The primary goal of the Integrated UCLA Plastic Surgery Residency Program is to immerse residents in an intensive clinical and didactic training environment that will expose them to the core principles of general surgery and all facets of the broad spectrum of plastic surgery. Residents are expected to master the requisite training necessary to pass the American Society of Plastic Surgery Board Certifying Exams and begin practicing independently.
The Resident Education Lectures are held on Wednesday mornings and form the basis of the didactic program. All topics in the Core Curriculum are covered at least once every twenty-four months. The conferences are scheduled so that the full curriculum will be covered twice during each resident's three years of training. These lectures are attended solely by the residents and the instructor, allowing the instructor to direct and facilitate discussions with the residents. Residents are assigned supplemental readings and modules through the Plastic Surgery Education Network (PSEN) in advance. Attendance is mandatory and tracked by the Program Director by sign-in sheets.
The Dinner Conferences are used to supplement the core curriculum covered in the Resident Education Lectures. Members of the Teaching Faculty, Volunteer Clinical Faculty and Visiting Speakers are invited to speak on an area of interest or expertise pertaining to a topic in the core curriculum.
During select months, indications conferences are scheduled in lieu of an invited speaker. Each resident is required to come prepared with a Case Presentation that reviews the fundamental concepts, indications, and operative techniques of a particularly vexing case. The faculty then use these talks as the basis for orally examining the residents in preparation for their In-Service and (eventual) Board Examinations.
The conference is attended by the residents, teaching faculty, volunteer clinical faculty and area physicians, and has a reputation as an excellent source for Continuing Medical Education throughout the community. Attendance is mandatory and tracked by the Program Director by sign-in sheets.
This conference seeks to incorporate basic science and current research into residents clinical and didactic training. Each month, residents review and present scholarly articles from peer reviewed journals (typically Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.) The merits and impact of the article are then discussed by the faculty, volunteer clinical faculty, and residents.
This conference best combines residents' clinical training with their didactic training. Each month, residents present their M&M cases, QA reports and Cases of the Month in a conference setting attended by residents, teaching faculty, and volunteer clinical faculty.
