Residency Program
University of Michigan Obstetrics and Gynecology is a well-balanced program.
The department is approved for a four-year residency program with a five residents in each year. The department participates in the National Resident Matching Program. Residents are selected on the basis of their application, medical school transcripts, letters of recommendation, and personal interviews. A personal interview is essential for one to be considered. A senior student elective at the University of Michigan is not recommended. Students are encouraged to plan a rigorous and challenging fourth year.
The program is intended to provide comprehensive education in obstetrics and gynecology and to ensure the candidate that, upon completion, he or she will be skilled in primary care of women through the life span, gynecologic surgery, normal and high-risk obstetrics, reproductive endocrinology and gynecologic oncology.
Training and Rotations
During the 48-month residency, all residents will be instructed in the special techniques of prenatal diagnosis, colposcopy, laparoscopy, laser surgery, hysterscopy, breast disease and radical surgery and, in addition, will be allowed elective time to study specialized fields of interest.
Each resident trains in approximately:
- 16 months of Obstetrics
- 5 months of Reproductive Endocrinology
- 12 months of Gynecology
- 5 months in Gynecologic Oncology
- 1 month in Urogynecology
- 4 weeks of Family Practice training in the outpatient setting
- 2-week SICU rotation
- 1-month elective in both the HO2 and HO3 years
Third-year residents have the option of spending a month in Alaska, at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, performing gynecologic surgery with an emphasis on vaginal surgery.
An approximate distribution of the rotations per year:
HO1: OB - 6.0 months Gyn - 1.5 months Family Medicine - 1 month Gyn Night Float - 1 month Reproductive Endocrinology - 0.5 month Gyn Onc - 0.5 month Perinatal Assessment Center - 0.5 month Vacation - 1.0 month |
HO2: OB - 2.5 months Gyn - 2.0 months Gyn Night Float - 1 month Reproductive Endocrinology - 1.5 month Gyn Onc - 2.5 months Educational Elective - 1 month SICU - 0.5 month Vacation - 1 month |
HO3: Gyn - 2.5 months OB Night Float -2 months Gyn Onc - 2.5 months Perinatal Assessment Center - 0.5 month Educational Elective - 1 month Gyn Specialty or Alaska Gyn - 1 month Urogyn - 1 month Gyn Clinic - 0.5 Month Vacation - 1 month |
HO4: OB - 2.5 months Gyn - 2.5 months OB Clinic - 2.5 months Gyn Clinic - 2.5 months Urogyn - 1 month Vacation - 1 month |
Teams
Residents are divided into five teams:
- Team 1: Obstetrics, Reproductive Endocrinology
- Team 2: Gynecology
- Team 3: Gynecologic Oncology
- Team 4: Urogynecology
- Team 5: Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery
These teams rotate night call and coverage of labor and delivery. Emergency medicine and geriatric medicine training are provided. Residents are given increasing responsibility for patient care and for education of others on the health care team.
Logistics
The Obstetric Service is based in the new Maternal Child Health Center. The East Side houses our high-risk service, and has eight LDRP rooms in close proximity to the three Labor and Delivery Operating Rooms. The West Side has 20 LDRP rooms. Because of the continued expansion of the Obstetrical Volume, a new wing has been opened where many of our post-partum mothers recover from deliveries and receive teaching in the care of their new babies. We anticipate more than 3,800 deliveries this year.
The three Gynecology divisions, as well as the main operating rooms, are housed in the University of Michigan Hospital. As surgical volume continues to increase, more ambulatory surgery is being performed at the East Ann Arbor and Livonia surgical centers. Residents are performing surgery daily in the busy OR suites.
Conferences and Lectures
To supplement the clinical and service-oriented schedules, the department sponsors weekly conferences including Morbidity and Mortality Conference, Grand Rounds, Perinatal Joint Q&A Rounds, Fetal Heart Rate Tracing Strip Rounds, Gynecology Weekly Conference, and Gynecologic Oncology Tumor Board, Pre-op Gynecology Conference and High-Risk OB Conference. Lecture series such as the Abram Sager, Anita Payne and John R.G. Gosling lectures are held anually.
Medical Student Teaching
Department educational activities also include medical student teaching in the basic third-year clerkship and in the advanced fourth-year elective. The house staff plays an integral role in medical student education.
Our Philosophy
We try to instill in the individual resident the philosophy that the practice of obstetrics and gynecology is a learning process that never ends, particularly if one is to stay informed of new developments.
