[Laurie Lynch]

Rebecca, to clarify we checked with ABOS when we switched from 12 months to 13 blocks, and they told us to just drop a block from reporting. We didn’t make it up on our own!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Rebecca,

We switched to 4-week, 13-block rotations about 10 years ago. Because ABOS asks for 12 months, we had to report 12 blocks and just drop one from reporting. Pre-COVID, we dropped our radiology since it was a the subject group where we already met our 3 required rotations. After COVID when our radiologists continued working from home and were unavailable to teach, we replaced that rotation with a formalized research rotation. Reseach is now the block we don’t report for ABOS.

I’ve attached our schedule for this year, let me know if you have questions!

Laurie

 

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[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Shawna,

Our program pays for loupes for our incoming class. We pay for 2.5x standard field loupes, which usually are about $1200 each. We don’t pay for headlights or any additional features.

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Maggie,

When I was hired, I inherited a surgery prelim who my program accepted as a PGY-2. He must have had 6 orthopaedic surgery rotations in his preliminary year to meet the ABOS requirements. Throughout the rest of his residency, he completed non-orthopaedic rotations in each year that he missed as a prelim – anesthesia as a PGY2, trauma surgery as a PGY3, neurosurgery as a PGY4. This was all discussed and approved by the ABOS as an appropriate make-up curriculum.

Our other surgery prelim joined us in January of their prelim year. Coming in they had a good number of rotations that met the ABOS requirements for non-orthopaedic rotations, as well as several orthopaedic rotations their prelim curriculum had made possible for them. We were able to adjust the latter part of the year to fill the gaps and they started their PGY2 year on schedule.

I would suggest getting a copy of their current prelim curriculum to see what matches up with ABOS requirements, discuss as soon as possible with Sonya at ABOS for what they will accept, and negotiate a make-up schedule if there are gaps.

Good luck!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Jennifer!

For our time off requests, we just started using Microsoft Forms this year with a link for the residents to submit their requests online. I am able to download spreadsheets to keep a record of requests.

Our institution has software we are required to use to track PTO, preferred holiday, sick time and conference time. They do not include fellowship interview time in that software system. For fellowship time off tracking, I’m still old school at the moment – calendar pages that I note the days they request, whether they are using an interview day, a travel day, PTO or conference time if they have exceeded their fellowship time allowance. Their days away are also included on the master calendar for all resident absences that is posted on our department app.

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Honor!

We don’t do a specific document for them to sign. I have a document called To Know More, which has a number of links to access information about our program and community. Several of those links take the applicants directly to where our policies are posted for review on our public-facing website. I send a message through ERAS to all our invited applicants with that document attached. I request that they review those links about policies specifically and then reply to the ERAS email or directly to my email to confirm they have reviewed them. I save their email responses in an Outlook folder and track their response date on a spreadsheet to make sure I hear back from everybody!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Sarah,

I’m work a hybrid schedule, 3 days in the office and 2 days at home. My days in the office are coordinated with my program director’s administrative days so we are both in at the same time. The other residency coordinators here at WMed each have their individual arrangements depending on the needs of their department and their leadership. For example, Med-Peds is almost exclusively work from home. The Pediatrics coordinator is in the office Monday and Wednesday, and their 2 admins cover the other days of the week. Surgery coordinator and admin are in 2 days a week, Tuesday, and their Thursday conference day. Our Resident Affairs department is exclusively working from home, they are in the building once a quarter for a breakfast meeting! Our institution left it to the leadership of each program/department to decide what would work best and did not impose a one-size fits all arrangement. Hope this helps!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

I also thought it was a Teams issue on my end. Thanks, Laurel!

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Tammy!

WMed has a time/travel award policy available for residents accepted to present hyposthesis-driven research or a case series (3 or more cases, an individual case study is not eligible). They are granted an additional 3 days of professional development time, 2 travel days and the day of the presentation. If they want to attend the full conference, they can use additional professional development or vacation time. For a regional presentation (within 250 miles), they receive $500 toward their expenses. For a national presentation, they receive $1500. If two or more residents need to present, they must split the award. A project may only receive one travel award. For example, it could not be presented both at AAOS and MAOA and receive awards for both presentations. The resident can still present at both meetings, but they must use their own professional development time and funds for the second presentation.

Our monthly Journal Club is held at a restaurant, and we have a billing relationship with that location. Our faculty donate yearly to a fund which finances the meeting. We do not pay for alcohol. Depending on attendance, our bill is between $700 and $900. Prices went up after COVID!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Barb!

Our rotation is only 6 months out of the year. I research AirBNB locations and then provide the link to our Accounting department, who books them with the institution credit card. They are currently working on an Institution AirBNB account which would allow me to book directly without going through Accounting.

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Jennafer!

We don’t have a specific paternity leave policy, but we do have a paid leave of absence policy that can be used by both birthing and non-birthing parents. It allows for 6 weeks of paid leave during the course of their residency, which can be used in any increment, and is subject to the requirements of leave of absence application and administration. I just emailed that policy to you!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Thanks, Laurel, for the screen cap! You can also set your paper layout to Landscape and your scale to 80% as another option that brings all the metrics within the margins.

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Rebecca!

You might also want to look into the ABOS Knowledge Skills and Behavior program. Right now it is still voluntary participation. It becomes a requirement in the 2025-2026 academic year for graduating residents who plan to sit for part I of the boards. We signed up for ABOS KSB this year. As part of their 360 evaluation in the fall of the year, they assign peer evaluations on professional behavior to the residents. That could be a useful tool for you!

Laurie

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Dawn! We are testing in person, but I did get this message from their alert system this morning when I logged in to my email about 6 am. Does not help make it any less frustrating though. Hopefully they will get it fixed for you soon! Good luck! Laurie

 

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Laura!

We have a resident who may be on parental leave for our exam day this year. I did contact AAOS Exams team to ask, as we are testing in person as a group on a single day. They said we could pick an additional day within the testing window for that resident to complete the test, as long as we specified the date with the Exams team in advance and provided 2 proctors to test in person. Since we don’t know when the baby might arrive, we could not choose an alternate date. We are proceeding as planned, fingers crossed! But if our resident has to miss the exam day, he will just skip the exam this year. He is allowed to take the test when it releases in January after the score reports are issued, but he won’t get an individual score report and he would not be included in the full department metrics.

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