The curriculum of our Fellowship Program offers a broad scope of clinical rotations at West Penn Hospital and a variety of didactic experiences.
Our program is enhanced by offering the fellow several areas of subspecialty concentration, including the following:
The weekly on-line tool curriculum is a schedule of surgical readings, clinical cases and board style MCQs keyed to essential elements of critical care surgery which benefit fellows, MD and others who care for the surgical patient
Additional experiences may be created per fellows needs and program director’s discretion.
Months 1-3
The rotations through the TICU are characterized by progressive knowledge acquisition and progressive responsibility during the course of the year. The first three months should be spent acquiring essential critical care procedural skills under the direct supervision of the attending Intensivist and assimilating core medical knowledge relevant to the practice of surgical critical care. During the first three months of the year, the fellow is expected to actively participate in daily rounds, but not necessarily lead them
Months 4-9
The next six months of the year are spent in a number of rotations including the TICU. The fellow should have attained the self-confidence to be able to teach procedures and skills they have mastered to the house staff and medical students. The fellow is expected to take an active role in didactic and evidence-based teaching of junior house staff and students. The fellow should be able to critically analyze pertinent literature and start to develop a practice pattern that is fundamentally sounds, evidence-based and effective
Months 10-12
The final three months of the year should witness the transformation of the fellow into a team leader and master of surgical critical care. The fellow should lead rounds, under the supervision of the attending Intensivist, formulate patient care plans, and obtain advanced knowledge in critical care. By the end of the year, the fellow is expected to have demonstrated sufficient competence to enter practice as a surgical Intensivist without direct supervision
During the TICU rotation, the fellow will attend ICU administrative meetings at which the planning, staffing and administrative aspects of ICU management are considered. This will fulfill the requirements of the fellow to gain experience in the administration of an ICU
Skills and Simulation resources are a very important component of a surgical resident’s education today and has been shown to be a very effective method of teaching. The STAR Center of Allegheny Health Network is located at our West Penn Hospital and offers a wide variety of equipment to help our residents become skilled surgeons. In addition, a curriculum has been prepared for each PGY level to progressively hone their skills so they may become proficient in laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery. Certification through FLS and FES is now required to sit for American Board of Surgery exams and the STAR Center is a great place to acquire the skills need to pass those exams!
Our Fellowship Program includes rotations at Allegheny General (AGH) and West Penn (WPH) hospitals in Pittsburgh
Allegheny General Hospital - 23 main operating rooms and integrated minimally invasive suite, 4 specialized operating rooms, and 7 Ambulatory Surgery Center operating rooms; 24-bed surgical/trauma intensive care unit, 32-bed cardiothoracic intensive care unit, and 32-bed neurosurgical intensive care unit. The hospital was first in the state to open a dedicated trauma ICU and is a Level I Regional Resource Center for Trauma that annually admits more than 2,000 patients to the Division of Trauma Surgery. Our air ambulance service, LifeFlight, introduced in 1978, was the first aeromedical emergency transport system in the northeastern United States. Five LifeFlight helicopters transport more than 200 patients per month within a 150-mile radius of Pittsburgh.
West Penn Hospital - academic medical center regionally and nationally recognized for excellence in nursing (first in the region designated Magnet by the American Nurses Credentialing Center
