Program Highlights

The OB-GYN team at our program, of which residents are a key part, has the opportunity to care for women at all stages of life and provide well-woman care, often as the only physician a woman sees on a regular basis, as well as for pregnancy care, family planning, acute and chronic gynecologic problems, and menopausal care. We coordinate care for our patients with their primary care physicians and other specialists and act as consultants for primary care physicians who provide routine OB-GYN care to their patients. We aim to keep women healthy and happy throughout the stages of their lives, providing a continuity of care that very few specialties enjoy.

We are deeply committed to

• Providing outstanding training to our residents who graduate and provide care for women all across the country
• Providing the resources and guidance needed for our residents who pursue subspecialty training
• Promoting excellence in patient care and investigative research
• Providing care of the highest order to the women of our community

Clinical Training

Outpatient Continuity Clinic

Throughout the 4 years of training, residents spend at least one half day per week or one full day every other week in their continuity clinic site, allowing them to establish continuity of care with a panel of patients. Each clinic site provides full clinical and clerical support for residents, electronic medical records, team meetings for quality improvement, integrated care with a group of nurse practitioners, dedicated attending preceptors, and didactic learning sessions on primary care and outpatient OB-GYN topics.

Each resident is assigned to one of two clinic sites: Community OB-GYN where residents have the opportunity to practice in a clinic allied with a busy midwifery practice in a community setting, or Women’s Health Practice the university-based clinic that is being developed as a medical home for the women of the Rochester area including on-site Internal Medicine & subspecialty preceptors and consultants. 

Inpatient OB - URMC

Six weeks of every year is spent on inpatient obstetrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) which incorporates a low-risk labor and delivery unit, triage, high-risk antepartum and postpartum unit, the high-risk labor unit, an ultrasound unit, and two dedicated obstetric operating rooms - all interconnecting on one floor. Our Level IV NICU is located via a connecting bridge in the newly built Golisano Children’s Hospital and a dedicated OB anesthesia team is assigned to the labor units 24 hours per day. Residents progress through increasing levels of responsibility starting with management of normal labor working with both generalist and midwifery faculty and ending as the resident chief overseeing all the units and resident team. 

Inpatient GYN - URMC

Six weeks of every year is spent on inpatient gynecology at URMC learning and developing surgical skills in a wide variety of surgical cases including advanced laparoscopy, robotics, pelvic floor reconstruction, and family planning surgical procedures. The majority of our GYN cases accessing the peritoneal cavity are performed laparoscopically or robotically providing our residents with ample opportunity for development as a minimally invasive surgeon.

Inpatient OB-GYN - Highland Hospital

Six weeks each year is spent at our affiliated community hospital, Highland Hospital (HH). The resident team at HH includes OB-GYN residents, FM residents, and an OB Fellow with a FM background providing an integrative community experience. The OB-GYN R2 is assigned as “deck boss” where they learn to manage the OB service in a typically low-risk setting. OB-GYN residents interact with and serve as consultants for patients of the midwifery service as needed. The HH unit includes an ultrasound unit and a Level II special care nursery. 

Subspecialty Rotations

Residents gain subspecialty experience in GYN Oncology, Urogynecology, REI, Family Planning, Pelvic Pain, Vulvar Disorders, and Pediatric Gynecology throughout the 4 years of training in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Six weeks of the 1st, 3rd, and 4th years are spent on GYN-Oncology at HH where inpatient medical and surgical care is provided in a dedicated women’s surgical unit. The GYN-Oncology service is the leading GYN robotics program for endometrial cancer in New York and one of the largest GYN-oncology services in the state. 

Electives

Residents are offered 2 elective rotations, 4 weeks in 3rd year and again in 4th year, to pursue new learning opportunities or further develop skills already achieved. Each resident develops their elective in consultation with the program director and elective supervisor including scheduling and learning objectives to be achieved. Resident experiences have included: advanced ultrasound training, surgical rotations at affiliated hospitals, primary and OB-GYN care in developing countries (Nicaragua, Nepal, Uganda, and Haiti), quality assessment projects with systems development & testing, development of an educational program, surgical ICU, etc.

Education

Resident Research Program

We have an unusually robust resident research program that is designed to initiate resident involvement in the development of a research project starting in their 1st year and helping them through all the steps and potential pitfalls of a research project to culminate in the 3rd year with presentation of their research to the department at the annual Resident Research Day. In addition to individual mentoring, we incorporate a research curriculum into our didactic sessions including statistics, study design, scientific writing, and literature interpretation. The majority of our residents present their research at national or international meetings and many graduate with publications to their name. 

Quality Improvement & Patient Safety

All physicians share responsibility for promoting patient safety and enhancing quality of patient care. We have created a curriculum that provides not only education in quality improvement and patient safety, but also allows residents to engage in quality improvement activities. These activities include our newly revamped Morbidity and Mortality Conference, Ob and Gyn QA meetings, Ob/Gyn Clinical Counsel, Root Cause Analysis (RCA) events and Unit Based Performance Programs (UPP).

Weekly Didactic Time

We have weekly protected didactic time on Thursday mornings for lectures, simulation & skills training, problem-based learning, and other educational activities. Residents are excused from clinical duties which are covered by attendings and midwives during these mornings. The curriculum is based on a core curriculum of basic topics derived from CREOG learning objectives with additional lectures based on identified needs from faculty & resident reports and group performance on the annual CREOG exams. We encourage our faculty to be creative in their lecture styles and straightforward traditional lectures are no longer the norm - faculty and residents enjoy the more interactive style and one recent “lecture” included physical reenactment of radiation treatment of GYN cancers with residents acting out the roles of and effects on vagina, uterus, ovaries, and radiation beam under the direction of the participating audience!

We have added to our schedule weekly didactic time a 4th lecture that is run by the residents themselves which is proving very popular and a great way for residents to gain teaching skills.

Simulation

Residents participate in a variety of simulation activities over the course of their residency. These include intern boot camp, didactic simulation sessions, a yearly ob/gyn ultrasound day, and interdisciplinary simulation sessions like shoulder dystocia, postpartum hemorrhage and maternal codes.  Dedicated time is built into the resident schedule for Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery and our Robotic Simulation curriculum. The goal of these programs is to have every resident successfully pass their FLS training early in their R3 year and to have residents be able to sit at the Robotic console and perform a complete hysterectomy on day one of their R3 oncology rotation.

Wellness

Graduating healthy and balanced residents who are ready to take on the next step in their careers is a key feature of our program. We support our residents through a variety of activities and available resources that include GME efforts like expanded cafeteria hours, discounted gym membership and social events, but also departmental driven such as our resident retreats, faculty mentor program, communication coaching and mindfulness activities. All residents have access to our Employee Assistance Program and all residents AND their families have access to our Behavioral Health Practice for any needed support during the intense time of residency training. We take resident feedback and suggestions for improvement seriously and include resident input on most major program changes.

Resident Assembly

We encourage and require resident participation in the development and growth of our educational program. This provides an open forum to discuss what is working well and what isn’t and to brainstorm solutions together - both from program leadership and from the “troops on the ground”. At quarterly Resident Assembly, all resident meet during Thursday morning lecture time to discuss these issues as a large group and to let their representatives and program directors know of any ongoing issues. The 2 administrative chief residents are elected by their resident peers and their responsibilities include representing the residents at departmental and university meetings, making and monitoring the schedule, solving resident conflicts, and assisting the program directors with the running of the program. The input and participation of our residents is key to the maintenance of an outstanding program.

Other Program Highlights

• Robust Family Planning program with 2 dedicated attendings, including time at Planned Parenthood, and a department strongly committed to the provision of family planning services to the women of our community. All residents participate in family planning and advanced contraception clinics and participation in procedures is at the preference of the resident.
• eRecord used for all inpatient and outpatient documentation.
• Miner Online Library includes digital access to thousands of medical journals, including all the major OB-GYN journals, general OB-GYN and other medical specialty textbooks, and Up-To-Date (among other educational programs) from all clinical work sites.
• Medhub website is home to all curricula, learning objectives, educational materials, policies, etc. for the program and all rotations.