This weekend is a signature weekend in my year - the "Core weekend". Of all the conferences my department sponsors, there are a few that really stand out - and this is one of them. The course director (Dr. John Doty) is a close friend of mine, which makes it enjoyable, as are many of the other planning committee and faculty members.
It is an intense course (Cardiovascular and Thoracic Core Curriculum Review); to sum it up simply, CT residents go through medical school (4 years) and then residency (6 years) and then take a huge test to verify their knowledge (called the Written Board Certification Examination). Subsequently, if they pass, they wait 6 months and take an Oral Board Certification Examination, which is a one-on-one questioning/beat-down with an expert in the field. Additionally, this process of examination must be repeated every 10 years, so you have to stay on top of all new research and techniques, as well as old ones that you don't do because not every surgeon performs all types of surgeries available within their specialty.
Basically, if you are a board certified CT surgeon, you have completed an incredible amount of training and testing - and you're pretty smart. Oh, and super Type-A....which means I am trying to meet the needs of 100 incredibly OCD people.
So this 4 day course is a comprehensive review of 82 topics that the residents should have learned in their training - thus preparing them for the written and oral examinations. Each of the 82 topics are presented for 20-30 minutes - which is a very small amount of time to sum up something as huge as esophageal cancer, for example. Due to the shortened time, the faculty lecture in rapid-fire style, no questions allowed, and the participants are dialed in and focused on every word.
The days are extensive, as they try to fit in a great deal of content - and the staff of course have much to do before and after the course hours. The schedule from a work perspective looks this for my team and I:
Saturday: 6:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Sunday: 6:15 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Monday: 6:15 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday: 6:15 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
You would think I would be going home to recover on Tuesday afternoon but alas, I have meetings back in my office (poor scheduling on my part), so I will be heading back downtown for the rest of the afternoon. Whew....what a weekend. It makes for a long two weeks of work when you have a huge weekend in the middle. Oh, and did I mention that next Saturday I am in charge of the hydrocephalus walk again?
Yep, life is a little busy right now. :)
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