Resident Education

[Educational Reading] [Conferences/Meetings]
[Grand Rounds] [Journal Club] [Board Certification]

Educational Reading

The faculty have provided a reading list that is critical to the development of your fund of knowledge. It is expected that this list will be completed at the appropriate time in your training. Although extensive, it is not complete. This should be considered the MINIMUM reading required. Residents are expected to take the opportunity to learn whenever and wherever possible. In addition to this required reading, residents are expected to pursue an aggressive independent course of reading texts and journals. Residents should regularly read the major journals and demonstrate a progressive ability to critically evaluate the general directions of ophthalmic enquiry and the specific attributes of individual presentations.

Conferences/Meetings

Residents are required to attend conferences given by full-time and volunteer staff; any clinical obligations are excused since teaching conferences supercede clinical responsibilities for the residents.

You may not be given an option to miss a conference or meeting. You will be held responsible for missing these obligations should this occur. Explain this rule for any faculty who offers you the opportunity to miss a lecture. Conferences include visual field conferences, fluorescein angiography conferences, and monthly Journal Club.

Please be on time for all meetings. Many of the faculty spend a great deal of time preparing their lectures. Arriving late is rude and inexcusable.

Grand Rounds

Grand Rounds are held on Thursday mornings and run from 7:00 am to 8:30 am. All residents are expected to be present and arrive on time. Residents are not to be involved in other activities at this time.

The purpose of Grand Rounds is many-fold, not the least of which includes the opportunity to discuss unusual ophthalmic cases, to present case histories and physical findings concisely along with a critical review of the literature pertinent to the patient=s diagnosis, and to become comfortable with public speaking.

The chief resident is in charge of assigned dates for which each resident is responsible for presenting a case. Two cases will be presented at each grand rounds. Each case should be professionally prepared in detail, thoughtfully presented, and thoroughly discussed. Reiterating textbook material is to be avoided as it is unnecessary and boring. Grand round presentations are not for the purpose of giving a lecture.

Cases which make for good discussion not only include rare or unknown problems, but common disorders which may provoke discussions involving management issues.

Residents should present cases which they themselves have seen and participated in if possible. Each resident should try to keep a file of interesting cases that they have seen, so that they may have cases they can draw upon to present. If residents cannot find cases to present for their assigned Grand Rounds session, they should contact full-time staff members for suggestions and use of interesting cases from their files.

Journal Club

Approximately every two months a Journal Club will be hosted by a staff physician or a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology. The format is variable but usually involves critical review of assigned articles from major ophthalmology journals.

Board Certification

Each resident is responsible for arranging timely application to take the American Board of Ophthalmology qualifying examination. Part I, the written qualifying examination is, usually held in April of the year following completion of residency training. Please note that the recommendation of the department chairman is required. Applications forms are available from the American Board of Ophthalmology, 111 Presidential Blvd., Suite 241, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004.