The first two years are organized by the core curriculum committee and are designed to provide a broad exposure to surgery in general and to its specialties.
Experience is provided in critical care and trauma.
The emphasis is on learning the fundamentals of preoperative and postoperative care of the surgical patient, and basic technical skills in operative surgery, as well as an exposure to the breadth of clinical surgical specialties. Core residents are required to attend a series of lectures in the principles of surgery. The core years are followed by the flexible PGY-3 year, either in a general surgical research year, epidemiology, community surgery, or selective senior level surgical rotations. Regular conferences include grand surgical rounds, morbidity and mortality conference, service rounds, oncology conferences, multidisciplinary conferences, and Journal Club. Senior years are spent in general surgery, vascular surgery, critical care-trauma and rural surgery.