hospital. At the beginning of the year, the intern primarily assists the on-call PGY2. As the year progresses, the intern gradually gains more autonomy is decision-making as his or her knowledge and skills grow.
    • Orthopedic Surgery at the VA (3 months) - the intern operates every single day. This rotation is one of the hallmarks of our early operative experience.

PGY-2 through PGY-5

These years are composed of four rotations per year, each lasting three months. The rotation schedule is designed to enable residents to experience the majority of rotations during both lower-level and upper-level years. 

Rotations are structured as a “mentorship model.” Residents spend between 6 weeks and 3 months with a single faculty member on each rotation. Whether to clinic or to the operating room, you go where your attending goes. We believe this arrangement builds strong rapport and facilitates resident education, graduated responsibility, and continuity of care. 

PGY-2

While the call schedule is outlined on a separate page, the PGY2 year is the time when residents fulfill the vast majority of their primary call responsibilities. To that end, the PGY2 rotation schedule is designed to give PGY2 residents exposure to the subspecialties that make up the majority of the consults they will see on call.

  • Pediatrics
  • Hand
  • Spine
  • Trauma

PGY-3

  • Joints
  • Trauma
  • Sports
  • Foot and Ankle/Research

PGY-4

  • Orthopedic Oncology
  • Joints
  • Pediatrics
  • Foot and ankle

PGY-5

During the VA rotation, the chief is responsible for running the operating room each day under the supervision of the VA faculty (not listed on this webpage). The VA caseload primarily consists of trauma, sports, hand, and joints cases. This rotation is an excellent opportunity for each chief to hone their operative skills as a general orthopedic surgeon. Chiefs often point to their experience at the VA as proof they are ready for general practice, whether they are doing a fellowship or not. 

  • Trauma chief
  • Sports
  • Hand
  • VA chief

Our daily conference schedule bolsters the culture of our program by allowing all the residents to come together on a daily basis. Group discussions of difficult trauma cases, didactic lectures, and exploration of anatomy encourage continual growth of the residents’ knowledge base. The daily practice of meeting together for didactics in the “classroom” (pictured below) fosters comradery among the residents. Located on the orthopedic inpatient floor of the hospital, the classroom is the hub of resident activity. Residents typically use the room to write notes and prepare for cases, making daily didactic sessions convenient. Not only that, the classroom is just a short hike down to breakfast tacos in the cafeteria and the residents typically migrate together as a large herd for food right before conference starts at 6:45 AM.

Monday – Trauma Conference

Residents are challenged to discuss interesting cases seen in the prior week, addressing initial emergency department care, non-operative and operative treatment options and post-operative management. The conference is moderated by various faculty members, who provide additional complementary perspectives for each case.

Tuesday & Wednesday – Core Curriculum

Residents review a repeating one-year curriculum based on the Orthobullets 365 study plan for the Orthopaedic In-Training Exam (OITE). Presentations on topics in every orthopedic subspecialty are updated on a yearly basis and reviewed the residents as a group. While the long-term goal of this curriculum is to prepare residents to pass their board exams at the end of their 5th year, residents find that their foundational knowledge of orthopedic surgery grows with each pass through the content. Our residents consistently score highly on the OITE as a result. In supplementation of resident-driven lectures, all of our faculty provide subspeciality-specific lectures based on topics the residents find particularly interesting. For instance, during the month-long shoulder and elbow module, Dr. Ward gave an excellent talk on the history of the reverse shoulder arthroplasty platform, which he uses extensively in oncologic reconstruction.

Thursday – Grand Rounds

Orthopedic faculty, residents and visiting speakers discuss interesting cases, new developments and controversial topics in these weekly conferences attended by the entire department. The intersection of every discipline never fails to generate interesting and often lively discussion.

Friday – Anatomy

PGY-3 residents are provided with a cadaver for dissection and demonstration of surgical approaches in an anatomy lab on the medical school campus. Alternating lectures and anatomy lab sessions are given by the PGY-3 residents ato the rest of the group. Attendings with expertise in a given area of anatomy show up to provide feedback on the dissection and surgical tips and tricks that one might use when using each approach in clinic practice.

Primary Call

In-house call is divided up between PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents; PGY-2s take the bulk of the primary call. Second-year residents average 7 calls per month, but get 2 weekends per month completely free of any responsibilities, including rounds. Third-year residents take only one primary call weeknight per month with no primary call weekend responsibilities.

Backup Call

Home call is taken mostly by the PGY-3 residents, who serve a backup role to in-house residents. Third-year residents also assist the chiefs in the OR one weekend per month.

Chief Call

Chief call is taken by PGY-4 and PGY-5 classes. Weekends are split up between the fifth-year residents, who each take one weekend per month.

Residents are encouraged to pursue research projects according to their level of interest. In accordance with ACGME standards, each resident is required to complete one research project. To that end, four months of dedicated research time are provided during residency. Dr. Bryce Allen, our department research director (official title***) is well-versed in helping residents get projects off the ground quickly and efficiently. Some residents choose to engage in leadership roles or work on other clinical endeavors after completing their required project. However, research-keen residents often complete multiple projects throughout their tenure. Collaboration with the Temple Health & Biosciences District allows residents to engage in biomechanical studies. Support from the department allows residents to design and implement prospective clinical studies. A user-friendly electronic medical record and an abundance of eager medial students allows for swift completion of retrospective clinic studies. Presentation of resident work at regional and national conferences is encouraged and can often be funded by our institution or through industry partnerships.

  • Train at one of U.S. News & World Report's top hospitals in Texas

    Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Temple is a 640-bed teaching and research hospital with a Level I trauma center.

How to Apply

Applications are accepted through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Our program participates in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) and adheres to their policies and guidelines.

Application deadline is November 15.


Application Requirements

Eligible candidates should provide a minimum of three letters of recommendation.

Baylor Scott & White Health accepts only the J1 visa for those individuals who require a visa in order to be work-authorized.

In addition, the following are also taken into consideration:

  • Class rank
  • Election to AOA or other honors
  • USMLE steps I
  • Review of personal statement
  • Review of dean's letter, with special attention to surgery clerkship grade
  • Research/publications
  • Employment history
  • Outside interests/hobbies/activities

Learn more about Baylor Scott & White's housestaff appointment eligibility, including guidelines for international medical graduates.

Contact Us

Cyndi Kruedelbach 
Phone: 254.724.5455
Fax: 254.724.0764
Cyndi.Kruedelbach@BSWHealth.org

Orthopedic Surgery Residency
Baylor Scott & White Health
2401 S. 31st St.
ms-35-300
Temple, TX 76508

Working at Baylor Scott & White Health

Compensation and Benefits

In addition to competitive stipends, we offer our residents a full menu of employee benefits. We help offset the cost of many of these benefits; others are options you can choose to pay for yourself.

Life in Temple

Temple uniquely offers a combination of access to big-city conveniences while maintaining a small-town atmosphere. Temple has also been ranked among the Top 20 Fastest Growing Cities in Texas and one of America's most affordable places of 2015.

Why Baylor Scott & White

As the largest not-for-profit health care system in Texas and one of the largest in the United States, Baylor Scott & White Health includes 48 hospitals, more than 900 patient care sites, more than 6,000 active physicians and more than 40,000 employees.

Check out all of our programs in North and Central Texas