Didactics

Cases of interest from the various clinical divisions are presented and discussed by faculty and residents. For the morbidity/mortality and quality assurance conference, departmental QA data or cases are presented by residents and faculty. Our lecturers are visiting professors or institutional nationally recognized experts who lecture on topics of interest. The visiting professors often spend the rest of the day in the department interacting with the faculty and residents.

Beginning in September and for the remainder of the academic year, each resident class is relieved from their clinical duties once a week to attend core-curriculum conferences. The topic of their conference is taken from the ABA content outline and may follow one of several formats. For example, problem-based learning discussions are small-group case-based, problem-oriented, resident-centered discussions in an informal, collegial, and supportive learning environment that lends itself to the interchange of ideas. The case scenarios are distributed in advance of the session, allowing the resident to embark on an individual study program to identify and solve the problems posed in the case before the group discussion. These sessions are moderated/facilitated by faculty members. Curriculum lectures are formal presentations by a faculty member on basic and major topics in our field and may take on a flipped classroom format so that the conference becomes an interactive session to discuss the scenarios or participate in simulation exercises related to the topic. The objective of the academic afternoons is to completely cover the entire curriculum over a three-year cycle.