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Didactic Instruction and Curriculum

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The Department of Surgery has made significant changes regarding the formal didactic curriculum for the residency program. We have established Wednesday morning as our education day. All residents are protected from clinical duties to attend M&M, Grand Rounds and the Core Curriculum activities. We have restructured our M&M format to implement basic concepts of quality improvement.

This includes a structured format (SBAR) of presentation, risk assessment based on the NSQiP risk calculator, and a fish diagram for an initial root cause analysis. The presenting residents receive formative feedback on their presentation immediately after.

We aligned our core curriculum with SCORE, the main standardized didactic resource for General Surgery Residency Programs around the country. Questions for the inservice exam (ABSITE) and the qualifying exam of the American Board of Surgery are based on SCORE.

We have established a formal simulation curriculum with modules directed to junior and senior residents. We have integrated FLS (Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery) and FES (The Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery) into the residency educational program. Our VA Hospital obtained the state of the art colonoscopy and bronchoscopy simulator that is actually used for the practical portion of the FES examination.

We participate in adult and pediatric NSQIP, and have therefore begun the process to implement QITI (The ACS NSQIP® Quality In-Training Initiative) into our core curriculum.

Upon arrival, residents receive training and certification in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS).  Our chief residents participate in the American College of Surgeons Advanced Trauma Operative Management (ATOM) course which is taught here at Upstate by our trauma team.

We have a structured curriculum for robotic surgery in place. This allows residents to participate in robotic cases at various sites and should ease the process to obtain robotic privileges after completion of the residency program.

In addition, many divisions have their own teaching conferences that are held weekly, providing numerous opportunities to discuss service specific clinical problems.

We hold mock oral examinations twice a year to give our trainees the opportunity to experience the format and to prepare them for this part of the board certification process.

Upstate University Hospital
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