A look to the future: Teaching the next generation of orthopedic surgeons (Healio)
Orthopedic residency programs are currently producing a group of orthopedic surgeons unlike any other. Today’s residents rely less on the traditional textbook and more on technology, they learn more surgical skills through simulation and they work within strict work-hour restrictions — all of which have affected residency program curricula and teaching styles.
Work-hour restrictions have forced residency programs to become more efficient, and teaching styles have been adjusted to meet the learning styles of today’s residents.
“You cannot run a residency program the way you did 10 years ago, but do it in 80 hours per week,” William N. Levine, MD, Frank E. Stinchfield Professor and Chairman of Clinical Orthopedic Surgery at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, told Orthopedics Today. “Residency program directors, department chairs and faculty have to become much more efficient in the way they educate. Every hour should be valued as a critical hour in the resident’s week, and if it is not serving a strict educational purpose, then you need to do things differently.”
“The ‘next gener...
