Conference Schedule
Wednesday & Friday Conferences
Facilitated by the education doctor of the day (EDOD). Each faculty member signs up to be an EDOD throughout the year and commits to the residents’ education.
Morbidity & Mortality (M&M) Conferences
Every Friday morning
Discussions focus on all deaths, complications, and "near-misses" that occur on the surgical services related to general surgery, trauma, and vascular cases.
Resident Grand Rounds
Four times by PGY V and PGY IV
Resident Grand Rounds allow residents to research a topic of their choice is which they are passionate about and then teach the audience about that topic.
Interdisciplinary Grand Rounds
Third Friday of the month, noon
SEAHEC puts on this grand round that fosters a place to come together with the other residencies programs and learn about certain topics that are impacting the medical community.
Multidisciplinary Breast Tumor Board
Every Thursday, 7 a.m., Zimmer Cancer Conference Room
This is a review of current breast cancer patients. Residents will attend this board meeting when they are on surgical oncology and colon rectal rotation and optional for other residents not on this rotation.
Service Line Education
Varies by service line.
Surgical Skills Lab
Six times in the academic year, supervised by a faculty member
This conference focuses on surgical skills ranging from suturing to complex cases. Both fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery (FLS), fundamentals of endoscopic surgery (FES), and robotic curriculum will be covered. Residents will come out with certifications.
Residents are expected to complete appropriate online modules and practice open and laparoscopic skills. The goal of this conference is to move the learning curve for surgical procedures outside of the operating room to improve patient safety.
Trauma/Critical Care Rounds
Held in the Surgical-Trauma ICU and conducted by the surgical critical care and trauma attendings. Residents who rotate on ICU participate in this traditional bedside-style patient management. Trauma/critical care rounds is a multidisciplinary format with emphasis on surgical critical care issues of current patients in the unit.
Tumor Board
Every Friday, 7 a.m.
Tumor board is a multi-disciplinary conference review of current cancer patients that includes clinical, radiological, and pathological findings. Residents will attend this board meeting when they are on surgical oncology and colon rectal rotation and optional for other residents not on this rotation.
SCORE Conference
Most Wednesdays, 7 a.m., moderated by the chief residents plus EDOD
The Surgical Council on Resident Education (SCORE) was formed in 2006 and adopted by the American Board of Surgery with the purpose of providing residents and residency programs with high-quality educational materials and structured program for self-learning in all areas of general surgery and related topics. The curriculum outline covers a list of topics to be covered in a 5-year general surgery residency. The portal contains chapters from surgical textbooks, multiple-choice questions, and narrated operative videos based on the six ACGME competencies along with a basic science and ethics curriculum. Residents will be assigned topics weekly broken out by junior and senior levels and self-assessments are reviewed as a group on Wednesday mornings.
Visiting Professor Conference
Throughout the academic year
Attending surgeons from UNC and other medical schools lecture in their area of clinical expertise.
Journal Club
10 months out of the year, either at attending surgeons' homes, local restaurants, or in-house
Current literature is discussed with the American College of Surgeons (ACS) electronic journal club as a resource. An evidence-based journal is used to emphasize paper selection, analysis and interpretation of study results.
Oral Board Review
Three times per academic year
Oral Board Review is an interactive conference led by a faculty member to prepare residents for their certifying exam. Faculty members choose from a variety of clinical scenarios to question the residents’ knowledge and critique their presentations and identify strengths and opportunities for improvement.
Mock Oral Boards
Chiefs and 4th year residents will attend a virtual style oral board review with Caliber Boards in preparation for oral boards. Each resident will have one practice review before a mock oral exam held in the spring.
Case Presentations
Held at the discretion of Faculty EDOD.
Faculty present an upcoming surgical case from the attendings schedule. Preoperative workup, surgical planning, intraoperative decision making, and expected post-op courses are discussed. Imaging and preoperative pathology are reviewed when available in detail to facilitate the breadth of knowledge required to maintain a busy general surgery practice.