Residency Program

FAQs

How many residents do you take each year?
We take five residents at the P1 level.

What are the strengths of your program?
This is predominantly a clinical program. Upon completion of residency, you will have rotated through all orthopedic subspecialties at least once. You will have sufficient clinical and operative experience to care for the majority of cases that you encounter. For the remainder, you should be able to make a diagnosis and appropriate referral. Residents who have completed our program and done fellowships at other centers often comment that their residency training was more well rounded than the one they experienced at their fellowship program.

What are the weaknesses of your program?
We have limited bench research in our department. We have a biomechanics laboratory and do collaborative research with the department of engineering at the University of Oklahoma and with the School of Veterinary Medicine at Oklahoma State University.

Are residents expected to do research?
We have a director of research. Each resident is expected to develop one or more research projects during residency. These range from bench research to clinical studies. We prefer that residents develop one or more prospective clinical trials that can be completed during residency. These research projects are presented at annual visiting professorship and prepared for publication.

Do you have any fellowships?
There is a hand fellow sponsored by Baptist hospital.

Do you expect any changes in your faculty?
We are growing and actively recruiting. The current full time faculty and their specialties are as follows:

Dr. Andy Sullivan - Pediatrics
Dr. David Teague - Trauma, Chair
Dr. John Tompkins- Adult reconstructive surgery, Chief VAMC
Dr. Tim Puckett - Spine
Dr. Charles Pasque - Sports medicine, coordinator of residency program
Dr. Joe Davey - Pediatrics
Dr. Bill Puffinbarger - Pediatrics
Dr. Paul Kammerlocher - part-time faculty, Foot and ankle
Dr. Hal Yocum, part time faculty, hand surgery
Dr. Chris White, shoulder & upper extremities
Mr. Bill Barringer - Orthotist
Mr. Gary Trexler - Orthotist
Dr. Thomas Lehman - hand surgery
Dr. William Ertl - Trauma
Mr. Jonathan Day - Prosthetist, Head of Orthofiesd Prosthetics section
Dr. Sheila Algan, Part time faculty, sports medicine

What are you looking for in a resident?
Basically all graduates of medical school should be able to learn the body of medical knowledge necessary to become an orthopedic surgeon. Residents vary in the speed with which they acquire operative skills but by the end of residency all have sufficient proficiency. The area in which we most often encounter problems with residents is in the affective domain. This involves your ethics, decision making, and ability to get along with others. We want residents who have good people skills. This is very difficult to evaluate in an interview. We want team players with a good work ethic. This is best evaluated during a rotation on one of our services. Lacking that we have to depend on letters of recommendation.

Tell me a little about Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City is a great place to live with low cost of living, minimal traffic congestion, virtually no violence and an overall friendly community mindset. A huge renovation of the downtown Bricktown area now provides a canal, multiple restaurants, a Triple A baseball stadium and an arena for the minor league hockey team. Other cultural undertakings include renovation of the Civic Center and main downtown library. Area parks and lakes are abundant, accessible and relatively under-utilized for a metropolitan area.