Educational Program: PGY-2
The PGY-2 year is spent at Nebraska Medicine and Methodist on rotations intended to allow residents to further develop basic patient care skills as well as neurosurgery knowledge and skills (including rotations on related services such as neuroradiology, neuro-oncology, and epilepsy). On the neurosurgery service the resident will participate in the pre-operative and post-operative evaluation and care of patients. The resident will learn how to perform a history and physical neurologic examination, order appropriate tests and follow-up with the results, schedule admissions and surgery, perform patient teaching, perform daily care and make appropriate notes, discharge planning and follow-up with the patient after discharge. The residents will be expected to scrub with the faculty in the operating room and perform the surgical procedures for which they are qualified, depending upon their level of technical ability and educational background. The resident will be expected to evaluate emergency room patients and provide evaluation and medical and surgical care.
At all stages of training, residents’ clinical activities are monitored and supervised by faculty to ensure appropriate, safe, timely, and cost-effective care. At the same time, our faculty understands the need for residents to develop their independence so they will become capable, independent neurosurgical practitioners. We accomplish this goal by providing our residents, at each level of training, progressively greater freedom in evaluating and managing patients within the limits of their medical knowledge and technical expertise as judged by the supervising faculty. Junior residents work at all times under the direct supervision of their "senior consultants", including the faculty, the Senior Resident, and the Chief Resident. During the initial phase of junior level training, they will report frequently to their senior consultants. As they demonstrate competency in the evaluation and management of neurosurgical patients, particularly with more common, less critical disorders, they are given greater latitude and independence for the primary assessment (including ordering of diagnostic tests). They are encouraged to develop a management plan but are expected to present their plan to their senior supervisor(s) prior to initiating treatment. In the operating room, they will learn to perform minor cases as first surgeon and will learn to assist with major cases.
The goals of the PGY-2 year include developing fundamental knowledge of the inpatient and outpatient delivery of care to include consults, new and return visits by patients, proper documentation and dictating of information to meet the requirements of the hospital, insurance companies, and referral of patients as required, and basic neurosurgical skills. The PGY-2 resident will take the written examination of the American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) for self-assessment.