Academic Curriculum

The didactic teaching program consists of a series of lectures by the pediatric surgical staff or other surgical and medical staff specialists. Barring emergencies, resident attendance is mandatory. Participation at regularly scheduled conferences is required and consists of:

• Weekly hospital Grand Rounds, including a monthly surgical topic

  • The Chief PSF is responsible for preparing one Grand Rounds toward the end of his/her training period.

• Monthly Surgery Fellows Conference – an oral board preparation conference

• Bi-weekly Surgical Mortality and Morbidity Conferences

• Monthly Trauma Conference

• Monthly multi-disciplinary Cancer Care Conferences

• Quarterly Journal Club – this conference is under the direction of the first year PSF

• Bi-weekly monthly Surgical Research Conference

• Weekly Core Curriculum – cover areas of determined core competency

• Bi-Weekly junior resident teaching conference – interactive didactic geared towards enhancing the education of the junior residents that also escalates to the fellow level
  
  

A cornerstone for successful accomplishment of the program is constant attention to reading not only from text material in pediatric surgery, but also seeking out the best references for individual pediatric surgical problems, operative and non-operative case management. This is the individual responsibility of the fellow. One of the three commonly referenced pediatric surgical textbooks, Ashcraft’s Pediatric Surgery, was written and continues to be edited by members of the teaching staff at Children’s Mercy. A copy of this textbook is given to each PSF.