Resident Education

Orthopaedic Surgery Clinic

The purpose of residency training is to prepare to become an exceedingly competent orthopaedic surgeon, which includes the ability to perform independently in an outpatient office setting. Each resident attends Orthopaedic Surgery adult clinic every Wednesday, and Orthopaedic Surgery pediatric clinic every other Thursday.

Both junior and senior residents gain from presenting their clinical evaluation and initial formulation of plans to their resident/faculty supervisors, as well as core procedural skills. All residents gain valuable experience with aspects of managing an orthopaedic office including billing, coding, and insurance coverage.

Similarly, senior residents need autonomy in decision making, yet all parties need to be aware that the attending physician carries ultimate responsibility for patient care. Therefore, by recommending appropriate lines of communication between junior residents, senior residents and attendings, it is possible to maximize the educational experience from each case, as well as provide for safe and effective patient care.

The Orthopaedic Surgery Clinic is supported by a full-time staff to assist with critical tasks such as triaging patients, scheduling, and obtaining necessary medical supplies.

Orthopaedic Surgery Educational Conferences

A series of formal educational experiences have been developed to ensure appropriate education for attendings, residents and students. This program uses a range of educational formats. The resident’s active participation in these formal education opportunities is paramount.

It is mandated that each resident and faculty member will actively participate in these educational experiences. Residents may be asked to present pertinent cases to the department conferences. Many of these sessions are interactive and their success is highly dependent upon active participation by the resident and attending staff.

A number of conferences take place on a regular basis:

Morning Trauma Review (Sign-Out Rounds)

Each morning all on-call and trauma cases evaluated in the emergency department and for inpatient consultation during the previous 24 hours/weekend are presented and reviewed with our Chairman of Orthopedics, Dr. Jason Cohen. This conference begins at 6:30 am each day.

Fracture Conference

This conference takes place each on the second and fourth Wednesday morning of each month. Attendings on the Orthopaedic Service lead the Fracture Conference based on cases each resident was involved in. The purpose of this conference is to review management, surgical indications, and operative plans. All residents should be prepared to discuss cases.

Orthopaedic Journal Club

This one hour monthly conference, held on the third Wednesday morning of each month, focuses discussion on recent articles from leading orthopedic journals. The attending responsible for the month's Journal Club selects articles from a recent Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and from a recent specialty journal of their choice. Residents are assigned articles for discussion. This secessions will occasionally become industry events with speakers coming from outside institutions to share their knowledge and perspective.

Morbidity and Mortality Conference

The Morbidity and Mortality Conference takes place on the fifth Wednesday of each month. All complications from the entire orthopedic service are reviewed with the goal of identifying and improving particular intra-operative, peri-operative and systems-based issues that lead to adverse outcomes.

Cases from each service are presented by the resident on that service, along with a pertinent analysis of the complication and recommendations for improvement in care.

Radiology Conference

During the dedicated education block on Wednesday mornings, our residents get the opportunity to work with Dr. Tejas Shinde, an Musculoskeletal Trained Radiologist who is Chairman of Radiology at Monmouth Medical Center. Dr. Shinde teaches the residents his algorithm for interpreting MRIs and CT scans while also sharing his most interesting orthopedic cases from his practice.

Saw-Bones/Industry Events

Our program values the ability to work with our industry partners and their contribution to resident education. Chief residents are responsible for coordinating these monthly events with company representatives, which include saw bones models, in-house cadaver labs and travel to local industry headquarters for more involved experiences.

Extramural Medical Education

Our primary goal is to maintain the highest quality of medical care. Additionally, it is the responsibility of the program to help residents continually evaluate their own progress and to develop self-directed learning. To achieve these goals, we recognize that physicians must be engaged in continuous medical education. In combination with our in person Wednesday morning curriculum, our residents follow a longitudinal online curriculum that involves AAOS Resident Orthopaedic Core Knowledge (ROCK) curriculum. Residents are assigned weekly chapters and associated practice questions to enhance preparation for the OITE and ABOS exams.