Curriculum

Curriculum Overview

Residents are closely supervised on each of the rotations with increasing responsibility as they progress in their training. Subspecialty rotations include one-on-one time with the attending of each subspecialty. During the Miami Valley Hospital rotations, the residents participate in the hospital staff subspecialty clinics, allowing some autonomy for independent decision-making. In each of the settings where residents work - outpatient, inpatient, OR and Emergency Department - residents are given gradually increasing responsibility in accordance with their level of training.

Teaching time always takes precedence over "service" duties and is carefully protected. The same rules apply during all teaching activities, including the monthly Journal Club. In a similar fashion, there is a clear understanding that when the resident is not "on call," he or she is encouraged to leave the hospital at the completion of regular working hours. This philosophy of the program is known and honored by all attendings.

Approximately two or three times per year, an invited out of town visiting professor presents research at the Dayton Orthopedic Society meeting, held on a Tuesday evening. This is followed by case presentations and a symposium at the Wednesday morning Grand Rounds. The faculty and chief residents choose the topics of both Dayton Orthopedic Society and symposia and all residents are required to attend.

Conferences

All residents are required to attend the Monday through Thursday 6:45-7:30 a.m. conferences that are held at Miami Valley Hospital. The Pediatric Service conference is held Friday mornings from 6:30-7:30 a.m. The academic curriculum is resident driven. The schedule is divided into anatomic blocks and rotates every month.  Residents prepare and give lectures that cover a wide range of topics.  Each lecture is assigned an attending that assists in preparation, clinical case presentation and experienced guidance.  We have an anatomy lab lecture each month that covers that month’s anatomy in the cadaver lab. Once a month, we have a visiting orthopedic oncologist who presents a tumor lecture. We have an imaging conference once a month that is directed by the Department of Radiology.  Grand Rounds is held once per month and rotates through trauma case review, chief resident case review, morbidity and mortality case review and didactic presentations.  Full-time faculty attend all resident conferences, and many volunteer clinical faculty attend the Wednesday Grand Rounds.

Skills Lab

As part of the curriculum, early hands on learning takes place in our skills lab during the intern year. These workshops are directed and supervised by multiple attending physicians and provide an excellent one-on-one learning environment.  Many of these workshop modules are designed by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery (ABOS) and more information can be found on the ABOS website.

There is a fully equipped arthroscopy simulation lab.  Two to 3 times per year, there is a surgical cadaver workshop where Attendings, and senior residents supervise junior residents on certain surgical techniques. These workshops include total knee and hip surgery, ACL reconstruction as well as knee and shoulder arthroscopy.

Courses

Residents attend a course or conference yearly. The costs for these courses are covered by funds voluntarily contributed by full-time and volunteer clinical faculty and commercial vendors. The courses attended are as follows:

• Basic A-O Course (R-I)
• Arthroscopy Course (R-2)
• Pathology (Enneking) Course (R-3)
• AAOS Meeting (R-4 and Research Residents)
• Orthopedic Board Review Course (R-5)

Additionally, residents are encouraged to submit and present their research projects at regional and national meetings.