Conferences

Morning Report

Morning Report (MR) is a method used to sign-out overnight events to an incoming shift. Primarily oriented toward transfer of patient information, Supervised Morning Report may also be used as a venue to measure resident competency. The senior resident presents patients and sign-out is supervised by a faculty member.

M&M

Morbidity and Mortality Conference is the principle teaching conference. It is held each Wednesday from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m., It is led by the Department Chairman and attended by all residents, and by the entire teaching and voluntary staffs. A radiologist is always in attendance.

The basic tenet of this conference is that the discussion of patients and their illnesses constitutes the single best contemporaneous method for the education of surgical residents. The goal is to provide an open educational forum for discussion of adverse outcomes, deaths, and interesting cases. Narrative material at this conference is prepared by the residents, with each presenter expected to define the problem, review the literature, and determine what could improve future outcomes. Chief residents are responsible for all presentations, discussing significant points of the problem at issue with reference to the appropriate literature. All complications and deaths are discussed.

Basic Science

The Basic Science Conference is organized by faculty. Resident must review textbook materials before attending each basic science lecture, where a pre-test created by the faculty facilitator is administered. One of the major resources for this lecture series is ACS Surgery. The residents are given a reading assignment the week before each lecture to prepare for the day of the conference.

Chiefs Meeting

Chief's Rounds are held every Wednesday afternoon. This forum enables the Chairman to interact with all the surgical residents and the physician's assistants. The emphasis during these rounds is on methods for the improvement in patient assessment through a better understanding of surgical disease. Other relevant health care issues may be addressed at these meetings as well, such as the impaired physician, and the economics of surgical practice. Chairman Rounds gives the residents a chance to interact with the chairman in a more informal setting.   They present difficult and unusual cases, and then brainstorm to evolve an appropriate management paradigm. In addition, the Chiefs meet weekly with the Program Director.

Journal Club

The Journal Club meets once a month under the direction of Dr. Simon Fink and Dr. Phyllis August. Its format is designed to help the residents with critical reading, making them secure in the ability to draw from statistics, common sense, and knowledge of mammalian experiments, to decide if journal articles are valid.

Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery – Skills Lab

Laparoscopic conference is held weekly for one of the general surgery teams headed by our Laparoscopic Fellow in our new minimally invasive lab.

Attending Walk Rounds

These rounds are held weekly with a faculty facilitator where patients are presented and disease management is discussed.

Surgical Graduate Medical Education

The SGME was formed as an ad hoc to the hospital GME committee.   The SGME meets with resident representatives from each PGY year as well as the program director. This is the resident’s forum to discuss difficulties in performing their job as well as enhancing the educational aspects of the training program.  Items which cannot be resolved by the SGME are brought to the institutional GME meeting which also consists of residents.

Preceptor Meetings

All residents are assigned a preceptor. They are scheduled to meet with their preceptor at least twice per academic year.   If the resident or a faculty member feel this is insufficient, additional meetings are scheduled.

Trauma Conference

The New York Hospital Queens is a Level 1 New York State Trauma Center that treats over 1200 admitted adult and pediatric trauma patients yearly. Since 1984 the NYHQ Trauma Service has treated over 20,000 trauma patients with a wide variety of blunt and penetrating trauma injuries. Trauma Conference is led by Division Director, Jason Sample, MD. All surgical residents, Trauma Surgeons, Surgical Physician Assistants meet with the trauma director and the trauma coordinator at the weekly conference meeting to discuss selected cases   for the preceding week.

This conference meeting, also frequently attended by 911 EMS Paramedics, Critical Care Nursing and Emergency Department personnel, includes discussions on multidisciplinary treatment of the critically injured patient. Each week cases are presented by the chief or senior surgical residents and the discussion revolves around the many aspects of the initial and subsequent care of the trauma patient. All residents are assigned didactic educational presentations reflecting trauma care issues based on current literature research. On occasion, the Trauma Service will invite lecturers from specialized medical, legal and law enforcement programs addressing current medical legal issues thus enhancing the educational learning process.

Tumor Board/Breast Tumor Board

Tumor Board is a multi-disciplinary conference including internal medicine, surgery, pathology, medical and radiation oncology where selected cases are discussed with specific attention to diagnosis and treatment of the breadth of malignant diseases.

Grand Rounds

Throughout the year, leaders in surgery are invited to present the current status of various surgical topics, offering the residents and faculty the opportunity to interact with world-renowned surgeons.

Ethics

Dr. Simon Fink, Hospital Ethicist, conducts a monthly conference based on the ACS curriculum, Ethical Issues in Clinical Surgery. Selected cases are discussed with specific attention to ethical issues that surgeons encounter in caring for patients.

Mock Orals

Faculty members present case-based examination questions to senior and chief residents in a format that simulates the ABS Certifying Oral Examination.

Vascular Conference

While rotating on the vascular service, residents participate in Vascular Conference with the faculty vascular surgeons. Residents present cases allowing opportunities for advanced understanding of vascular diseases and management.