All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
Aristotle

 

 
Dear colleagues, old and new,

welcome to the new academic year. For me it’s the 26th July 1st. I am shocked by the number. Certainly doesn’t feel like so many years have passed since I started residency. Still vividly remember the first day, the first call, the team of residents who worked with me. My chief, and senior residents were great. Especially the senior resident on the team, Dr.Gulmatico, whom some of you may know. He practices general surgery in Brooklyn, and I have not seen him for many years. Yet I always will remember his patience, intelligence, and guidance. The other person who comes to mind is a nurse, Ms.Cusi, whom many of you know, and who has been at LICH for many years. Her presence and guidance those early days were those of a guardian angel.

Today is the first 1st of July for many of you. If I were to give you any advice for today it would to be patient with yourself. I promise that all your chief residents and attendings felt just like you do on their first 1st of July.

ALex Schwartzman

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June 30th, 2009

Dear colleagues,

As has been discussed at faculty meetings and conferences, we are embarking on a new educational curriculum. I am grateful to many of our residents and faculty, who have participated in the planning, and everyone who will be involved in the implementation.

Our Friday weekly case conference will be moved to Thursdays beginning July 9, 2009, 7am, in Lecture Hall IV at SUNY.   On July 9th at 8am our guest speaker will be Mr. Veronica Wilbur, who is a Statewide Program Director for IPRO/duty hours compliance for the New York State. New rule have been made, so I encourage all faculty to attend this important presentation.

For the month of July, case conference will be followed by intern orientation until 10am. ALL INTERNS ARE REQUIRED TO ATTEND, residents are free to go to their hospitals.  Dr.Sylvia Kim did an outstanding job in organizing the orientation camp for the new interns. It will run over a period of four weeks, and cover an extensive range of topics relevant to those who are brand new clinicians. Below is the curriculum for the interns for your review.

Thursday July 9: 

Ms. Veronica Wilbur, RN, MBA, Statewide Director for Hospital Compliance Program from NYSDOH/IPRO
Resident Duty Hours Regulations
8am – Lecture Hall IV

Dr. Michael Giuliano
Residents as Teachers
9am - 8th Floor Surgical Library

Thursday July 16
Patient care with Drs. Kim, Schulze, Lajoie
8am - 8th Floor Surgical Library

Introduction/Basics with Dr. Kim:
Order basics: abbreviations to avoid, EMR vs paper
Admission orders
Preoperative note/checklist: including which meds to hold, bowel preps, who gets a cxr, etc
Postoperative check
Management of drains: JP, Hemovac, Foley, ngt, stomas
Dressings
Discharge planning

Fluids/Electrolytes/Nutrition 101 with Bob Schulze:
IVF-basic fluids used, when to use which
Electrolytes-basics and how to replace
Nutrition/Diets/TPN

Introduction to the “Lajoie Intern Survival Guide” by Lidie
Introduce manual, basic “ins and outs”

Thursday July 23: 
Handling emergencies/acute issues/phone calls with The Chiefs
8am - 8th Floor Surgical Library

Fever workup
Tachycardia
Hypertension
Chest pain
Shortness of breath
Hypotension/oliguria
Bleeding
Altered mental status/Anxiety/”Think I’m going to die”
Pain
Documentation
Escalation/Calling for help/Calling a code
Talking to family
Logs-Dr. Sugiyama
Thursday July 30:  Skills Lab with Drs. Kim, Dresner, Schwartzman, chiefs
8am - 8th Floor Surgical Library
Introduction to surgical instruments, sutures
Knot-tying
Suture lab
Starting August 6th we will commence our full Education Day curriculum which will follow case conference on Thursday mornings. The schedule is as follows, and all residents are required to attend.

7-8am. Case Conference: The structure of this conference will slightly change. For the first half of the hour an assigned resident will present a case from one of our hospitals, with a case presentation, and review of the topic and relevant literature. For the second half of the hour the chief residents wanted to pick an interesting case and they will assign the presentation to one of the senior residents. This presentation will be more of a case management style, and the chiefs want to make it very interactive, getting juniors involved in the discussion.

8-10am: Core Curriculum;The second activity of the Education Day will be the Core Curriculum. I would like to thank our Trauma faculty who took a leading role in getting the process started, and will become the faculty mentors for the initial part of the curriculum. The Core Curriculum will start at 8am, following the case conference, and will continue till 10am.

10-11am: Life Long Learning Hour: The third activity of the Education Day, the Life Long Learning Hour will consist of a wide array of topics in accordance with the ACGME professional competencies requirements.

The Thursday AM schedule is ready and confirmed up to November 12th, and we’ll post it on the Department’s website and my blog at www.alexschwartzman.com. The schedule will be mailed to you as well.

I look forward to a great academic year, and I am very grateful for everyone’s help and participation.
Alexander Schwartzman MD
Chief, Division of General Surgery
Associate Program Director

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June 26th, 2009

Dear colleagues, residents and faculty,

The new academic year is about to begin. The new Core Curriculum will begin on Thursfday, July 9th at 7am. The 7am case conference will take place in the Lecture Hall IV, and for the month of July will be followed by the orientation curriculum for the new interns. You can see the schedule for that on the blog.

The general curriculum will commence in August, and I am very happy at the way the schedule is shaping up.

CORE CURRICULUM

LIFE LONG LEARNING HOUR

2009

Aug 6th

Management of acute trauma I

Trauma faculty

Specialty Conference

CT Surgery

Dr.Ko

Aug 13th

Management of acute trauma II

Trauma faculty

Journal Club

Dr.Bowne

Aug 20th

Pediatric Surgical Emergencies

Dr.Shorter

Study strategies for adults

Dr.Langley

Ayg 27th

Lower Abdominal Pain. Clinical/radilogical aspects

Dr.Amodio/Dr.Schwartzman

FAST for Surgeons

Dr.Stone

Sept 3rd

Emergency Care of Musculosceletal Injuries

Dr.A.Goldman

Evaluations

Sept 10th

Shock, Electrolytes and Fluids I

Trauma faculty

Specialty Conference - GI Surgery

Dr.Zenilman

Sept 17th

Shock, Electrolytes and Fluids II

Trauma faculty

Journal Club

Dr.Bowne

Sept 24th

Surgical Critical Care

Ventilator Management

Dr.Schulze

Reporting Cases to the ME and death certification

Dr.Deroux/Lebien

I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Regards,

AS

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June 22, 2009

Dear all,

I am happy to finalize our didactic intern orientation curriculum. I am very grateful to Sylvia Kim, who put the whole thing together.

Let me know what you think.

See you Tuesday at Dr.Zenilman’s house fro the new interns’ reception.

Best Wishes,

Alex Schwartzman

Intern Bootcamp 2009

Thursday July 9: 

 

Ms. Veronica Wilbur, RN, MBA, Statewide Director for Hospital Compliance Program from NYSDOH/IPRO

Resident Duty Hours Regulations

8am – Lecture Hall II

 

Dr. Michael Guiliano

Residents as Teachers

9am - 8^th Floor Surgical Library

 

Thursday July 16

Patient care with Drs. Kim, Schulze, Lajoie

8am - 8^th Floor Surgical Library

 

Introduction/Basics with Dr. Kim:

Order basics: abbreviations to avoid, EMR vs paper

Admission orders

Preoperative note/checklist: including which meds to hold, bowel preps, who gets a cxr, etc

Postoperative check

Management of drains: JP, Hemovac, Foley, ngt, stomas

Dressings

Discharge planning

 

Fluids/Electrolytes/Nutrition 101 with Bob Schulze:

IVF-basic fluids used, when to use which

Electrolytes-basics and how to replace

Nutrition/Diets/TPN

 

Introduction to the “Lajoie Intern Survival Guide” by Lidie

Introduce manual, basic “ins and outs”

 

Thursday July 23: 

Handling emergencies/acute issues/phone calls with The Chiefs

8am - 8^th Floor Surgical Library

 

Fever workup

Tachycardia

Hypertension

Chest pain

Shortness of breath

Hypotension/oliguria

Bleeding

Altered mental status/Anxiety/”Think I’m going to die”

Pain

Documentation

Escalation/Calling for help/Calling a code

Talking to family

Logs-Dr. Sugiyama

 

 

Thursday July 30:  Skills Lab with Drs. Kim, Dresner, Schwartzman, chiefs

8am - 8^th Floor Surgical Library

Introduction to surgical instruments, sutures

Knot-tying

Suture lab

 

 

No Responses

On Friday, June 19th, we hosted our new interns. A great group of bright young women and men. I look forward to the new academic year, and starting our new curriculum.

Every July 1st brings enthusiasm, excitement, anticipation, and apprehension. We’ll work together to make the new interns’ transition into the new life as smooth as possible. Together we’ll continue to improve our program to make it into the residency that we can all be proud of. We’ll capitalize and build on our strengths, solidify and centralize our education program, extend blocks of time for clinical assignments, and amplify the surgical simulation curriculum.

I am grateful to the chiefs who just graduated, for being great students, great teachers, and active participants in the program. It’ is due to them that we are able to understand how to improve our program, and I hope that they will continue to be active as our alumni, and active participant in the SUNY Downstate Clarence Dennis Surgical Society.

In the next several days we’ll finalize our “bootcamp” curriculum, and I’ll post the schedule.

See you on Tuesday at Dr.Zenilman’s home, where Mrs. and Dr. Zenilman will host a reception for the new interns. As always all residents and faculty are invited.

Best wishes,

Alex Schwartzman

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