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Curriculum

Didactics and educational sessions are regularly incorporated into the resident curriculum. Yearly temporal bone and cadaveric endoscopic sinus surgery courses are given by faculty members. During August of the PGY-2 year, a monthlong cadaveric head and neck anatomy and histology course is provided. Residents participate in a biannual facial injectables course and have the opportunity to partake in regularly held facial fracture plating/reduction sessions. Grand Rounds are held weekly (Fridays 6:30 to 8 a.m.) and include talks by faculty, invited guest lecturers and PGY-2 through PGY-5 residents. Morbidity & Mortality Conference is held once per month. Weekly lectures on otology and rhinology are provided at Cook County Hospital, and there is an extensive Pediatric Otolaryngology curriculum offered during the rotation at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Resident memberships to the AAO-HNS are provided as well as subscriptions to the Home Study Course. Residents also receive subscriptions to the following academic journals: Laryngoscope; Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery; American Journal of Rhinology & Allergy; Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery; Archives of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery. Training sites include Northwestern Medicine (NM), John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County and Lurie Children’s Hospital.

Training by Year

PGY-1

PGY-1 residents spend six months on the Otolaryngology services at NM and Lurie Children's. PGY-1s also spend one month on each of the following rotations: plastic surgery, anesthesiology, neurological surgery, surgical oncology, surgical intensive care and general surgery night float.

PGY-2

Four consecutive months are spent on each of the following rotations: NM White Service, NM Purple Service and Cook County Hospital (CCH) Inpatient Service. The White/Purple PGY-2 residents are included in the NM general call pool while the CCH resident participates in a separate call pool compromised of both Northwestern and UIC residents rotating at Stroger Hospital. There is no responsibility toward cross-hospital coverage. All call is taken from home.

PGY-3

Four consecutive months are spent on each of the following rotations: NM White Service, Dedicated Research Block and Pediatric Otolaryngology at Lurie Children’s. The White Service and Research residents are part of the NM general call pool while, similar to CCH, there is a separate call pool for Lurie Children’s.

PGY-4

Four consecutive months are spent on both the NM Purple Service and Cook County Hospital Inpatient Service. There is an additional four-month-long “Independent Rotation” at CCH. During this rotation, the PGY-4 resident will spend two days per week performing small procedures under local anesthesia (e.g., keloid removal, excisional biopsies of neck/facial masses, closed reduction of basic mandible fractures) in a dedicated minor surgery room. They will also have the opportunity to perform cosmetic procedures such as blepharoplasty in this setting. Each Friday is dedicated to otologic surgery. The Independent PGY-4 will join the regular CCH team for all resident clinics during which they will be responsible for performing the majority of thyroid ultrasound-guided FNAs. Additionally, time is spent in both dermatology Mohs clinic and with a cytopathologist reviewing FNA results. At CCH both PGY-4 residents are part of the general call pool. At NM, the PGY-4 also takes primary call, albeit less frequently than the PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents.

Chief Year

The PGY-5 resident will spend four months serving as chief of the NM white, NM purple and CCH services. For all rotations, the chief resident takes back-up call.

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