Program Description
Mayo offers a five-year categorical general surgery residency program.
During your training in this program, your responsibilities will
increase with your experience, capability and performance.
Throughout your residency, you will write all orders and be responsible
for managing your patients. You will participate in rounds each
morning as part of a resident/student/ consultant team. During rounds
new patients will be presented, inpatient management will be reviewed,
and teaching sessions will be held. You also will make independent
early morning and late afternoon rounds to review the results of
tests and therapy, discuss progress with patients and their families,
make further decisions, and write orders.
Faculty
In addition to caring for patients in their clinical practices,
Mayo Clinic's faculty members are committed to teaching and facilitating
the growth of medical knowledge. Our faculty has published more
than 300 papers/year and lectured extensively more than 200 presentations/year
and are recognized leaders in their field. You will have direct
access to these individuals throughout your training program.
Advisers
You will be assigned a faculty adviser who can provide comprehensive
educational advice and personal support. Your adviser also will
serve as a contact point, introducing you and your family to Rochester
and the Mayo Clinic system.
Visiting Professors
Many prominent surgeons and surgical professors visit Mayo each
year. They present their work during noon and/or morning lectures
and participate in hospital rounds. You will be encouraged to take
full advantage of these opportunities.
Curriculum
While junior-level residents operate every other day, training
in years PGY-1 and PGY-2 is weighted to pre-operative and post-operative
patient care. In PGY-2, you also will serve as a senior resident
in the surgical intensive care unit. During PGY-3 and PGY-4, your
training will emphasize surgical technique and skill refinement.
As a chief resident in PGY-5, you will lead your own surgical team
and assume full responsibility for patient and resident team management.
Clinical Training
The specific rotations for the five-year program are shown below.
| PGY-1 Rotations |
Length |
| Trauma, Critical Care and General Surgery (TCCGS)
|
3 months |
| General Surgery |
4.5 months |
| Vascular Surgery |
1.5 months |
| Orthopedic Surgery |
2 weeks |
| Neurosurgery |
2 weeks |
| Urologic Surgery |
2 weeks |
| Plastic Surgery |
1.5 months |
| PGY-2 Rotations |
Length |
| General Surgery |
4.5 months |
| Cardiac Surgery |
2 weeks |
| Surgical Critical Care (TCCGS) |
3 months |
| Colon and Rectal Surgery |
1.5 months |
| Endoscopy/Anesthesia/ Elective |
1.5 months |
| Gynecologic Surgery |
1 month |
| PGY-3 Rotations |
Length |
| General Surgery |
3 months |
| Colon and Rectal Surgery |
1.5 months |
| Pediatric Surgery |
3 months |
| Transplant Surgery |
1.5 months |
| Thoracic Surgery |
3 months |
| PGY-4 Rotations |
Length |
| General Surgery |
3 months |
| Colon and Rectal Surgery |
1.5 months |
| Vascular Surgery |
3 months |
| TCCGS |
4.5 months |
| PGY-5 (Chief Resident) Rotations |
Length |
| General Surgery |
7.5 months |
| Vascular Surgery |
3 months |
| Colon and Rectal Surgery |
1.5 months |
Off-site Rotations
During PGY-3 you will spend six weeks in an off-site rotation, managing
pediatric surgical patients at the St. Paul Children's Hospital
in St. Paul, Minn. St. Paul is about 75 miles from Rochester.
Mayo Clinic funds the authorized additional costs of travel, housing,
auto rental and licensure fees for these rotations. Our residents
consistently rate them as highly educational.
Didactic Training
Clinical conferences, seminars, small discussion groups, journal
clubs and one-on-one instruction are an integral part of Mayo Clinic's
General Surgery Residency Program. All residents are required to
attend.
During each subspecialty rotation, you also will attend that subspecialty's
weekly schedule of journal clubs, didactic presentations and conferences
dealing with patient management problems, mortality and morbidity.
You are encouraged to attend all regional and national general
surgery meetings sponsored by Mayo Clinic and most residents attend
the Minnesota Surgical Society meeting one or more times in the
five-year period.
Surgical Basic Science Program
You will receive basic science instruction in topics such as wound
healing, immunology, infections and organ system pathophysiology.
All residents are expected to attend this weekly session. You will
be given a copy of the program reference text when you arrive at
Mayo Clinic.
Trauma, Critical Care and General Surgery
Your PGY-1 TCCGS rotation will include a formal lecture series.
You will learn about various aspects of emergency surgery and trauma
management.
Surgical Critical Care Program
During PGY-1 and PGY-2, your surgical critical care rotations will
include daily lectures about the fundamentals of critical care management.
Mayo Clinic has a high volume of tertiary care patients, so you
will have broad exposure to nearly all aspects of critical care.
Additional senior level rotations in cardiothorasic, vascular, pediatric
and general surgery allow residents to mature their IW skills and
care over the ensuing three years.
Journal Club
During PGY-2 and PGY-3, you will meet monthly throughout the academic
year for journal club. You will learn how to critically analyze
and interpret scientific articles.
Advanced Trauma Life Support Certification
As an intern, you will have the opportunity to become certified
in the American College of Surgeons' Advanced Trauma Life Support
program. A re-certification course is offered during PGY-3.
Surgical Skill Workshops
During PGY-2 through PGY-4, you will receive specialized instruction
in a formal laboratory course for one weekend each year.
| Year |
Course |
| PGY-2 |
Beginning Stapling |
| PGY-3 |
Laparoscopic Surgery |
| PGY-4 |
Advanced Stapling |
Professional Conferences
In addition to clinical experience, didactic training and special
courses, Mayo Clinic offers a wide variety of professional conferences.
The main department teaching conference is weekly general surgery
Grand Rounds. This is a common meeting ground for all of the subspecialties
within the department. Attending consultants openly critique case
presentations by chief residents who are assigned to the general
surgery, emergency room surgery, vascular surgery, and colon and
rectal surgery services. Additionally, senior-level residents in
pediatric, thoracic, transplant, TCCGS present their operative lists
for scrutiny and education. After discussing the management issues
involving patients on such services, staff members make a formal
didactic presentation on an area of their expertise.
Monthly video teleconferences with staff and residents from Mayo
Clinic in Scottsdale and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville in general,
endocrine and vascular surgery provide education for staff and residents
about diverse and difficult surgical problems in a high-tech environment.
Additional conferences, which include staff pathologists and radiologists
are held monthly to educate surgical residents in managing all facets
of patient care: pre-, intra- and post-operative lessons will be
taught.
Research Training
Research opportunities at Mayo Clinic are outstanding. Your particular
project(s) will depend on your interests and background. Research
opportunities are divided into two broad categories: Clinical and
basic science laboratory research.
Clinical Research
You will have access to Mayo Clinic's world-renowned medical records
system for clinical research. During your residency, you will conduct
at least one clinical research project, publish the results, and
make at least one regional or national presentation.
Basic Science Laboratory Research
If you have an excellent clinical record and are interested in an
academic surgical career, you will be encouraged to pursue basic
science laboratory research. You may begin a research project after
PGY-2, or you may complete your residency training and then focus
on research. Roughly one-third of our general surgery residents
add one or more years of laboratory research to their five-year
residency training. Credits can be applied toward a M.S. or Ph.D.
at Mayo Graduate School.
Mayo Clinic offers two basic science laboratory research opportunities:
A one-year program and a two-year clinician-investigator program.
One-Year Research Program
This program will give you the opportunity to assess your aptitude
for bench research and develop your fundamental research skills.
To enhance your productivity, you are encouraged to initially base
your research on an existing research project. Current areas of
basic science laboratory research include:
- Cardiac Surgery
- Colorectal Physiology
- Gastrointestinal Physiology
- General Thoracic Surgery
- Laparoscopic Surgery
- Oncology/Immunology
- Pediatric Surgery
- Plastic Surgery
- Transplantation
- Xenotransplantation
- Cardiac/Lung
- Hepatic
- Renal/Pancreas
- Vascular Surgery
Clinician-Investigator Program
Mayo Clinic's Clinician-Investigator
Program is two years in length. When you complete this program,
you will be academically prepared, competent in clinical surgery,
technically skilled in research, and capable of competing in today's
research environment.
The Clinician-Investigator Program includes two years in basic
science laboratory research and a core curriculum of research seminars,
guest seminars and didactic courses in subjects such as:
- Advances in Cell Molecular Biology
- Cellular and Quantitative Biology
- Physiology
- Statistics
If you are interested in the Clinician-Investigator Program, you
should indicate your interest early in your residency training.
You will then be assigned to a faculty member who will help you
develop a competitive written research proposal.
Certification
You are required to become certified in Basic Cardiac Life Support
(BCLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). ACLS courses are
held during the last week of June, just before the start of the
academic year. An evening ACLS course also is offered every three
months to facilitate re-certification. You must be certified in
BCLS and ACLS before you begin your TCCGS rotations.
Case Studies
During your residency you will frequently prepare case study presentations.
You will present pertinent information from an interesting case,
conduct an in-depth discussion of that case, using evidence-based
material.
In-Training Examinations
Each year you will take the written American Board of Surgery In-Service
Training Examination (ABSITE). During PGY-4 and PGY-5, you will
participate in oral clinical examinations given by Mayo Clinic's
surgical staff. These mock oral exams use the same format as the
oral certification examination given by the American Board of Surgery.
Teaching Opportunities
You will have the opportunity to supervise and teach Mayo Medical
School students and visiting student clerks through bedside instruction
and formal didactic lectures.
Committee Assignments
You will be given an opportunity to gain experience in a number
of administrative capacities during your training.
Moonlighting
Moonlighting is permitted for licensed residents and fellows only
when you do not have clinical responsibilities (e.g., during research
time).
Evaluation
To ensure that you acquire adequate knowledge and develop your technical
skills, your performance will be monitored carefully during the
course of your general surgery training. You will be evaluated formally
by your supervising faculty member after each clinical rotation.
Each evaluation is reviewed carefully by the program director.
Annual reviews of each resident at our General Surgery Residency
Committee meetings occurs, and your performance in all aspects of
surgery must be satisfactory at each level of training before you
will be promoted to more advanced levels.
In addition, you will regularly evaluate the faculty, and our program
to ensure that your educational needs are met.
Career Development
You will meet periodically with various faculty members, administrators
and the training program director to discuss your individual career
goals. Mayo Clinic recruits many of its staff physicians from its
own training programs. Thus, when you successfully complete your
general surgery training, job opportunities may be available at
one of Mayo Clinic group practices.
Graduate Outcomes
The most important sign of the success of any training program is
how its graduates fare after they begin their careers. Every resident
who successfully completed Mayo Clinic's General Surgery Residency
Program has been eligible for American Board of Surgery certification.
During the past five years, 98 percent of residents successfully
passed the American Board of Surgery qualifying (written) examination
and 97 percent passed the certifying (oral) examination on their
first attempt. The overall success rate of Mayo graduates in obtaining
ABS certification is 98 percent.
Operative Experience
The operative experience of residents completing Mayo Clinic's General
Surgery Residency Program is well within the guidelines of both
the Residency Review Committee for Surgery of the Accreditation
Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American
Board of Surgery. For example, the average total numbers for seven
residents who finished the general surgery residency program in
2002 were:
| Major Operations |
|
| As Chief Resident |
304 operations |
| As Junior Surgeon |
775 operations |
| As Teaching Assistant |
69 operations |
| Total Operations
|
1,128 operations |
Present Professional Status
Of the physicians who graduated from Mayo Clinic's general surgery
program in the past eight years, 60 percent pursued additional fellowship
training.
Academic appointments are held by 33 percent of the graduates,
and the remaining are in private practice. These graduates are practicing
in 22 different states.
Additional Training
After you successfully complete Mayo Clinic's General Surgery Residency
Program, you will be highly competitive for fellowship training
programs at Mayo Clinic and throughout the United States.
Mayo Clinic in Rochester offers fellowship programs that complement
the general surgery residency programs.
These fellowships offer in-depth, daily, one-on-one training with
a consultant and the opportunity to increase your surgical, supervisory
and administrative skills. During your residency, you can talk with
your faculty adviser about these opportunities.
Admissions
Qualifications
Appointments for Mayo Clinic's General Surgery Residency
are made through the National Residency
Matching Program (NRMP).
Application Process
Positions
Mayo Clinic in Rochester offers 10 general surgery positions at
the PGY-1 level.
Appy
To apply to the General Surgery Residency, you must submit an electronic
application via the Electronic
Residency Application Service (ERAS) through your medical school
dean's office.
To use this application process, you need the following information:
- Official college, graduate school and medical
school transcripts
- Official test transcripts for all applicable
examinations (USMLE*, LMCC, COMLEX, NBOME, FMGEMS, FLEX or NBME)
- A dean's letter and two other letters of recommendation
- A curriculum vitae
- A personal statement
- A valid ECFMG certificate (if you graduated from
medical school outside of the United States or Canada)
* USMLE scores must be provided with the application in order
to be accepted
Foreign medical graduates should contact the ECFMG for information
and instructions on how to apply using ERAS.
Applications for each academic year, which begins in July, should
be completed by November 1 of each year.
If you are considered for an appointment, you will be asked to
visit Mayo Clinic in Rochester for an interview with the program
director and selected faculty.
Interviews are conducted from November through January each year.
Program Contacts
If you like more information about the general surgery training
programs at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, please contact:
David Farley, M.D., F.A.C.S., General Surgery Residency Program
Director
Judith Cook, General Surgery Residency Education Coordinator
(507) 284-8240
For more information about Mayo Clinic residencies and fellowships,
please contact:
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education
200 First Street S.W.
Rochester, MN 55905
(507) 284-2220
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