Welcome to Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery at Warwick. We are looking forward to introducing you to our world of musculoskeletal disease and injury, and its treatment.  During this attachment you will also be able to spend time with an anaesthetist, and therefore see surgery from both sides.

The Learning Objectives for this attachment are described in detail within the WMS Course Document, (the relevant section is Chapter 4: Locomotor and Trauma). These are quite extensive, but you should focus on the most common problems.  The key skills you should have at the end of the attachment are:

• The ability to take a relevant history of common musculoskeletal problems. 
• The ability to perform a focused examination of the major joints. 
• The ability to elicit the physical signs of common conditions. 
• The ability to describe the early management of common fractures.

You will have several opportunities for learning during your attachment:

1. Consultant Partnerships:  Each pair of students is attached to a pair of consultants: one orthopaedic surgeon and one anaesthetist (see Student Partnership List for details).
2. Special Clinics:  Orthopaedic surgery is increasingly sub-specialised so your consultant’s practice may not expose you to the full range of orthopaedic problems.  Previous groups have found that it is particularly helpful to attend a specialist spine clinic and a specialist paediatric clinic. You will be able to book in to these specialist UHCW clinics (view timetable) at the induction session, regardless of which hospital is your principle attachment, or you can organise this through Kerry Kyte (ext 25072). In order to ensure you gain broad experience we will provide you with a sign off sheet for the main categories of clinic.  Make sure that you get to at least one of each of these and have your sheet signed off and bring that sheet with you to the exam at the end of the block.
3. Teaching:  We do provide some centralised Formal Teaching Sessions every other Wednesday afternoon in addition to that you will receive with your own consultants.  On alternate Wednesdays, this is part of the Regional Orthopaedic Professional Development Session which is held at the Clinical Sciences Building at University Hospital.  During your attachment we will provide additional teaching around common musculoskeletal conditions.
4. Portfolios:  We expect you to complete 3 orthopaedic portfolio case reports during your attachment and these should be presented verbally to your consultant during the first half of your attachment.  Of the 3 portfolios, 2 should be brief and 1 should be extended to explore the evidence behind diagnostic technique or treatment.  There will be a £500 prize for the best extended portfolio.  If you would like one of your portfolio cases to be considered for this prize, please submit a duplicate of that case to me via my secretary Sarah.
5. Feedback:  We would ask you to be very honest with us about what you believe to be the strengths and weaknesses of the course and we will give you a formal feedback form about half way through the block. Please complete it and bring it with you to the exam at the end of the block.

In response to requests from previous students we have developed an assessment at the end of the block.  This exam has 3 parts:

1. You need to return a completed clinic signature sheet to show that you have at least seen the whole range of orthopaedic practice.  The sheet should be brought to the exam and handed in with your completed feedback form.
2. There is a short answer written exam which tests your factual knowledge about common musculoskeletal problems, including interpretation of radiographs.
3. There is an OSCE including several simulated patients in which you are expected to demonstrate basic history taking and clinical examination techniques.  Any student who fails the exam would be required to sit an extended ICE.  However, we do not expect anyone to fail the examination and have included it in the course as a focus and a means to give you some summative assessment.

If you have any further questions or need any help at any stage during your attachment please feel free to contact me via my Education Secretary Kerry Kyte on 02476 96 5072, e-mail: kerry.kyte@uhcw.nhs.uk.  Alternatively you can contact me directly via my university e-mail address damian.griffin@warwick.ac.uk.  Please note the following people are also Orthopaedic Representatives for this block: Mr M Costa and  Mr S Turner, both Honorary Senior Lecturers at University Hospital, Mr R Reddy, Honorary Senior Lecturer at George Eliot Hospital and Mr M Stanislas, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at South Warwickshire Hospital.

Once again a very warm welcome to your Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery attachment.

Yours sincerely