Extract
Teaching residents the knowledge, skills, and ethical values of orthopaedic
surgery is critical to our profession. Currently, the standards for
orthopaedic residency training are set by the Orthopaedic Residency Review
Committee (RRC) of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
and the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. However, the means by which
those standards are to be achieved is largely left up to individual residency
programs. This article considers how we might improve the quality and
effectiveness of orthopaedic education if we apply to residency programs the
core principles of adult education. These core principles form the central
theme of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Course for
Orthopaedic Educators, the first course among all medical specialties to be
devoted entirely to education and the longest-running continuing medical
education course offered by the AAOS. This article reviews the critical
elements involved in educating orthopaedic residents, applying the core
educational principles established by the Course for Orthopaedic Educators. We
suggest that if orthopaedic educators understand the educational process and
the principles that underlie it, they will be able to improve the quality and
effectiveness of residency education and thus ultimately improve the
profession. This article presents eight core principles of adult education and
outlines how they can be applied by orthopaedic educators—both by
program planners and by physician-teachers.