The goal of our orthopaedic residency-training program is to provide an environment where the residents can grow and maximize their potential. We strongly believe that residents should not be “spoon fed” but rather should develop skills and educational habits that will serve them the rest of their orthopaedic career. Through utilization of the team concept, the residents are given exposure to the various subspecialties at both a junior and senior level; and therefore, each attending has exposure to each resident at both levels of training. This has been very helpful in allowing for the assessment of the advancement of each individual resident. Each team is unique as far as the intensity of attending involvement and direction but in all cases, the residents are intimately involved in the care of their patients. During all surgical procedures as well as during all clinics an attending staff member directly supervises the residents.

In the outpatient setting, residents are supervised by an attending who is on site. The clinics are set up to allow the attending to see the patients with the residents. The residents evaluate many of the patients initially and formulate a diagnosis and treatment plan. Subsequently, the patients are evaluated by the attending in the clinic. This allows for individual educational development and the ability to formulate a rational treatment plan.

In the inpatient setting, the residents are responsible for all history and physical examinations as well as obtaining pre-operative consent in conjunction with the attending. Post operatively, the residents write orders and are responsible for writing notes for patients on a daily basis. The work-ups are usually done by the junior level resident with the chief resident more involved with the administrative duties, pre-operative planning, and in-patient management. Each day the residents and/or residents and faculty team make rounds. Inpatient consults are usually evaluated first by the residents and then by the faculty.

The operative experience in our training program is diverse and allows for the steady advancement of the resident. The cases are discussed in pre-operative meetings, usually by each separate team, and the primary resident surgeon is identified at that time. Important reading is identified and pertinent issues discussed. This interaction between team members allows for the increased responsibility given to the chief versus junior resident. Close communication between the faculty members allows us to identify residents who have particular strengths or weaknesses. All surgeries are directly supervised, although the level of involvement is dependent on the individual resident’s abilities as well as the difficulty of the case involved.

Comments or suggestions: email Dorothy Harmon

May 16, 2008

School of Medicine | Medical College of Georgia