Post-Graduate Year 5

PGY-5 residents are responsibility for being the chief residents on KUMC Blue and Red Teams and at VAMC Otolaryngology Service. The chief resident is responsible for the continual supervision and maintenance of excellent care of all hospitalized OTOHNS patients, including ER and inpatient consults.

Surgically, the chief resident participates in all procedures of their choice, including major head and neck, reconstructive and otologic/neurotologic cases. Chiefs are responsible for scheduling OTOHNS resident OR assignments for their Team. Under the Program Director's supervision, they assure even distribution of surgical case types throughout the residency to allow uniform development of resident surgical skills.

At KUMC, chief residents hold one rotating subspecialty clinic per week in order to gain in-depth outpatient experience in the different areas and longitudinal patient care and exposure.

At the VAMC, chief residents run the outpatient and inpatient Otolaryngology Service with faculty guidance. The VAMC rotation consists of three days in the clinic and two days in the operating room. In the OR, the chief residents are involved in head and neck cancer surgical planning, the primary excision, and the reconstructive portions of the operation. Chief residents actively participate in complex ear cases, e.g., stapedectomy, ossicular reconstruction, and tympanomastoidectomy, endoscopic sinus surgery, septorhinoplasty, blepharoplasty and rhytidectomy. Chief residents take junior residents through portions of cases.

All chief residents attend the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery annual meeting in September and are the guests of honor at the departmental Alumni Day graduation dinner in June.