The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Graduate Medical Education UTRGV School of Medicine
Curriculum
Training Enhancements
Our residents are raving about these training enhancements:
SonoSim Ultrasound Training Solution combines online didactics, knowledge assessment, and hands-on ultrasound education for the residents. When the SonoSim® transducer is inserted into a USB port it transforms the personal computer into a bedside ultrasound-training environment. Learners receive immediate transducer-positioning guidance and expert feedback while scanning real-patient cases. It has the world’s largest library of actual patient cases with a broad spectrum of normal and real pathologic conditions. These modules deliver over 55 hours of OB-GYN training across a broad spectrum of topics, which helps programs deliver high quality, standardized education that matches the American Institute of Ultrasound Medicine Consensus Recommendations published in 2018.
RoshReview is the leader in board review, Qbanks, and distance learning. RoshReview creates high-quality educational content, perform assessment and analytics for individuals and organizations and deliver it through a easy-to-use web-based interface. Rosh Reviews educational content and Qbank test questions accurately simulate the exam.
Structured Resident Education
Residents have protected education time on Friday mornings from 7:30am until 12:00pm. Often, additional educational sessions are held from 12:00pm-1:00pm to address the needs of specific classes and provide structured preparation for the CREOG exam. Other educational sessions take place throughout the week and academic year. We believe developing the professionalism and leadership skills of our residents is paramount, and to this end we dedicate a significant portion of our curriculum to these skill sets.
Education sessions include:
Didactics –We plan resident didactic sessions on a two-year cycle addressing CREOG objectives and departmental priorities. Didactic sessions cover many subject areas including: obstetrics (general, MFM, breast and neonatal), gynecology (general, gynecologic oncology, FPMRS, REI, and family planning), medicine (critical care, inpatient, and primary care), research (project planning, basic statistics, literature review and interpretation, study types, bias, qualitative and survey research, and decision analysis), doctoring (professional identity formation, residents as leaders & educators, health disparities, diversity & inclusion), simulation (at the UTRGV simulation hospital or DHR), and CREOG/boards preparation. Residents are actively involved in planning and leading didactic sessions with faculty guidance.
Grand Rounds – Grand rounds take place approximately quarterly and are presented by departmental faculty, PGY-4s under faculty guidance, adjoint faculty, visiting faculty, and faculty from other departments. Visiting professors often stay to provide half-day seminars in their area of expertise.
Morbidity and Mortality Conference – M&M conference is hosted monthly. Residents present cases and case analysis under the mentorship of departmental faculty.
Journal Club – Journal Club is conducted monthly. Residents present journal articles in a manner that encourages active learning under the mentorship of departmental faculty. We aim to include a wide variety of research methodology and clinical topics.
CREOG Club – On a monthly basis faculty conduct additional interactive CREOG/boards preparation sessions following Friday resident education.
Perioperative Conference – Each Tuesday our program holds a Perioperative Conference, led by the PGY-4 class. We discuss upcoming resident clinic, faculty practice, and gynecologic oncology surgical cases, recent perioperative complications, and relevant clinical and systems-based topics.
Chair Chats – Dr. Ogburn hosts a quarterly session with the residents to provide departmental updates. The session also serves as an open forum for resident input, questions, and concerns.
Chief Mock Oral Boards – The PGY-4 class sits for quarterly simulated oral boards. PGY-4s prepare brief case lists based on their recent clinical experiences and take turns answering questions posed by faculty and their peers. The session also serves as an opportunity to introduce lower-level residents to the board certification process.
Resident Group – Once monthly the residents participate in a residents-only session with Ms. Caric and Dr. George to process difficult patient care situations and the challenges of residency and the physician role.
Fifth Fridays – In months that have five Fridays the fifth Friday is spent in resident-planned team building and leadership development activities.
Business End of the Speculum – We host a running seminar series that aims to prepare our senior residents for practice after residency. Example session topics include: CV preparation, employment contracts, practice management, malpractice, and legal issues for the office (CLIA, HIPAA, employment law 101).
Project ECHO – The Department participates in Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO), a video conference through MD Anderson focused on lower genital tract dysplasia with attendees from various U.S. and international locations. Our residents routinely present challenging cases from our resident clinic and faculty practice.
Resident Retreat – Residents participate in an annual spring strategic planning retreat during which many aspects of the residency training program are reviewed in detail and recommendations are submitted to program leadership where they play a significant role in activities of the Program Evaluation Committee (PEC). Residents also participate in a team building activity. We are now working to incorporate a second fall retreat.
Administrative Sessions – Select weeks from 8:30am-9:00am we participate in required institutional trainings, administrative refreshers, class meetings, Administrative Chief Resident meetings, quality improvement project updates, and medical student grading sessions.
Surgical/FLS Curriculum – Residents are provided with a surgical training/FLS preparation curriculum specific to their PGY year. The curriculum links to surgical video content, ACOG modules, and FLS simulator practice plans. Residents complete formative pre- and post-tests on FLS simulator tasks appropriate to their training year.
Individualized Study Plans – Each resident is provided with a detailed self-study plan based on the topic areas of their missed questions on the most recent CREOG exam. Study materials are uploaded for easy access.
Examples of Additional Training Completed During the Program
Maintenance of Basic Life Support (BLS) Certification
Maintenance of Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Certification
Maintenance of Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) Certification
Nexplanon Certification
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Basic Course in Quality & Safety
AWHONN Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Courses – Beginning, Intermediate, & Advanced
ASCCP Colposcopy Exam
CITI Training (Research Ethics & Compliance)
CDC Online Sexually Transmitted Infections Courses
Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Certification – new for 2020-2021
Resident Mentorship Program
The purpose of the department’s resident mentoring program is to provide a formal mechanism through which residents:
- Obtain guidance, coaching, and candid input to assist them in meeting the program’s clinical, academic, professional, and scholarly activity objectives.
- Receive individual assistance in preparing for the CREOG and board exams.
- Gain personal advisement in effectively striving toward personal career goals.
- Have a trusted advocate to assist in addressing performance concerns and resident concerns about the program.
- Expand their professional network through the contacts of their mentors.
- Increase resiliency against burnout in a way that also increases departmental morale and the professional satisfaction of the mentors.
Mentor Selection
For the PGY1 year, residents will be assigned to the Program Director or Assistant Program Director, who will work with the PGY1 resident to determine appropriate subsequent faculty mentors. At the end of the PGY1 year, each PGY1 will reach out to their desired faculty mentor to see if the faculty member is able to take them on as a mentee. Mentors must have a specific faculty designation and compensated time through the department. This does not preclude residents from seeking additional mentorship from community physicians, affiliated subspecialists (such as community MFMs), etc. The Program Director and Chair may not serve as mentors, except for PGY1 residents or in the case of limited availability of other faculty mentors, as above. Mentors may not take on more than 3 mentees at a time, with the exception of the Program Director and Assistant Program Director.
Once residents have established a formalized mentoring relationship, the goodness of fit of the mentee-mentor pair may be re-evaluated annually to determine if the resident should transition to a new mentor at the beginning of the next academic year. Such a change in mentors may take place for reasons such as: alignment of career goal or research interests, personality compatibility, or lack of fulfillment of mentee/mentor responsibilities. Residents may seek a faculty mentor in the same subspecialty/area in which they plan to apply, or a faculty member who is also mentoring their resident research/ quality improvement project. However, this is not required.