May 2012 Tip of the Month for Chief Residents Planning a Subspecialty Fellowship

Subspecialty fellows are permitted to select 20 patients from their Chief resident year for their off specialty case list. In other words, GYN Oncologists, REI and Urogynecologists will need an OB list and MFMs need a GYN list. Thus make sure to hold onto that residency log!

Refer to the ABOG Bulletin on how those 20 patients are selected. To be on the safe side, we recommend you collect at least 40, so you can strategically select the final 20 later. For those patients, keep a file of the following: for the GYN patients, collect the H&Ps, operative note, pathology report, and discharge summary. For the OB patients, keep a file of the prenatal form, delivery note, discharge summary, and postpartum note. Don’t worry about the office patients at all, as you may compile this only during your fellowship.

A word of caution -- right now you are at your peak for general OB/GYN knowledge. Believe it or not, two years from now, your knowledge base will regress to that of an intern. Yes, it’s true: if you don’t use it, you lose it. So those really cool, esoteric, bizarre, once-in-a career cases now will be a nightmare to defend later. Your greatest allies are your junior residents. If they can’t easily defend that case, then cease and desist and "go fish" for another.

You can do it...we can help.

Test Taking Technique

You cannot sit for your general oral boards until the second year of your fellowship. So truly if you don’t use it, you lose it! So collect those "bread and butter" common cases now. Yeah, those boring ones you turn over to the interns. You will be ever so grateful later.

With you every step...

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