Resident Rotations

The Department of Ophthalmology sponsors a PGY-1 year in association with the Department of General Surgery. This consists of three months of general surgery, two months of in-patient internal medicine, and one month each of plastic surgery, neurosurgery, ENT surgery, neurology, infectious disease, dermatology, and ophthalmology. Because of the wide range of specialties covered in this curriculum, all of our PGY-1 house officers are strongly encouraged to match in this program. All residents entering this program for the past 20 years have taken advantage of the ophthalmology internship. The final rotation in June of each year is ophthalmology. During this month, the resident is introduced to examination techniques in ophthalmology. Responsibility for examinations is introduced gradually so that by the end of the month, the intern is prepared to function as a first-year ophthalmology resident. We have found that this approach minimizes the anxiety associated with starting the residency program and allows for a smooth transition to patient care responsibilities.

The first year in ophthalmology is an introduction to outpatient general ophthalmic care, subspecialty ophthalmic care, ophthalmic surgery and ophthalmic pathology. Each resident assists attending physicians in intraocular surgery. Extraocular surgery may be scheduled by the first-year resident beginning immediately in July. Starting in December of the first year, residents begin scheduling cataract surgery as the primary surgeon with an attending surgeon experienced in teaching intraocular surgery as first assistant. The ophthalmic pathology rotation consists of one-half day per week for one half of the year plus one additional half-hour per week to gross new material. Every session consists of one-on-one instruction with Richard Grostern, MD, the ophthalmic pathologist. The reminder of the first-year resident's time is spend in the clinic seeing general and subspecialty patients, as well as in-patient and outpatient consultations. First-year residents are on call one to two days per week. Backup coverage is provided by the third-year resident and an attending at all times.

Second- and third-year residents have identical rotation schedules. There are four different services. These residents spend three months on a rotation each year. Two services include a rotation with primary retinal surgeons and two services include a rotation with primary anterior segment surgeons. Included in the anterior segment services is neuro-ophthalmology and oculoplastic surgery. In addition, the resident continues to see patients with general eye problems on a daily basis in a continuity of care clinic. Each resident has an assigned surgery day each week, but surgery may also be scheduled at any time with prior arrangement. One or both of the third-year residents each year are chosen to act as chief resident for administration and educational matters. This system allows the resident to develop administrative and educational maturity that will prove beneficial in their future careers.