General Surgery Curriculum 2006 - 2007

TEACHING CONFERENCES

GOAL:
To provide residents and faculty an opportunity to review and improve their approach to treatment and management of surgical patients through thoughtful and systematic analysis of any complications or deaths which occurred in the preceding week. To increase the residents’ knowledge and awareness of services and individuals within the healthcare system who may assist in enhancing total patient care. To have residents and faculty review the experience of multi-disciplinary care of patients and how the experience might be improved.

D & C is held weekly on Thursday afternoons to review current complications and deaths. Cases are submitted to the Program Director and Chairman in advance (Friday for conference the following Thursday) and services are selected to present.

The cases selected are based on educational value. All complications are presented at each divisional conference weekly. The format is that faculty and residents take a systematic look at surgical complications and summarize the teaching points. The resident discusses the complications in light of evidence based literature. A discussion follows focusing on why the complication occurred with recommendations on alternate surgical approaches that might have resulted in a more positive outcome.

The D&C conference provides an excellent opportunity for the residents to investigate and analyze their patient care and practice experience, and is competency based. Midlevel providers, pharmacists, and other ancillary staff attend. We have short presentations from outside services as it pertains to the complication.

We encourage our residents to use the surgical index (TSI) (http://www.facs.org/tsi/index.html) a monthly review of the surgical literature available at the American College of Surgeons Web-site (http://www.facs.org), and the Cochrane Data Base (http://www.cochrane.us/library.htm).

In addition to the weekly departmental D&C, the VAMC has a weekly D&C conference.

OBJECTIVES:
Residents will present surgical complications and/or deaths and systematically discuss their decision making and management of care to identify possible options which may have resulted in a more positive outcome.

Residents will identify services, protocols, and/or other healthcare professionals from which patient care might benefit or be enhanced.

Residents receive feedback from faculty and other residents on their patient care and management.

Residents analyze decision making and apply knowledge, experience and feedback to future practice experience.

ASSESSMENT:
Faculty evaluate residents' medical knowledge and clinical practice following each rotation.

Faculty mentors provide feedback on resident presentations

top of page

Research Conference

The Departmental Research Conference meets once a month on Thursdays at lunch time. During the conference residents and faculty present their research. Basic science faculty, housestaff and surgical faculty attend. This is a forum for residents and junior faculty to gain experience in presenting their work and develop ideas for further investigation. Further, it serves as a venue for junior residents to identify potential research opportunities. Research residents attend this conference, as well as those PGY-1 and PGY-2 residents that have an interest in research and/or spending time in a laboratory during their surgery training.

top of page

Intern Conference

During the weekly Intern (PGY-1) Case Conference, interns present cases on a rotating basis and the faculty facilitators walk the residents through the case from the first patient encounter through the treatment plan. The resident presenting concludes the conference with a review of current literature pertinent to the case. The conference is moderated by Dr. James Neifeld, Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Dr. Dickie Newsome, Professor Emeritus of Surgery.

top of page

VAMC Surgery Conference

Dr. Thomas Miller moderates the weekly general surgery service conference at the VAMC which encompasses general, surgical oncology, vascular and CT surgery. Interesting cases are presented, as well as current literature specific to cases discussed. Immediately following the service conference the weekly M & M conference is held. Residents present their complications and/or deaths for each of the services at the VAMC.

top of page

Departmental Conference Schedule

top of page