Educational Goals
The broad educational goals for the Orthopaedic Surgery fellow mirror the three-part mission statement of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center:
- Patient care
- Education
- Research
Thus the fellow is expected to achieve a level of excellence -- not just competence -- in each of these areas as they relate to Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery.
For each fellow specific goals and strategies for achieving them are established through discussion / counseling with faculty members both before and during the fellowship.
The following are considered the minimum educational goals to be achieved during the fellow's training period.
Patient Care
The ability to formulate treatment plans and deliver appropriate pediatric orthopaedic patient care is the primary goal of the Orthopaedic Fellowship at Cincinnati Children's.
Failure to achieve this goal in a fashion satisfactory to the program director may result in formal remediation or extension of the fellow's training period as it is the expressed goal of the program to produce qualified pediatric orthopaedic surgeons of the highest caliber.
The fellow is expected to be a tireless patient advocate, treating patients and families as if they were their own. The fellow is expected to develop psychosocial skills / interpersonal skills appropriate for a junior faculty member as they interact with and educate both children and their families.
The fellow is expected to prioritize and synthesize clinical and radiographic information so as to develop appropriate treatment plans for pediatric orthopaedic patients.
Treatment plans are expected to be firmly based on scientific reports in the literature where available, and based on prevailing opinion. Fellows are expected to serve as a resource to orthopaedic house-staff when patient-care questions arise.
Education
The fellow is expected to excel both as a student and as an educator. These are essential life-long skills for an effective pediatric orthopaedist.
In the role of student, the fellow is expected to attend all scheduled pediatric orthopaedic lectures given at Cincinnati Children's and at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Furthermore, the fellow is expected to be self-directed in their reading / preparation in general, but where appropriate faculty direction should be sought.
In their role as an educator, fellows are expected to present lectures to the house-staff in a manner befitting a junior faculty member.
The fellow's daily involvement with the education of orthopaedic residents is particularly important as such interaction has a synergistic effect on learning / consolidation of key concepts.
The fellow is expected to communicate in a clear and concise fashion and use audio-visual materials appropriately during presentations as these skills are basic necessities to the pediatric orthopaedist.
Research
The fellow is expected to formulate appropriate research questions and with the assistance of faculty members develop research strategies to answer them.
Preferably, at least one appropriate research question should be decided upon by the fellow and appropriate faculty members prior to matriculation or, at the very latest they the end of the first month of fellowship.
The fellow is expected to complete at least two non-case report projects during the course of the fellowship such that completed manuscripts are submitted to an orthopaedic journal prior to completion of the fellowship.
Failure to meets requirement may result in delayed receipt of a Fellowship Certificate.
In addition to the creation of new knowledge through research, the fellow is also expected to develop critical evaluation skills for the purposes of critiquing the research of others.
Such skills of critical importance to the pediatric orthopaedist who must make treatment decisions involving her patients based on published research.
