Medical Student Education

Overview

University of Cincinnati - Surgery Clerkship

The Department of Surgery is committed to providing excellent educational experiences for medical students. A dedicated team of faculty and staff have developed one of the strongest clerkships within the College of Medicine and increased the number of graduating students who have chosen to pursue a career in surgery. Improvements to the structure of the surgery clerkship curriculum have helped us to increase the depth and breadth of students’ knowledge of surgery. We are also efficient with the students’ time. These improvements include an intense first week of the clerkship filled with didactic and interactive teaching sessions. During this week, all students participate in 10 interactive teaching sessions, and 6 two-hour "practical sessions" in the Skills Lab and the Anatomy Lab. During these sessions, they learn to insert chest tubes, insert central venous catheters, manage Swan-Ganz catheters, manage ventilators and other important clinical skills. In addition, there are 2 two-hour sessions during which students are taught suturing techniques and receive hands-on experience suturing cadaver pigs’ feet.

Collectively, these sessions broaden each student’s knowledge of surgical disease and procedures and also begin to develop their technical skills. Students and faculty have responded very positively to this initial week of concentrated teaching and learning. When they begin their clinical rotations at the end of the 1st week, the students are better prepared for their patient management and operating room experiences and are able to make a more valuable contribution to the surgical team.

We have adopted the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Surgery exam as our clerkship final written examination. The use of this exam will help to maintain the integrity of our testing system and will provide data that shows how our results compare to those from other surgical education programs throughout the country. An online evaluation system has been established that enables students to provide timely, constructive feedback regarding their learning experience on the Surgery Clerkship as well as comments regarding faculty and resident teaching performance.

In addition, optional classes are offered to all medical students within the College of Medicine. The classes meet twice weekly and provide hands-on training to groups of approximately six students at a time. Subjects include:

• Basic surgical instruments, knots and ties
• Wound closure and local anesthesia
• Subcutaneous and fascial closures
• Wound debridement, irrigation and drainage, securing tubes, Z plasties, VY plasties, rotation flaps
• Skin grafts, dressings, splints
• Grafts, nerve, vessel and tendon repair, hand examination

These classes have been very well received by students at all levels and provide an excellent foundation in the development of their manual dexterity and surgical skills.

Third and fourth year medical student clerkships of 2 or 4 weeks duration for UC and visiting students are offered by the Division of Urology. These clerkships offer an overview of not only academic medicine, but also show how a government and private facility function. The student acts as an intern, learning how to do a urologic history, physical exam, develop a plan of investigation as well as patient management. He/she assists in Clinic, makes rounds, writes orders, and attends all conferences that are mandatory for residents. Each is taught by all levels of resident, but is responsible to the Chief Urology resident and the Director. Dr. Donovan and his faculty members provide a series of six lectures to the second year medical students.

For nearly four decades, UC medical students have upheld the tradition of giving “apples” to their favorite teachers at their commencement ceremony. The Gold and Silver Apple Awards program was established in 1968 by the Pi Kappa Epsilon fraternity to give UC medical students the chance to recognize professors who had the most impact on their medical career by serving as excellent instructors and mentors. UC surgical faculty has held a virtual monopoly on the Gold Apple and Silver Apple (second place) awards.

Program Administration
Amit D. Tevar, M.D., Director Surgical Student Education
Krishna Athota, M.D., Associate Director Surgical Student Education

For more information, contact:
Elaine M. Zumeta, Program Coordinator

Department of Surgery
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
231 Albert Sabin Way
Cincinnati, OH 45267-0558
513-558-2134
Elaine.Mullen@uc.edu