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Fellowship Structure

The fellow will have clinical duties exclusively caring for patients on the Burn Surgery Service or patients on the Plastic Surgery Service for whom the burn fellow has provided surgical intervention. Under the supervision of the faculty member(s), the fellow will be responsible for guiding the junior residents in all aspects of burn care.  Burn care lectures to the residents, medical students, and other staff members are encouraged.

Volume of Surgery

The Burn Service performs approximately 375 operations each year at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. The staff assists on all operations. Each fellow can expect to perform over 200 major procedures during their fellowship. Although the preponderance of surgical cases involves acute burn surgery, complex wound care and burn reconstruction procedures are also part of the surgical cases. Procedures such as escharotomies, bronchoscopies, and conscious sedation are all performed in the Burn Treatment Center on a regular basis.

Organization of the Burn Surgery Service

The Burn Surgery Service at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics consists of three faculty members, one burn fellow, one second year resident and one intern. The call coverage is from home and is primarily back up.

The fellow will round daily with the resident team providing close supervision, and will round with the charge nurse and rehab when available. Weekend rounds will be limited to weekends when the R1 is rounding. Nighttime/weekend call responsibilities include backing up the R1 when s/he is on call.

The Physician Assistant on the service ultimately works directly with the faculty; however, their input should be included in patient care. The residents and fellow have no supervisory role over the Physician Assistant.

Resident Educational Program and Teaching Conferences

Multidisciplinary educational lectures are held weekly, providing instruction on burn resuscitation, inhalation injuries, electrical and chemical burns, necrotizing acute soft tissue infections, and wound care. Morbidity and Mortality conference is held weekly within the Department of Surgery. The Division of Acute Care Surgery holds a monthly Morbidity and Mortality conference where Burn Surgery Service cases are discussed. Journal Club is presented once a month as is the Research Conference. The burn surgery fellow is allowed one national meeting per year that is financially supported by the Burn Treatment Center. Additional meeting time if the fellow is making a scientific presentation is negotiable.