Service Obligations of Orthopaedic Residents

Each resident is to perform duties within the hospitals of the University of Virginia, the clinics and outpatient facilities, as determined by work policy. Service refers to patient care activity that is supervised by department faculty or hospital personnel.

Orthopaedic services consists of admission history/physical examinations, progress notes, orthopaedic care and dictated discharge summary on all hospitalized patients. Emergency Department consultations shall render care for musculoskeletal trauma, infection and acutely painful conditions. Consultations for musculoskeletal problems shall be delivered in a timely fashion to hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients. Assistance in the operating room to an attending surgeon or fellow resident shall be part of the service commitment, and in the senior and chief resident years, emergency surgery will be performed for musculoskeletal emergencies under the supervision of an attending surgeon.

An orthopaedic resident shall be responsible for ordering diagnostic and procedural tests and will use the information from these tests or alert those who need the information in order to provide good medical and orthopaedic patient care.

The service requirements of residency change little in the amount of time spent per year over the four year program. The chief residents are required to shift some of the service commitment to administrative and educational time and will learn to delegate service obligations to junior residents. The chief residents are responsible for the weekly work assignments of junior residents and the monthly on-call schedule for all orthopaedic residents.