Surgical Residency – Rotations

The general surgical experience is augmented by comprehensive surgical ICU’s, a level 1 adult and level 2 pediatric trauma center, and an active kidney and pancreas transplantation service. All services have designated faculty coverage 24/7 along with in-house trauma attending presence and an acute care surgical service model for adult undesignated emergency room and in hospital consults. With 40 distinct graduate medical education training programs covering the full spectrum of care, complex care can be provided in almost every sub-specialty.

Residents rotate through almost all services twice to permit a junior resident and senior resident exposure. Progression through succeeding stages of responsibility for patient care culminate in complete management of patient care at the senior/chief level.

Following the third clinical year, a dedicated research year is utilized to advance individualized pursuits. When performed at our home institution, full salary and benefits are provided.

Night call is on a 24 hr basis on all rotations. At no time are chief residents scheduled on service with a non-faculty fellow. After resident input, we eliminated night float rotations.

Rural surgery rotations are a long-standing, nationally recognized component of our program and tied to the mission statements of both our teaching hospital and university. Currently we have 2 complementary rotations for our senior residents. One is at a very small community hospital in Ahoskie, NC where there is one surgeon who has had a long standing presence and has a particular interest in mentoring residents interested in a career as a rural surgeon. The other is also a community hospital but with a small team of surgeons who work in congruently to provide for the needs of their community. This outreach effort builds collegial relationships with the greater healthcare community, exposes residents to underserved populations, highlights the resources and constraints of rural healthcare, and provides a “bread & butter” general surgical experience. Residents are neither required nor encouraged to re-locate for this rotation, and it has proven so popular that many ask for a second rotation there! Many graduated of our program elected to pursue practice in a rural surgical practice based on their compelling experiences in this rotation. We continue to use this and other rotations to explore population health and systems of care to improve surgical accessibility to eastern North Carolina.