Educational Goals of the Program
Knowledge, Skills, and Other Attributes
The entire reason for the surgical training program at The Jewish Hospital
of Cincinnati is to turn medical neophytes into highly trained professionals.
Inherent in this process is recognition that surgery has a body of
knowledge that must be assimilated early in one’s training in
order that the current trainee bring maximum benefit to the patient,
his or her institution and the community at large. This fund of knowledge
is a combination of basic science, clinical acumen and technical skills.
Each must be mastered in a relatively short period of time in order
to complete the goal of becoming a qualified surgeon. Inherent in this
acquisition of knowledge, experience and technique is the development
of lifelong learning skills so that the surgeon, upon matriculation
from the shelter of the residency program, may continue to hone his/her
skills, expand his/her understanding of surgical disease and its management,
and enhance his/her professionalism.
Certain aspects of the curriculum in general surgery can be broken
down into specific goals and objectives at various points in one’s
career or during certain clinical rotations. During the trauma rotation,
the PGY-2 resident is expected to acquire the skills of assessing the
critically injured patient and develop a care plan. During the PGY-3
year, the resident will be exposed to the care of children and begin
to incorporate the skills needed to deal with complex interactions
of poorly communicative patients and their families. During
the PGY-4 year, the trauma rotation teaches the intermittent and unexpected
nature of surgical disease and the need for compulsive thoroughness
in its evaluation. During the transplant rotation, the PGY-4 is expected
to acquire a fundamental knowledge of the immunologic system and its
appropriate suppression. If one looks closely at the above statement
of purpose to create a milieu of overarching professionalization, then
it is clear to see that the learning experience is a continuum and
does not easily fit a year-by-year distinction.
Throughout the training program, most clearly during the general and
vascular rotations “at home,” the resident is assessed,
challenged, rewarded, critiqued and challenged again by attending staff,
conferees and hopefully, him/herself. It is through this constant effort,
evaluation and re-effort that a professional is created. This self-directed
period of education and growth, facilitated by the faculty and program,
has at its pinnacle the chief resident year in surgery during which
primary decision making and operative planning are expected and allowed.
The educational goal of the residency program is to provide a framework
for that cycle of challenge and critique. It is done so through the
energies of a committed attending faculty, a core curriculum of surgical
concepts and a constant awareness of one’s impact and room for
improvement.
