The Educational Methods and Instruments of the Residency Program
Didactic Lectures
Each post graduate year (PGY) of study contains formal lecture instruction holding the information backgrounds and concepts consistent with the goals of each post graduate year of the residency and the rotational experience acquired during the resident's performance. The volume of lecture material required is so great that ideal time matching with the resident's practical experience cannot be scheduled. Nevertheless, the lectures are, in essence, graduated from fundamental and elementary in nature to more sophisticated levels of knowledge and skill.
The lecture faculty consists of active attendings at University of Pennsylvania Medical Center - Presbyterian and guest lecturers.
Clinical Pathological Conferences
The Clinical Pathological Conference (CPC) will be held monthly at the hospital. The conference will be attended by all residents and moderated by the Senior Surgical Resident and/or attendings when available. Staff members are welcome and encouraged to participate. Presentations made during these sessions will coincide with the specific subject matter of the residency program's didactic track for training progression.
Morning Patient Rounds
Attendees are the senior resident on-call, third year surgical resident, junior surgical resident, floors resident and podiatric medical student(s), and other residents on surgical service.
Morning Conference
Each weekday begins with a conference prior to the scheduled OR cases (7:00 a.m.). The purpose of these conferences is to review daily the pre- and post-operative x-rays of all cases performed. In addition, the morning x-ray conference includes a report of the responsible resident for in-patient care.
Journal Club
The Journal Club is intended to provide the resident with a current knowledge of important developmental articles written in recognized journals. The content of the article is to be consistent with the aims and purposes of the podiatric surgeon's care. The Journal Club will be held two mornings per month at the hospital. All residents participate. Each resident should read the article provided before the Journal Club meets. Each session is moderated by the Director of Podiatric Research or a member of the attending podiatric staff.
Workshops
Workshops shall consist of laboratory instruction in psychomotor skills and practical application of operative techniques.
Seminars/Symposiums
All residents are provided with travel funds for registration to an applicable program of post-graduate education which is CME accredited. Seminars must be fully attended by the resident. Upon return to the hospital the resident will give a review of the content provided during the seminar or symposium.
Resident Teaching
It is well recognized that teaching itself is a learning experience. Residents are encouraged to teach to the level of their development in knowledge and skill, especially, PGY IV residents who are available to the PGY 1, PGY II, and PGY III residents during the ongoing course of the program. Additionally, the PGY I residents participate actively in teaching externs who are visiting the hospital as an approved program.
Rotations
The four year track podiatric surgical residency offers four separate years of comprehensive training and education in all aspects of medicine and reconstructive foot and ankle surgery. The goal of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center - Presbyterian Podiatric Residency Program is to produce a resident who is extremely well versed in reconstructive foot surgery, but also has a similar grasp of the fundamentals of medicine as it applies to the patient undergoing musculoskeletal reconstruction of the foot and ankle.
- In the PGY 1 year, the resident has one month of podiatric surgery and four months of clinical podiatric medicine to expose and train him in the fundamentals of digital and forefoot reconstructive surgery. The remaining seven months are on off-service rotations. These off-service rotations are intended to integrate the podiatric resident into the mainstream medical health care delivery system with the goal of interacting and understanding the multidisciplinary approach to all patients. As there is a substantial focus in the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center - Presbyterian for non-elective surgery (emergency surgery), fundamental understanding of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, endocrine disorders, neurologic disorders and other overlying medical conditions are requisite to safe practice. In order to integrate the PGY 1 resident into the system, rotations in Internal Medicine, Anesthesiology, Infectious Disease, Bone and Joint Radiology, Neurology, and Rheumatology are designed to expose the resident to a patient base which will allow them to understand the need for a multidisciplinary approach to patient care. The goal is not to produce a D.P.M. internist, emergency room physician, or radiologist but to allow the resident to become familiar to inter-relate with these disciplines to provide adequate care for the patient.
- The PGY II year, off-service rotations include emergency medicine and general surgery in which the podiatric resident is expected to function on par with a general surgery resident for procedures and medical care that is of a basic level. This includes wound care, insertion of IV's, CVP's, injections and related access procedures. During this combination of off-service rotations and the general surgery rotation the resident is expected to synthesize his podiatric and medical knowledge to produce an effective general surgical background to his podiatric surgical training.
- The PGY III year rotations include a one month rotation in Vascular Surgery and a two month rotation in Plastic Surgery with attendings at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania . The rest of the PGY III year includes advanced forefoot and basic rearfoot surgical training providing for transition to concentrated foot and ankle exposure. The ability to concentrate on research is also encouraged.
- The PGY IV year offers a full year of advanced foot and ankle reconstructive and traumatologic surgical training. Opportunities exist and are managed on an independent basis, depending on resources available, world affairs and the particular need of the resident for specialty service in other areas of podiatric surgery and medicine.