Rotation Sites
Tripler Army Medical Center
Tripler Army Medical Center is the principal teaching institution providing a comprehensive experience to the resident throughout their training. Subspecialty rotations offered at Tripler Army Medical Center include General Orthopaedics, Sports, Shoulder and Elbow, Spine, Foot and Ankle, Hand, Total Joint Arthroplasty, Pediatrics, and Tumor (starting 2020). Each resident will rotate on the various rotations once as a junior and again as a senior.
While on a subspecialty rotation, the supervising staff will provide a subspecialty curriculum specific to that rotation. Residents will in general be in clinic two days a week and in the OR with their staff two days a week. Junior residents (R2 and R3) will have a supervised fracture clinic each week to solidify their skills in acute care and non-operative management. One half day each week will be devoted to academics, with the second half of the day dedicated to protected research time.
All residents and faculty convene as a group for educational conferences. Included are daily fracture conferences, to discuss recent acute and other academically interesting cases as well as weekly preoperative conferences. Scheduled weekly academic conferences covering basic science, core curriculum, anatomy, military relevant subjects, and a monthly quality improvement meeting with an academic overlay are included. In addition, there will be a monthly research meeting where residents and staff ensure that timelines and waypoints for research projects are being met. All members of the faculty are available for consultation on any patient or other subject. Residents are encouraged to seek faculty opinions in formal as well as informal settings.
The duty day begins with morning work rounds on the service patients by the junior residents and senior residents under the direction of the Chief Residents. Rounds need to be completed in time for the 0630 morning report. The emphasis of these bedside rounds is to provide superlative patient care as well as medical student, intern, and resident education. Upon completion of morning report, residents are dismissed to the operating room or orthopaedic clinic. Afternoon rounds occur after completion of the operating room or clinic. Thursday afternoons are unscheduled for the purpose of research, non-scheduled patient care, personal needs and study.
The Queen’s Medical Center
The Queen’s Medical Center is the forum for an extensive operative experience in adult trauma and reconstructive orthopaedic surgery including management of general orthopaedic trauma, polytrauma, spine trauma, elective spine surgery, total joint replacement as well as amputation surgery. The large attending to resident ratio, heightened tempo of the surgical services at this institution as well as the relative seniority of the Tripler residents assure an outstanding operative experience. The residents take in house call and provide consultation services to a busy Emergency Room. A weekly outpatient clinic staffed by an attending Orthopaedic Surgeon is also part of the responsibility of the Tripler resident. The formal didactic sessions with the attending and residents on the Integrated Orthopaedic Surgery Residency at University of Hawaii provide a sound educational experience.
TSRH/Dallas Children’s Hospital
The rotation at the TSRH/Dallas Children’s Hospital shall focus on the evaluation and management of pediatric orthopaedic conditions. Residents are expected to gain a fund of knowledge and working management skills in caring for orthopaedic conditions in the immature skeleton secondary to congenital, developmental, common neoplastic, inflammatory, and traumatic causes. This will be accomplished through individual study, conferences, and direct patient care including outpatient, inpatient, and perioperative patient management. The rotation will also provide orthopaedic residents with experience in performing orthopaedic research. Residents will learn methods to review patient care outcomes, review published scientific articles in the orthopaedic literature, design an outcome study, and present and publish their findings.