Rotations

Residents rotate on clinical services for four- to eight-week blocks, depending on their clinical year. These blocks are coordinated among the various clinical years and align the education component of the training program.

On various services with subspeciality fellows, the roles of the fellows and chief residents are strictly separated by attendings. In this way, the presence of a fellow does not detract from the operative experience for the general surgery residents.

The call schedule operates on a combination of overnight in-house call and home call with rare services being on a night float system for emergencies/traumas. Overnight call is generally every fourth night, with interns cross-covering similar services; signout occurs in the evening for cross-covering and prior to morning rounds. Chief residents (PGY5) do not take in-house call and take one to two weekend calls per month and home call during the week. The call schedules are designed to comply with all aspects of the ACGME duty hours requirements. We have been, and continue to be, active participants in many of the national trials looking at duty hours and wellness, such as the FIRST trial and the SECOND trial

Resident Complement (2020-2021)

Resident distribution by rotation and PGY year is shown in the table below for 2022-2023. Class numbers as they appear here are variable because of differences in research time and flexibility in rotation schedule.

Rotation schedules are modified annually based on resident feedback.

Rotation*,**PGY1PGY2PGY3PGY4PGY5
Acute and Critical Care Surgery1224
Christian Hospital Northeast1
Colorectal Surgery111
Cardiothoracic ICU (CTICU)1
Endoscopy1
ER days/nights2
FIST Elective/ESP**22
HPB111
International Rotation1
Jeopardy (vacation coverage)1111
Minimally Invasive Surgery 11111
Pediatric Surgery111
SICU1
Surgical Oncology (Endocrine and Breast)111
Thoracic Surgery 11
Transplant11
VA121
Vascular Surgery122
West County11
*Not all residents do the exact same rotations or length of rotations
**FIST=flexibility in surgical training; & those doing CT ESP (early specialization program) spend 6 months of PGY4 and 6 months of PGY5 on CT