Residency Training Program

The academic charge of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota is to provide a superb environment to facilitate the training of individuals at all levels-medical student, resident, and fellow-in the discipline of clinical surgery and surgical sciences.

- Mission Statement, Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota

Our fully accredited, world-renowned residency program in general surgery provides rigorous training both in the clinical setting and in the research laboratory. Our goal is to help prepare you for a skillful and intellectually satisfying practice, especially in academic surgery. The Department of Surgery residency program is totally integrated with our core hospitals: University of Minnesota Medical Center—Division of Fairview, the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, and Regions Hospital. In addition, rotations are offered at Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater and North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale.

Designed to qualify you as a superb practitioner of general surgery, our program takes seven or eight years to complete - depending on your clinical and research goals. Experience is offered in numerous surgical specialties and basic sciences as well as in general surgery. Individual mentoring is provided, and our Surgical Education Council supervises all aspects of the progress of residents. Regularly held conferences include general surgery teaching rounds, site-specific grand rounds, chief's rounds, resident conferences, and complications, transplant, cardiovascular and thoracic, vascular surgery, surgical intensive care unit (SICU), and surgical infectious disease conferences.

The on-call schedule for house staff varies from service to service. On average, residents spend every fourth night on call.

Your initial selection as a categorical resident (through the national match) assumes a commitment on our part to help ensure success in your training. Continuing in our program is contingent on your performance on the clinical services as well as on your In-Training Examination.

In addition, we sometimes admit preliminary residents (outside the national match), but generally cannot guarantee the extent of training in such cases. Currently, six categorical PGY-1 residents are selected each year to enter our program; a significant number (about 30%) are members of Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), and about 20% are women.

During the first year of training (PGY-1), your experience will encompass the entire gamut of surgery, including rotations on general surgery services, the cardiovascular service, and the transplantation service.

Additional 1-month rotations include pediatric surgery, surgical intensive care, trauma, the burn unit, and vascular surgery. All PGY-1 residents are exposed to the most important aspects of general surgery and major specialty areas.

The next two years (PGY-2 and PGY-3) are spent on general surgery services, and may also include 2-month rotations on the cardiovascular service, the transplantation service, pediatric surgery, and surgical intensive care. Rotation schedules are selected to ensure increasing case complexity, patient care responsibility, and operative experience.

The next two (sometimes three or four) years are devoted to work in an experimental research laboratory. During your laboratory years, you will concentrate on qualifying for your advanced degree - a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) or other graduate degree in surgery, any of the basic sciences, or related disciplines. You can individualize your program to meet your own specific intellectual needs.

You will be closely associated with a faculty member, who offers advice and guidance on your chosen laboratory project and helps you carry out independent research and writing. (Note: Since the laboratory years vary in length, and do not include clinical training, they are not included in the PGY numerical progression).

After you complete your laboratory experience, you will progress to your senior year of training (PGY-4), with increasing responsibility for decision making. You will have at least 8 months of supervised, intensive operative experience on general surgery services at our core and affiliated hospitals; the rest of your senior resident year will consist of a 4-month rotation on pediatric surgery and the burn unit.

During you final year of training (PGY-5), you will become a chief resident. You will then be responsible for the conduct of one of our general surgery services (at University of Minnesota Medical Center, the VA, or Regions) for 4 months each.

During these final two years, you will have an opportunity to perform about 800 major operations. Our residents are capable of dealing with both routine and complex cases and all aspects of pre-,intra-, and postoperative care. Extensive laparoscopic and endoscopic experience is entailed as well. A total of six chief residents graduate each year.

After you complete your residency training, you may also consider one of the highly competitive fellowships offered by the Department of Surgery in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, colon and rectal surgery, trauma, plastic and reconstructive surgery, surgical critical care, and transplantation. Overall, 77% of our residents go on to enter fellowship training; 78% remain directly or indirectly affiliated with an academic medical center.