To make the atmosphere instructional but keep it pleasant, Wright and his colleagues have developed an adult education model that recognizes the strengths of individual residents and gets them to interact as junior partners in a mentoring format.

“We encourage growth and development. Residents take on progressively more complex responsibilities as their skills and abilities increase” over the course of their five post-graduate years, says Wright who serves as Residency Program Director for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

The weekly interaction between attending physicians and trainees in Wright’s subspecialty of sports medicine begins Mondays at 6:30 am, with an indications conference at which upcoming surgeries are discussed and techniques are detailed. Routinely, four attending physicians, three residents, a fellow and perhaps four medical students attend. Similar conferences are conducted by all of the other subspecialties.

To guarantee a solid and complete training experience in a field that becomes continually more specialized and technologically sophisticated, each resident rotates through all of the specialties and fulfills a demanding core curriculum as well.

“When they’re done, our trainees are prepared to go anywhere and practice general orthopaedic surgery or to pursue a fellowship and subspecialize,” Wright says.

The recent addition of a sixth resident trainee to each level of training has made sufficient manpower available to permit a research rotation to be added to the mix. Now, residents have a month during their second post-graduate year and a two-month block during their third year to pursue research projects. “Exposure to research is critical to the development of future surgeons,” says Wright. “It hones critical thinking, teaches how to understand the literature of the field and also lets trainees appreciate just how much work biomedical research is.” Because the program is known for its quality — of both instruction and life in general — Wright says that many of the nation’s most talented new physicians pursuing orthopaedics apply.

The task of winnowing applicants, then interviewing the 60 or 70 finalists for six positions, grows more difficult each year as students get brighter and better.  His own residency experience is what makes Wright a good fit for this job; he stays in close touch with his own mentors, and he wants to provide the same warmth about postgraduate education that he feels. “I’m pleased to be part of a program with alums who are deeply proud of their training,” he says. To make life more enjoyable, he organizes events like a much-anticipated annual golf tournament and get-togethers at his home.