General Surgery Residency

Rotations

Rotations are conducted in six-week blocks.

PGY 1

• Trauma (6 weeks)
• Emergency surgery ( 6 weeks)
• Minimally Invasive Surgery (6 weeks)
• John Peter Smith (24 weeks)
• Transplant (6 weeks)
• Hepatobiliary (4 weeks)
• Palliative care (2 weeks)
• Cook Children's (6 weeks)

PGY 2

• Trauma (6 weeks)
• Emergency General Surgery (6 weeks)
• John Peter Smith (12 weeks)
• John Peter Smith ICU (6 weeks)
• John Peter Smith precall operative (6 weeks)
• Colorectal surgery (6 weeks)
• Waxahachie ( 6 weeks)
• Vascular (6 weeks)

PGY 3

• Emergency General Surgery (6 weeks)
• Minimally Invasive Surgery (6 weeks)
• Waxahachie (6 weeks)
• Hepatobiliary/Surgical Oncology (6 weeks)
• John Peter Smith (12 weeks)
• Transplant (6 weeks)
• Surgical ICU (6 weeks)
• Vascular (6 weeks)

PGY 4

• Minimally Invasive Surgery (6 weeks)
• Hepatobillary/Surgical Oncology (6 weeks)
• Waxahachie (6 weeks)
• Trauma (6 weeks)
• John Petre Smith (6 weeks)
• Cooks Children's (6 weeks)
• Cardio Thoracic (6 weeks)
• Vascular (6 weeks)
• Colon Rectal Surgery (6 weeks)

PGY 5

• Hepatobiliary/Surgical Oncology (12 weeks)
• John Peter Smith (24 weeks)
• John Peter Smith precall operative(6 weeks)
• Minimally Invasive Surgery (6 weeks)
• Waxahachie (6 weeks)

CT 4/3

• 1st 6 months PGY4 at Baylor University Medical Center
• 2nd 6 months PGY5 at Baylor University Medical Center

PGY1 monthly surgical leadership seminars

• Seminar 1: Defining Leadership
• Seminar 2: Communication and Conflict
• Seminar 3: People Skills: Warmth, Resilience, Presence, Openness, Styles of Relating and Optimism
• Seminar 4: Changing Culture: Strategic Thinking, Coaching and Effective Teaching
• Seminar 5: Who We Are: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• Seminar 6: How to do It: The Thoughtful Leader
• Seminar 7: What’s My Potential?: The Spectrum of Leadership 

PGY2-PGY5 seminars

These seminars are designed to further develop insight using discussions based on selected readings and focused topics.

Surgical Palliative Care

Surgical Palliative Care is an important part of surgical training that has not routinely been a part of surgical training programs. We have instituted a Surgical Palliative Care/Ethics program. 

• Every fifth Friday is dedicated to Surgical Palliative care and Ethics discussions based on recent patients on one of the surgery services 
• Every PGY 2 will spend two weeks on the Palliative Care Service 
• As a 3rd year on Baylor University Medical Center 7R ICU you will be expected to participate in all palliative care consults/discussion with the palliative care service  

Hospital Leadership Committees

It is important to learn how the hospital works. Residents will have protected time to participate in hospital committees. You have the option to stay with a committee long term or change yearly to gain a broad exposure. A partial list of committees is below. If you have a particular interest we will help you find the appropriate committee. 

• Surgical Services Council
• Clinical Performance Committee
• Best Care Committee
• ICU Practice council
• Surgery Peer Review
• GME committee
• Operational Efficiency Committee
• OR Utilization Committee 
• Trauma Performance Improvement 

Simulation

We offer surgery residents access to a simulation environment that helps create a safer patient experience during real surgical procedures, improves physician performance, encourages critical thinking, prepares surgeons for unexpected events in the operating room and increases comfort when performing a procedure.

The Baylor Dallas Academic Surgery Simulation Program consists of three components: The Seeger Simulation Center, the Baylor Operative Skills Simulation (BOSS) lab and the Center for Evidence Based Simulation (CEBS).

In the Seeger Simulation Center, current simulation resources include:

• Fundamentals of laparoscopic simulator
• Endoscopic simulator
• Cardiovascular access/ultrasound
• Breast and thyroid mass exploration
• Laparoscopy trainer
• Endovascular simulator
• Ultrasound simulator
• High-tech mannequin

We also utilize high-fidelity simulators, including an arthroscopic simulator for increasing training in upper endoscopy, ERCP, biopsies, colonoscopies, etc.

The Baylor Operative Skills Simulation (BOSS) lab, which is a functional bioskills lab, allows residents to train on wet models or cadaveric specimens.

The Center for Evidence Based Simulation is the research and development arm of the program.

Conferences

There is a full range of protected educational conferences as well as rotation specific conferences. These conferences are designed to supplement your bedside clinical experiences further developing your medical knowledge.

Protected Time Conferences

• M&M Conference Fridays 7:00am-8:00am. Residents present selected cases.
• Chiefs Conference/Grand Rounds alternating Fridays 8:00am-9:00am.  Chiefs Conference is attending led with residents presenting cases selected from case logs. Grand Rounds is selected topics and visiting professor presentations (six named lecturers per year).
• Education Time Fridays 9:00am – 12:00pm. This protected time alternates between ABSITE system-based topics, mock oral preparation, journal club, specialty attending lectures following the SCORE curriculum, leadership seminars, simulation/cadaver lab, and community outreach through our Surgeon for a Day program.

Rotation Specific Conferences

Each service has its own education conferences to further enhance your medical knowledge. These are specific to the subspecialty and often are multidisciplinary (MDT), which provides exposure to experts (surgical and non-surgical) in the various aspects of patient care.

Conferences include:

• Liver Tumor Conference
• Pancreas Tumor Conference
• Aortic Conference
• Heart Transplant Selection Conference
• Liver Transplant Selection
• Kidney Transplant Selection
• Trauma Conference
• Surgical Critical Care Conference
• Vascular Case Conference
• Rectal Cancer MDT
• Colorectal Basic Science Conference
• GI Foregut MDT
• Colorectal M&M
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease Conference
• Colorectal Division and City-Wide Journal clubs
• Aorta Case Conference
• Esophageal Disease MDT

Research

Our residency program offers a diverse research environment. Residents are expected to perform research and publish papers during their residency and make presentations at local, regional and national meetings.

Clinical research is facilitated by faculty members who provide education, advice, support, review and structure. All attendings are interested in clinical research at all levels, from randomized controlled trials to retrospective review of large numbers of patients with complex issues.

The department provides statistician and manuscript preparation support. The Baylor Scott & White Research Institute support staff attached to the department facilitate IRB approval for all projects and Seeger funds for research management. Numerous databases exist within the department to facilitate clinical research.

Industry and cooperative cancer group trials are available throughout the department.

Quality Improvement

Quality Improvement, surgical outcomes, patient safety, population health and surgical leadership

The practice of surgery is continually changing. Data and metrics play an ever-increasing role in helping us continually improve the delivery of patient care. Data are how we are judged against our peers. Using our EHR, ACS NSQIP and QITI we are now able to evaluate our clinical performance and compare it to our peers in real time.

During your five years of residency you will be introduced to how these metrics are collected, how they are and will be shared locally and nationally and what it will mean for the future practice of surgery. You will finish residency with the skill set to use the current tools and have the foundation to adapt to future programs for quality improvement in your own practice.

As a resident at Baylor you will be involved in continuous quality improvement. A major project within the Department of Surgery is the 5 Phases of Care Teams, led by senior surgical residents under the supervision of our Surgical Safety and Quality Officer. You will also be assigned a hospital committee (see curriculum) to attend on a monthly basis to learn the inter workings of the hospital regarding patient care, financial, strategic, quality, efficiency and process/structure issues.

Our goal of involving you in what we call the intangibles of surgical training (the nonclinical) is to prepare you to be a leader in the field of surgery. The practice of surgery is rapidly changing and you will be the future of our profession. Not only will you need to learn to care for patients but you will need to learn how to navigate the changing world of medical delivery and influence how decisions are made. We feel this program along with the Leadership Seminars (see curriculum) will prepare you for local, regional or national involvement.