The General Surgery Residency creates a community and safe-space among residents to help them grow into the surgeons they work to become. Program faculty and residents meet for various events throughout the year, such as the Intern Welcome Picnic, Chief Residents Dinner, and a yearly retreat. Below are some of the General Surgery Residency Program events throughout the years.
In June of each year, the Department of Surgery hosts a “Picnic in the Park” to introduce and welcome the new interns and their families. All interns are excused from clinical duties and are invited to gather for food, drink, entertainment and the annual kickball game held between the residents and the faculty. The picnic is a unique opportunity for the newest members of the department and their families to get acquainted with the rest of the department.
2023 Welcome Picnic
2023 Chief Residents Dinner
General surgery residents at Barnes-Jewish Hospital are shown competing in the annual Top Gun laparoscopic skills competition at Washington University School of Medicine.
They then go on to compete on the national level at the annual meeting of SAGES – The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons – in Nashville, Tennessee.
Each year in the spring, the Department of Surgery holds a retreat where residents meet to discuss how to improve the residency. All residents are relieved of clinical duties while fellows or attendings cover the services.
Our annual resident retreat took place on March 15, 2023. We were fortunate to participate in a leadership workshop presented by Sharon Stein, MD, from University Hospital – Cleveland Medical Center. During the workshop, residents learned about their personality types using the PACE Palette model and learned strategies for improving communication across different personality “colors” in the healthcare setting. While the morning was dedicated to education and team building. our focus for the afternoon shifted to just plain fun at Pin Up Bowl in the Delmar Loop.
2017 Retreat: Indoor Car Racing
Surgery faculty members across all of the various specialties sponsor an “After Hours” education session. Each session is open to all residents at any level. This provides an opportunity for a small-group format focusing on specific topics in general surgery. The faculty member sponsoring the session decides on the topic and format, ranging from handling consults, understanding diagnostic workups, and treatment of modalities for various surgical issues to “mock oral boards” practice sessions where faculty members from one of the sections act as oral board examiners. All of the sessions are informal and held in the evenings at the faculty member’s home where dinner is provided. These sessions have allowed the residents to interact with faculty in small groups in a setting that provides additional didactic training outside of the 80-hour work week.
