Residency Information

Children's Hospital and Medical Center

About the rotation

This rotation deals with pediatric orthopedic surgery covering all aspects from birth to adulthood.

This service is complemented by two full time pediatric orthopedists, Kit Song M.D. and Greg Schmale M.D., and consultant faculty members from the UWMC in tumor Conrad) and hand (Hanel, Allan). A pediatrician fellowship trained in Sports Medicine sees patients with non-operative pediatric orthopedic problems.

Residents have two rotations at Children's during their third year and one during the fifth year as the Chief Resident in Pediatric Orthopedics. These rotations meet the requirements of the Resident Review Committee for certification by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery.

The R5 is the resident leader and directs the daily assignments for floor work and operative cases. The R5 works directly with the staff to discuss educational needs and advanced clinical experience for himself and The R3’s.

The R3 is responsible for emergency triage, evaluation and admission of patients from the emergency room. There is a third R3 equivalent from the orthopedic program at Madigan Army Hospital that shares in these duties. In addition the daily activities of managing pre and post-operative care is directed by the R5 and carried out by the R3.

The chain of command and responsibility is readily apparent and easily defined from the R3 through the section head.

Goals & objectives

Our goals are to teach the essentials of the specialty relevant to a general orthopedic practice as well as the foundation for fellowship training.

Residents are expected to achieve a sound knowledge base, including reading the standard texts of Lovell and Winter, Tachdjian, Rockwood and Green, Morrissy, and Canale and Beaty as well as the Pediatric OKU.

In the Emergency Department, residents become proficient in the management of emergent conditions such as trauma and infection. In the Operating Room, residents learn to perform fixation of traumatic injuries and other procedures within the scope of a general Orthopedist. In the Outpatient Clinic, residents develop the knowledge base to effectively and completely tackle non-emergent problems that are present in the office setting. On the Inpatient Service residents learn the daily care of in house patients.

An indications/ pre- and post-operative conference is held each Wednesday from 6:30-8:30 am. Residents have access to the list of patients to be discussed and are expected to be prepared to contribute to the discussion of each case. A didactic teaching conference is held each Thursday from 6:45-7:30 am; this conference follows a schedule based on the Pediatric OKU. A case-based topics in pediatric orthopedics conference is held Fridays from 7:00-8:00 am; this conference is tailored by the residents to meet their needs but generally follows a schedule based on Staheli’s Practice of Pediatric Orthopedics.