Thursday Morning Didactic Conference:   

 

Goal:  To increase knowledge in the areas of diagnosis and treatment of surgical disease, investigate and analyze new approaches to patient care, build skills in presenting scientific data and controversial topics in the core components of surgical disease and to build expertise in a multi-disciplinary approach to patient care.

 

Educational conference is held every Thursday morning.  There is a separate focus of interest emphasized each week in addition to M&M:

 

 

 

Journal Club  

 

Goal:  To improve the residents’ knowledge of current literature pertaining to the care and management of surgical patients.  To engage the residents in the investigation and appraisal of scientific evidence, study designs and statistical methods.  To broaden and enhance residents’ knowledge and practice of scientific inquiry.

 

The residents are provided with an article to read before Journal Club. The article is reviewed by one of the faculty with equal emphasis on the content and how the article was written.

 

 

 

Surgical Grand Rounds:

 

 Goal:  To increase knowledge in the area of diagnosis and treatment of surgical diseases, investigate and analyze new approaches to patient care, build skills in presenting and discussing interesting cases and debating approaches and management of the surgical patient and to build expertise in a multi-disciplinary approach to patient care.

The Grand Rounds lectures consist of presentations on clinical topics stressing evolving surgical techniques, new management principles of surgical patients, rare and/or complex cases and current and ongoing research endeavors related to surgery.  Visiting professors provide some of the lectures.

 

 

 

Resident Debate:

 

Goal: The debate is an extension of journal club. Using skills developed in reading the scientific literature, residents learn to defend their point of view.

 

A  topic of controversy is provided to the residents who are then assigned opposing views. A faculty expert introduces the debate topic and using current literature, the residents will defend their "side". Following the debate the faculty provide comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the “pro” and “con” arguments and a winner is selected.

 

 

 

Resident Research Day:

 

Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center  hosts an annual Resident Research Day.  All residents who have completed or are conducting research are required to present at this hospital wide function.  Outside judges review all the posters and projects and several awards are given.

 

 

 

Morbidity and Mortality Conference:

 

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

 

M&M is held weekly on Thursday mornings from 7:30-9:00 am. The preceding week’s complications and deaths are reviewed.  Cases are submitted to the Program Director prior to conference.  The Program Director will select cases which provide the most educational value and the presenting senior resident will review their presentations with the attending of record prior to presenting at conference. Residents are required to provide evidence based literature relevant to each presentation.  Residents are encouraged to access The Surgical Index (TSI), a monthly review of surgical literature available on the American College of Surgeons web-site and PubMed.

 

 

 

SCORE Conference:

 

Goal:  To have a weekly review of assigned topics from the Surgical Core Curriculum.

 

The conference is held on Thursday mornings after M&M conference. The primary resource  is the Surgical Council on Residency Education (SCORE).  SCORE is a web based resource accessed through the General Surgery Resident Curriculum Portal to deliver educational content aligned with the curriculum for general surgery residents as promulgated by the American Board of Surgery.  Residents are provided access to this online resource.  A quiz is conducted at the end of conference.