Teaching
The teaching mission of the Gynecologic Oncology division starts locally and extends regionally, nationally and even internationally. Faculty, fellows and house staff participates extensively in didactic and patient care education in the hospital and clinics. Division members have participated in giving invited lectures, grand rounds, as course faculty and guest professors on a regular basis. In addition to invited lectureships, members of the division have presented peer reviewed work at multiple national and international scholarly meetings.
Medical students spend valuable time on the Gynecologic Oncology Service at the James. Third year medical students are on the service for a two-week period and receive four hours of didactic lectures on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of pre-malignant and malignant gynecologic tumors. An integral part of their training includes direct patient care involvement and instruction on the in-patient unit, the outpatient clinic, and in the operating room. Patient care seminars and Tumor Board Conference are valuable educational experiences for all students on our service. Fourth year students are offered a one-month elective, during which time they are provided teaching and patient care responsibilities similar to those of the junior house staff.
Over the past few years, the Gynecologic Oncology Division has participated in a senior elective in the DOC 3 (Differentiation of Care) Program with emphasis on how acute and chronic medical problems impact the psychosocial aspects of both the patient and her family. The students taking the DOC3 elective are introduced to a number of patients with a diagnosis of ovarian cancer and at various stages of their disease management. Overall, the students obtain a unique perspective of how a serious life-threatening disease process impacts not only the patient but also her family and friends. Many of the students conduct home visits and interviews in an attempt to gain a full appreciation of the psychosocial aspects of the medical problem.
First, second, third and fourth year residents in our department rotate through the Gynecologic Oncology Service yearly. Responsibilities are based on level of training, with the first and second year resident focusing on outpatient, preoperative and postoperative care, in addition to participating in minor operative procedures. Third and fourth year residents are given the additional responsibilities of preparing Tumor Board presentations, presenting at Quality Assurance conferences, and participating in radical pelvic surgeries. Dr. Cohn was awarded the Excellence in Resident Teaching Award for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2007.
Much to the credit of mentoring efforts of our gynecologic oncology faculty and hard work from our house staff, twelve residents have been placed in gynecologic oncology fellowship programs since 1998, including The Ohio State University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Alabama-Birmingham, University of Texas in Dallas, M.D. Anderson in Houston, Wayne State University, University of Minnesota, University of Virginia and UCLA.
Our faculty also lectures to the medical, surgical and radiation oncology fellows on gynecologic cancer topics in their didactic series. In addition to our residents and fellows, the medical oncology fellows and family practice residents spend a one-month rotation on our service learning evaluation, diagnosis, management, counseling and treatment of gynecologic malignancies.