The State of Plastic Surgery Education Outside of the Operating Room

Plastic surgery education consists of technical skills, surgical decision-making, and the knowledge necessary to provide safe patient care. Competency in these modalities is ensured by requiring case minimums and oral and written examinations. However, there is a paucity of information detailing what teaching modalities residency programs use outside of the operating room.

A 16-question survey was sent to all integrated and independent program directors. Information regarding nonsurgical resident education was collected and analyzed.

There were 44 responses (46 percent). Most programs had six to 10 faculty (43 percent), and a majority (85 percent) required faculty to participate in resident education outside of the operating room. Residents most commonly had 3 to 4 hours (43 percent) of protected educational time 1 day per week (53 percent). Nonsurgical education consisted of weekly lectures by attending physicians (44 percent) and residents (54 percent), in addition to weekly CoreQuest (48 percent), teaching rounds (38 percent), and Plastic Surgery Education Network lectures (55 percent). Monthly activities included morbidity and mortality conference (81 percent) and journal club (86 percent). Indications conference was either monthly (41 percent) or weekly (39 percent). Cadaver laboratories, visiting professors, board preparation, in-service review, and meetings with the program director occurred yearly or several times per year. Forty-nine percent of programs sponsor one educational course per resident. In addition, most programs (65 percent) do not receive outside funding for education.

These findings improve understanding of the current state of nonsurgical resident education in plastic surgery. They illustrate that residents participate in a diverse number of nonsurgical educational activities without any significant standardization.