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Rotation Schedules

The Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program is a five-year comprehensive program.

The order of the rotations in the PGY1 (Intern) year are assigned by the General Surgery Department.

Each class determines the order of their rotations in the PGY2-PGY5 years.

PGY1 (Intern) Year

Intern year is made up of 6 months on Orthopaedic rotations and 6 months of non-Orthopaedic rotations, each in 1 month increments. 

Orthopaedic rotations include: Trauma, Spine, Joints, and Tumor. Each intern will do spine, joints, or tumor twice, depending on their personal schedule. 

Non-orthopaedic rotations include: Vascular Surgery, MSK Skills, SICU, Pediatric Surgery, General Surgery (at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center), and General Surgery (at Stanford Medical Center)

PGY2 Year

PGY-2 Year is a consult-resident heavy year. Each rotation is about 7-8 weeks long. Rotations include:

  1. Trauma Day Consults
  2. Trauma Night Consults
  3. Spine
  4. Joints
  5. Palo Alto VA
  6. Santa Clara Valley Urgent Surgery Service 
  7. Santa Clara Valley Elective Surgery Service

PGY3 Year

PGY3 Year introduces residents to more outpatient subspecialities. Each rotation is about 7-8 weeks long. Rotations include:

  1. Hand
  2. Sports
  3. Foot&Ankle
  4. Pediatrics
  5. Santa Clara Valley Urgent Surgery Service
  6. Santa Clara Valley Elective Surgery Service
  7. Research 

PGY4 Year

PGY-4 year is the beginning of chief level call. Each rotation is about 7-8 weeks long. Rotations include:

  1. Hand
  2. Shoulder&Elbow
  3. Trauma
  4. Spine
  5. Joints
  6. Tumor
  7. Pediatrics

PGY5 Year

Each rotation is about 7-8 weeks long. Rotations include: 

  1. Trauma
  2. Palo Alto VA
  3. Sports
  4. Santa Clara Valley Urgent Surgery Service
  5. Santa Clara Valley Elective Surgery Service
  6. Kaiser
  7. Elective

International Opportunities

Opportunities Throughout Residency

Our residency program is very supportive of residents participating in medical missions aboard. Learning from our collegues who provide medical care in low resource conditions is very valuable. Understanding the scheduling issues around residency, we still have had residents work around the world, participating in missions in Vietnam, China, Honduras, Nigeria, Nepal, and Armenia. 

PGY5 Year International/Elective Rotation

During their PGY5 year, our residents have a two (2) month long Elective block. Unlike their Research block as a PGY3, this block provides residents with more freedom to add to their education along the lines of their interests. This block allows residents to focus on research, explore a different type of practice model, delve deeper into their specialty of choice, or even participate in an international experience for part of or the entire block.