Surgical Education/Curriculum

Conferences

• General surgery morbidity and mortality is held every Wednesday, coinciding with our applied basic science weekly education conference. This is protected time, and all residents are excused from clinical responsibilities between 7:00am – 10:00am on academic Wednesdays.
• Quarterly grand rounds featuring our renowned faculty and/or visiting lecturers.
• Problem Based Conference.
• Cameron conference for those that might be struggling academically.
• Bi-monthly surgical oncology conference.
• Vascular surgery conference is held every Thursday for residents rotating on the vascular surgery service.

Trauma Simulation

Every Friday, the trauma and acute care surgery faculty arrange for a live, high-fidelity trauma simulation for surgical residents to refine their trauma resuscitation skills. The simulation features live patient-actors, professional moulage, and is carried out in one of our trauma bays. This unique simulation involves the entire trauma resuscitation team and allows for general surgery residents to practice management of complex clinical scenarios in a highly realistic environment. Structured formative feedback is provided by the trauma faculty following the simulations.

Surgical Skills Lab

The skills lab is available 24/7 for residents and students to practice operative techniques in a safe laboratory setting before employing them in the operating room. It features:

• State-of-the-art DaVinci robotic surgery trainer to allow residents to develop their robotics skills and to acquire intracorporeal suturing skills. Monthly challenges are offered to residents and a monetary award is given out to the resident who can complete the challenge in the shortest amount of time.
• State-of-the Art Endoscopy simulator.
• Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) trainer boxes and instrumentation. Residents are able to practice the five required skills and are tested annually. Passing the skills and cognitive tests is required prior to taking the American Board of Surgery certification exam.
• Skills sessions held throughout the year include basic knot tying and suturing, bowel anastomoses, laparoscopic suturing, stapling, and FLS skills training.

OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination)

This is a clinical examination where candidates rotate through exam “stations” or simulated midwifery scenarios using actors and models and respond to the situation as they would in clinical practice.

Our program conducts an OSCE twice each academic year in the Mercy School of Nursing Skills Lab located on the 4th Floor in the main hospital. The OSCE runs on a two-year cycle so that each resident has the opportunity to participate in the same scenarios twice during residency. There are three cases for each OSCE.

Each case is 15 minutes in length and includes time to read the presenting scenario, conduct scenario, complete a self-assessment, and receive verbal feedback from the SP (standardized patient).