The Veterans' Hospital provides a large portion of the resident's clinical and surgical experience, with more than 5,000 patients seen annually and 400 surgeries performed. Written evaluations of each resident are made by the faculty every four months to allow each resident to gauge his or her progress in the program. Each resident is required to complete an annual research project for presentation at the Residents and Alumni Day in June. Call First-year residents take call seven nights a month, which includes one weekend and four weekdays. Second-year residents take call three nights a month, either one weekend or three week days.
Call is taken from home.
A cellular phone is provided to the first call resident. Overall, call is quite manageable, though occasionally a weekend will be busy. Each resident is allowed 15 days of vacation time and 5 days of meeting time. Residents who present papers or posters at meetings are allowed up to three extra days. The department also pays expenses associated with research projects, including poster preparation, slides, literature searches and animals, etc.