|
The third-year Surgery Clerkship is an eight-week course that presents medical and surgical approaches to adult disease. Its overall objective is to train a "generalist" physician in the surgical management of adult diseases. Students rotate on a general surgery service for four weeks and then rotate on two surgery specialty services for two weeks each. Some students may opt to complete one four-week specialty rotation. Clerkship activities include workshops on various surgical topics that are primarily held on the first and fifth Monday of the clerkship. Other workshops are held during weekly conferences.
Click here for 2007-2008 Syllabus (Adobe Acrobat required for download)
The surgery core currisulum forms the framework for the clerkship's activities. This core curriculum is composed of the following general topic areas:
- Abdomen
- GI-Hepatobiiary System
- Oncology (Breast and Colon Cancers)
- Trauma and Shock
- Vascular System
- Urology
- Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose, Throat)
- Musculoskeletal System
- Transplantation
- Surgical Pre-Operative Assessment
- Post-Operative Complications
The 8-week surgery portion of the clerkship consists of one four-week general surgery rotation and two two-week subspecialty surgery rotations. Surgery clerkship activities include workshops on various surgical topics and department-based clinical activities.
Faculty members are expected to give feedback to medical students at the end of each two-week or four-week surgical rotation during the surgery clerkship.
The purpose of the feedback session is to provide face-to-face feedback about the student’s performance at the conclusion of each 2-week or 4-week surgical rotation. The student’s strengths as well as areas of needed improvement are to be discussed.
It is important to note that the feedback sessions with students are not to be “gripe sessions” in which students argue for grade changes. The primary purpose of each session is to help the student understand his/her strengths and weaknesses as a “physician-in-training.” Debating whether a student should have received an “85” rather than an “75” is an inappropriate topic of discussion for the feedback session. We estimate that the feedback sessions will be from 5 to 15 minutes in duration.
Suggested format for the feedback session with the clerkship student.
1. Prepare for feedback session
2. Greet student and explain purpose and goals of meeting.
3. Student Self-Critique
4. Be alert for discrepancies between what you have just learned from the student’s self-critique and what you are about to say.
5. Provide Student with Positive Feedback.
6. Provide negative feedback.
7. Check for overall understanding and the student’s reaction.
8. Conclude the session in a positive manner.
| 
