Educational Curriculum

Our fellowship is designed to provide fellows with comprehensive education and training in a variety of specialties in urology, colorectal surgery, plastic surgery, and research. Fellows are also given the opportunity to explore additional interests in the FPMRS field during their clinical elective rotation in the third year. The educational curriculum has been designed to meet the objectives set forth in the ACGME program requirements for  education in FPMRS. There is a didactic conference schedule covering all aspects of FPMRS, in addition to  lectures on atypical topics encountered in FPMRS. The fellow is expected to refer to this curriculum to direct their learning activities and identify areas of weakness or lack of experience. We strongly encourage fellows to bring any concerns to the attention of the program director in order to personalize their curriculum to strengthen those areas.

Sample Monthly Educational Schedule

Research

During the FPMRS fellowship, the fellows fully participate in the theoretical and technical aspects of clinical and basic science research. Fellows are required to take Statistical Methods for Data Analysis, a graduate level course at Thomas Jefferson University, during the first fellowship year. During this course they learn to apply the principles and techniques of basic statistical analysis to research and are expected to actively conduct research during time away from clinical care responsibilities. The annual didactic sessions include research design, grant writing, research methodology, scientific writing, and presentation skills. The fellows learn how to conduct FPMRS research, work as part of a research team, and develop skills to critically review the research of others. The FPMRS fellow is required to complete and publish one thesis project and write and receive a grant by the end of the fellowship. This thesis should make a meaningful contribution to FPMRS literature. For further support, monthly research meetings are scheduled, in addition to quarterly meetings between the fellow and the faculty advisor with continuous oversight and direction provided by the director of FPMRS research, the research nurse, and the biostatistician.

Quality Improvement Projects

With the newest policy revision of the ACGME, the fellows are required to describe one learning activity to identify strengths, deficiencies, and limits in their knowledge and expertise (self-reflection and self-assessment). The fellows will also set learning improvement goals and identify and perform appropriate learning activities to achieve self-identified goals. One such goal instituted was to improve the efficiency of our fellow-run clinic. This included all aspects of health care, i.e., patient wait times, improving accessibility of clinic resources, patient education, and billing and coding.

International Opportunities

There are several opportunities for international exposure and experience. The entire core faculty in FPMRS, as well as many faculty in the OB-GYN Department and Cooper University Hospital, have extensive global experience. The division of FPMRS believes that in order to develop globally sensitive physicians, it is essential for those in training to participate in health care in other regions of the world. Thus, the division of FPMRS offers the fellows ample opportunity to become active internationally. Such places include, but are not limited to: Jamaica, Ghana, Rwanda, and Vietnam. Additionally, to enhance our fellows’ education in the repair of fistula, our division, in conjunction with the International Organization of Women and Development and International Healthcare Volunteers, has the opportunity to send one fellow along with at least one member of the faculty to Ghana in West Africa or Rwanda in East Africa for a period of two weeks during their senior year. The fellows can also develop contacts outside of Cooper and make their own arrangements if desired.