The Section of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine continues to provide an excellent education for medical students, residents and fellows. For second-year medical students, we provide a quarterly, one-day clinical pathophysiology course teaching physical diagnosis of the musculoskeletal system. For third-year medical students, we provide a quarterly, three-hour core course, which includes instruction in casting and splinting, four didactic lectures and a two week in-patient rotation.

We have also initiated a structured outpatient orthopaedic rotation for junior medical students that can accommodate up to four junior medical students every two weeks to improve the diversity of the student’s educational experience and fit into the required medical school curriculum changes that emphasize outpatient experience. During the two-week junior medical student rotation, we have an informal daily teaching session for the medical students rotating on orthopaedic surgery with a faculty member. This allows time for informal, but structured, education enhancing the student/faculty relationship. For senior medical students, we provide a very popular one-month inpatient or outpatient rotation. This year we have nine junior year students committed to a career in orthopaedics.

The Surgery rotation for third year Medical School students provides three months of clinical experience. The 12-week surgical rotation plan includes 4.5 weeks in General Surgery, 2.5 weeks in Anaesthesia and then 2.5 week rotations in subspecialties (one of which includes exposure to critical care) selected by the individual students.

The daily faculty lecture series is scheduled at 6:45 a.m., before the first surgical cases. This series gives students contact with a broad range of department faculty.

Faculty advisors have been appointed in every section. They are the primary faculty point of contact for the students, meeting with them two or three times per week and rounding with them. Their contact is both informal and formal, including student case presentations. The Advisors also coordinate the faculty's student evaluation process, developing consistent grading standards.

For additional information, contact the Office of Surgical Education at 773-702-6337 or visit the Pritzker Medical School website.