Educational Activities

Temple / St. Luke’s School of Medicine

St. Luke’s University Health Network is proud to partner with Temple University to have the only school of medicine in the greater Lehigh Valley. Along with the country’s oldest School of Nursing, St. Luke’s continues its long-standing commitment to medical education in the region. For more information, please visit us here.

Intern Orientation

St. Luke’s University Hospital is a great place to work! Your orientation week will help get you up to speed with the medical knowledge and administrative and logistical skills to make your first day of clinical practice go smoothly. Our interns’ favorite parts of orientation week are:

• Getting paid!
• Feeling comfortable with ALS and BLS
• Learning EMR and getting oriented to our computer systems
• Reviewing policies from Human Resources including health benefits
• Meeting your classmates: the residents with whom you will spend the next four years

Protected Time for Academics

Five hours of didactic sessions are provided to our residents every Wednesday. Our faculty lead a variety of educational sessions ranging from traditional lectures, case-based modules, and interactive simulations to engage all resident learning styles. This protected time allows for the faculty to cover all areas of obstetrics and gynecology including:

• Basic and operative gynecology
• Basic and high-risk obstetrics
• Reproductive endocrinology and infertility
• Urogynecology and pelvic reconstruction
• Medical statistics and study design
• System-based medicine (cost-effective health care, health policy, quality improvement, health care systems)
• Primary and preventative care
• Gynecologic oncology
• Ethics and professional development seminars
• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
• Genetics
• Journal club
• CREOG exam review

Our typical month in the class room follows the pattern below, with variation as needed to meet our resident learning requests.

First Wednesday of the Month:
7:00-8:00 Complex Mother Meeting with the department
8:00-12:00 In person didactic based education on core topics. This incorporates our resident research curriculum as well as the ultrasound curriculum and much more.

Second Wednesday of the Month:
7:00-8:00 Morbidity and Mortality Report
8:00-12:00 Obstetric hands-on simulation focusing on high yield skills of forceps delivery, vacuum delivery, hemorrhage, shoulder dystocia, OASIS, breech delivery, cerclage, and the skill of breaking bad news
12:00-1:00 Fetal Anomalies Departmental Meeting (with Lunch)

Third Wednesday of the Month:
7:00-8:00 Departmental Grand Rounds
8:00-12:00 Rotating Gynecologic hands- on simulation focusing on high yield skills covered in Essentials for Minimally Invasive Gynecology Curriculum in addition to skills in Complex Family Planning, Vaginal surgery, and Open Surgery.

Fourth Wednesday of the Month:
7:00-9:00 Department Meeting
9:00-11:00 Critical Care in OBGYN Curriculum
11:00-12:00 Monthly meeting with Program Leadership

Fifth Wednesday of the Month: Wellness Wednesday! When there is a fifth Wednesday in a month our residents are excused from their morning duties and given time to use how they please. Examples of how residents use this time include: exercise class, doctor’s visits, haircuts, sleeping in, time with family or friends. They are due back to clinical duties for the afternoon.

Residents are major participants in all departmental activities. They attend our monthly QI and department meeting as well as the following educational and patient care meetings:

• GYN Tumor board: Weekly presentation of interesting oncology cases including imaging and pathology review and treatment planning
• Morbidity and Mortality Conference (M+M): presentation of interesting OB and GYN cases with an emphasis on key learning points
• Grand rounds: Monthly presentations by experts in the field
• Multidisciplinary sign-out: the residents, laborists, MFMs, NICU, anesthesiology and nurses meet twice daily to discuss the management plans for all obstetrical and gynecologic patients at each campus
• MFM fetal anomaly conference: monthly presentation of anomalies and unusual cases from our perinatal service
• Complex Mother Meeting: monthly multi-disciplinary conference to review mothers in our resident and affiliated practices with complex medical conditions as we prepare for safe deliveries
• Obstetric simulation training: monthly “mega-sims” at our simulation center to prepare residents for a variety of obstetric emergencies as well as regular postpartum hemorrhage drills on labor and delivery
• Forceps/Shoulder dystocia/Breech Simulations: At the request of our residents we facilitate small group, hands-on learning for these essential obstetric skills
• GYN Surgical Simulation training monthly sessions in the surgical simulation lab emphasize surgical skills appropriate for each resident's level of experience and help to prepare them for their EMIG exam. There is also a robotic surgical curriculum designed by our gynecology and general surgery faculty that residents can choose to participate in
• Formalized one year research curriculum mandatory for all residents as part of their didactic education and available to all other faculty