During each rotation, the fellow is exposed to all aspects of orthopaedic care and gains first-hand experience in outpatient clinics, first assisting in the operating room, inpatient rounding and management, and orthopaedic consults. Once a week, the fellow has their own independent clinic, with various appointments including post-op, hospital follow-ups, injections, return and new patients. Advanced Practice Providers and orthopaedic surgeons provide advice and guidance when needed. This provides the fellow with billing and coding experience, charting responsibilities and the opportunity to practice as an Advanced Practice Provider within the department.
The fellow has full access to the academic medical center's educational lectures and weekly grand rounds and is encouraged to attend continuing education conferences. They are provided with various resources to expand their knowledge, including online learning modules, journal articles, textbooks and online databases.
The physician assistant fellow is paired with an experienced PA during each rotation. They are provided with specific objectives, created by the fellowship director and PA mentor, which help guide the fellow’s focus during their time on each service. Find an example of these electives below; under “Sample PA Orthopaedic Fellowship Rotation Schedule.”
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Patient Care
Clinical orientation includes exposure to other APPs in a clinical setting to understand how clinics are run, providing preliminary training in independent patient care. The PA fellow then begins an autonomous weekly clinic, increasing to full patient volumes within the first few months. On core rotations, the fellow generally spends another day per week in a subspecialty clinic with the orthopaedic surgeon mentor for that rotation, as well as 3 days in the OR. With this schedule, the fellow continues to accumulate clinical insight throughout the year to increase independent clinical skills.Conferences and Didactics
The PA fellow is encouraged to attend all orthopaedic grand rounds and conferences. These are weekly meetings with residents, attending surgeons and APPs on specific topics relevant to the department. Additionally, each subspecialty team has a weekly meeting to provide specific education pertaining to their service.
The PA fellow schedule is flexible enough to allow time to attend continuing education conferences, whether local or distant. Specific conferences are offered to the fellow, however they are encouraged to seek conferences they are interested in.