No-Charge Nonsurgical Facial Aesthetic Clinic in a Residency Program: A Single-Center Experience

In 2014, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education set minimum case requirements for injectable procedures as a surrogate for procedural competency. Despite the implementation of resident-run aesthetic surgery clinics, evidence suggests that many feel inadequately prepared as they go into practice even after meeting this requirement. To address this issue, our institution has implemented a separate resident clinic dedicated to neurotoxin and filler injections.

The authors discussed the logistics and benefits of how residents, faculty, clinic staff, and industry representatives together have created a no-cost, volunteer patient-based resident injectable clinic.

Two half-day, no-cost clinics per week were established, with 1 clinic day coinciding with the chief resident aesthetic clinic. Designated staff coordinate patient visits and allocate specific rooms for this clinic. Industry representatives have provided injectable products at no cost through resident injectable education programs. Residents in postgraduation years 4 to 6 provide their own patients and perform procedures under direct faculty supervision. All encounters are documented in the electronic health record. To assess the utility of this clinic, a survey was sent to all recent graduates, some of whom participated in this program. Since its inception in May 2018, this injectable clinic has been running successfully with overwhelmingly positive feedback from all eligible residents who participated. To date, there have been no adverse events from these injections.

At our institution, the no-cost, volunteer patient-based resident injectable clinic has provided regular educational opportunities for plastic surgery residents to increase their experience with injectable procedures.