Curriculum

Didactic Sessions

Residents are excused from clinical responsibilities on Thursday mornings for didactic sessions, which include lectures to cover areas of basic and clinical science of vascular surgery presented by residents with faculty moderators.  In addition to didactic conference, there are weekly Grand Rounds, monthly Morbidity & Mortality conference and Journal Club to review seminal publications in the surgical literature. 

Surgical skills lab teaches residents suturing, knot tying, and other basic skills at the beginning of the first year, and extends in complexity of skills taught to residents in all years of the training program.  As residents gain more experience, sessions involve more complex case-based skills. 

Clinical Rotations

Vascular residents gain expertise in the preoperative, operative, and postoperative care of patients with vascular surgical diseases under the guidance of expert faculty.

Surgical internship consist of 4 week rotations geared towards acquiring broad basic skills in the general surgical specialties, vascular, trauma, plastic, surgical oncology, and intensive care.  Following internship, residents are integrated at the PGY-2 level into progressively independent leadership responsibilities, commensurate with increasing levels of clinical experience.  This includes 4-8 week rotations in vascular medicine, ultrasound, trauma, intensive care, and a research block.

The PGY-3 year offers 4-8 week rotations including cardiac surgery, vascular, transplant and culminates with 6 months spent in the Finger Lakes and Highland Hospital.  The PGY-4 year allow residents to focus on major areas of vascular surgery by spending 6 months at F.F. Thompson and Geneva General Hospital and 6 months at Highland Hospital.  The varied training environments enable our residents to work with faculty in an apprenticeship training model of comprehensive vascular care, allowing them to care for diverse communities of patients. This mixed training model provides a truly rewarding experience. 

PGY-5 year is devoted to operating independently and maturation of clinical decision making, as well as developing leadership skills by leading teams of surgical residents.  The Chief resident is responsible for running her/his own service at Strong Memorial Hospital (SMH).

Rotation Schedule

Department	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
Burn	X
Cath Lab 1	X
Cath Lab 2		X
ENT	X
Finger Lakes Vascular Surgery			X	X	X
Float A	X
Highland Hospital General Surgery	X
Highland Hospital Vascular Surgery			X	X	X
Interventional Radiology		X
Plastic Surgery	X
Research		X
Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU)	X	X
Strong Memorial Hospital Vascular Surgery	X	X		X	X
Trauma	X	X
Transplant	X	X
Ultrasound		X