Program & Rotations

The Residency Program

The Department of Surgery believes strongly in the role of the surgeon in the continuous care of his or her patients. Throughout your residency in the Division of General Surgery, you will see patients both pre- and postoperatively on every service. The only exceptions will be when you leave the service for another rotation.

PGY-1

Your initial year is primarily dedicated to pre- and postoperative care, but you will perform many basic operations - for example, hernia repair, removal of pilonidal cysts, appendectomies, and simple mastectomies. You will gain broad experience from rotations through a variety of surgical specialties, including neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, plastic surgery, pediatric surgery, and transplantation. You will also participate in a laparoscopic training course including didactics, a simulator course, and an animal lab.

PGY-2

The second year is organized to give you experience in additional surgical specialties with an emphasis on critical care. You will rotate on the burn service, cardiothoracic service, trauma service and a private hospital general surgery service. Rotations outside of the department occur on anesthesiology, endoscopy, and critical care. Your first experiences in laparoscopic surgery will occur in this year.

Research

Two additional research years may be taken between the second and third years of your residency. This research experience accommodates two of the five categorical residents each year. Residents often present their laboratory and clinical research at a variety of national meetings. Click here, to see a current list of resident research topics and the conferences they presented at.

PGY-3

Your third year consists of general surgery rotations at UW Hospital and Clinics and the adjacent VA Hospital. You will be first assistant on many major operations. You will be primary surgeon on most operations of moderate difficulty - e.g., complex herniorraphy, mastectomy, cholecystectomy, partial colectomy, and thyroid lobectomy. On the transplant service at UW Hospital, you will perform many of the cadaver renal transplants, most of the vascular access procedures, and a majority of the general surgical operations on patients on the transplant service. You will also have busy rotations in vascular surgery.

PGY-4

The fourth year will be the first to provide you with senior responsibilities. You are the senior resident on the pediatric surgery and trauma surgery services. In addition you will rotate as the chief of the night float service during this year. Additional time is spent on dedicated Breast Surgery and Minimally Invasive rotations as well as at one of the private practice hospitals (St. Mary’s Hospital).

Chief Residency

Your chief residency consists of five rotations. Two of these are on the two general surgery services at UW Hospital, one on the general surgery service at the VA Hospital, one on the combined vascular service of UW and VA Hospitals, and one on the general surgery service at Meriter Hospital.

Rotation Schedule

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General Surgery University of Wisconsin Department of Surgery
First published: 07/15/02 Last updated: 05/09/08 webmaster@surgery.wisc.edu
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