Celiac Plexus said:
except for the sports comment (though liking sports is pretty common among the surgical resident demographic), from my experience this stereotype is wildly inaccurate... some things that i have noticed that ortho residents have in common: they're smart, and don't like to manage any medical issues. other than these 2 things, the ortho residents that i know come in all shapes/sizes/degrees of athleticism, and personality types.
Whereas, for the most part, I think what Leukocyte said is true. It's not physical, but personality. The program at my hospital has 40 residents. Many are former or future military - one who will be a Navy staff orthopedist in 2 months, who bikes ~200 miles/week, another who was a flight surgeon for 3 years, another who went to the same military school as me, who spent 7 years as a SEAL, another who went to our rival military school, and more - so they all function and flourish in a regimented environment. One guy was a football player when he was undergrad at Duke (his brother quarterbacks for the Bears). Another guy comes from a family that was one of the original settlers in Maryland 400 years ago. One of the 3 female interns runs so much, I thought SHE was "The Fugitive". There's a guy from Australia who's just hilarious. There's another guy that is Texas up and down, and wears his boots with his scrubs every single day (except one - he said he felt naked without them).
There's one guy that's a pain in the ass, but, out of 40, one isn't bad. Mostly, our ortho people
are open, somewhat to rather extroverted, easygoing, calm, just all around "good" people. I've never had one refuse to show me how do something, or to turn their noses up to me, or (except for the one guy) even give me a hard time about coming to see a patient. When I rotated on ortho, they took me right in - residents and attendings both included me, and didn't treat me like the "red headed stepchild".
As for the "life of the party" - THAT stereotype IS true, from my looking. This group is WILD to go out with. A more fun time out you will not have.