Rotations

PGY-1

University of Minnesota Medical Center: 24 weeks
Regions Hospital: 16 weeks
Veterans Administration Medical Center: 8 weeks
North Memorial Medical Center: 4 weeks

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PGY-1 ORIENTATION

The UMN General Surgery orientation begins the week of June 16th, 2025. The purpose of our week-long orientation program is to:

  • Truly welcome you to our program and provide you with opportunities to know both us and your peers.
  • Orient you to the Department’s vision, mission and values, and program policies.
  • Ensure your success during your first few weeks on the job with focused educational series including:
    • Life of a Surgery Resident
    • Mocking Paging
    • Navigating the Call system
    • Lab Mentorship Program introduction
    • Critical Response Skills
    • Antibiotic Stewardship, electrolyte and hyperglycemia management
    • Pre-op work-up and orders
    • Instrument recognition and sharps handling

During this week, you will hear from a variety of faculty and residents, attend educational workshops, shadow your team to understand the rounding and sign-out workflow, practice critical response and team communication skills, and become familiar with the junior core curriculum. You will also participate in a brief session in our simulation skills lab to assess your comfort level with fundamental open technical skills such as knot tying and suturing. This is designed to help you gain insight into your current skill set and identify areas for focused practice as you begin residency. Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity to learn about your administrative responsibilities including EPAs, SIMPL reports, and case logging required for graduation. 

Exact schedule will be communicated by email with onboarding materials. 

Welcome! We look forward to having you.

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MEDICAL CENTER

Acute Care Surgery-Night

While on night float, you will be the first call for problems with patients on the floor (not in the ICU) in addition to handling direct admissions from other hospitals and clinics that staff have already accepted. Your shift will be approximately 11 hours/night, six days a week (Sunday - Friday nights). While the nights can get very busy, there is always a junior resident and a critical care staff physician in the hospital should you need assistance. You will be responsible for anywhere from 60-90 surgical patients depending on time of the year. You will be covering the following surgical services: General, Surgical Oncology, Thoracic, Colorectal, Transplant (Kidney, Liver, Pancreas, and Donor), CVTS (Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgery), Minimally Invasive/Bariatric, and Vascular. While operative opportunities are minimal on this rotation, this is a valuable rotation for learning how to "run the show," assess post-operative patients, hone your instincts, and manage time. Sleep is not always possible, but there are usually a couple hours each night that can be used to study, sleep, or relax.

Service Complement: one PGY-2, one PGY-1
Faculty: Drs. Beilman, Brunsvold, Bulander, Chipman, Costantini, Harmon, Kendrick, Lew, Martin, McCormick-Deaton, McEachron, Rickard, and Tignanelli 

Emergency General Surgery (EGS)

The General Surgery service at the University provides experience in general surgery and pancreatic auto islet cell transplantation. This is the busiest service of intern year with the average patient census between 15-35 patients. It provides a sound understanding of the basics of pre- and post-operative care for complex general surgery patients found at an academic institution. You will also have the opportunity to be in the operating room and can obtain a very broad exposure to general surgery. You may participate in approximately 3-5 intern level cases per week. The primary focus of the cases will include bread-and-butter general surgery cases ranging from laparoscopic cholecystectomies to port placements to emergent exploratory laparotomies. 

Service Complement: one PGY-5, one PGY-2, two PGY-1s, one APP
Faculty: Drs. Beilman, Brunsvold, Bulander, Chipman, Costantini, Harmon, Kendrick, Lew, Martin, McCormick-Deaton, McEachron, Rickard, and Tignanelli

Colorectal Surgery

The Colorectal Surgery service provides broad exposure to major abdominal and anorectal cases. Clinic provides an excellent opportunity to be taught directly by the faculty and learn the basics of anoscopy, proctoscopy, and sigmoidoscopy. As the only resident (usually) on service, you go to the O.R. often, have a great degree of autonomy in patient management and work very closely with colorectal faculty and PA. The colorectal fellows are excellent teachers and will share level-appropriate portions of cases with you. You will also have the opportunity to scrub one-on-one with faculty several times during the month on major abdominal cases. A weekly conference with the surgical oncology service is another highlight. The average patient census is 10-20, and you will participate in at least 5 cases per week.

Service Complement: one Fellow, one PGY-1, one floor APP; occasionally one PGY-3 on elective
Faculty: Drs. Arsoniadis, Gaertner, Goffredo, Jahansouz, Melton-Meaux, Nalluri-Butz, and Thorsen

Thoracic Surgery

On this service, you will gain broad exposure to thoracic and foregut surgery. Expect plenty of pulmonary resections as well as foregut and endoscopic procedures. The faculty also do a number of novel operations including minimally invasive esophagectomies, transverse colon transpositions and lynx procedures. The majority of your time will be spent taking care of the floor patients, but there are many opportunities to get involved in the OR for thoracoscopic and laparoscopic cases. Clinic is an educational experience where you will learn how to treat and optimize patients with benign and malignant thoracic disease. There is also an excellent interdisciplinary thoracic oncology conference each week where you learn about all of the how to properly work up these complex patients for individually directed medical and/or surgical therapy. After this rotation you will be comfortable with chest tube management, reading thoracic imaging and managing post-operative problems of more complicated patients. You will receive a great deal of exposure to bronchoscopy, endoscopy, and endoscopic ultrasound. The average patient census is 10-20 patients and you will participate in at least 5 cases per week.

Service Complement: One fellow, one PGY-3, one PGY-1, two APPs
Faculty: Drs. Andrade, Bhargava, Diaz Gutierrez, and Rao

Transplant Surgery

The University of Minnesota performs many solid organ transplants and is the home of many breakthroughs in transplantation. Transplant is separated into four services: Liver, Kidney, Pancreas and Donor. Heart and lung transplants are managed by the cardiovascular surgery service (a PGY-3 rotation). You are responsible mainly for the kidney transplant recipients, but will have the opportunity to operate with the other services as well.

These services have a high turnover and you will become comfortable with monitoring immunosuppression and recovery. While on this service, you will also get exposure to previous transplant patients who return with complications and/or infections and learn about the multidisciplinary approach necessary to manage these patients post-operatively. One of the most unique aspects of the rotation is having the opportunity to travel with the donor transplant team either across town or fly across the country for procurements. The average patient census on the renal transplant team is 5-10 patients and you will get the opportunity to be in the OR frequently participating in 5 cases per week depending on how busy the service ends up being. This is an excellent opportunity to increase your operating experience in large cases early in residency.

Service Complement: Three fellows (Kidney, and Liver, and Pancreas/Donor), one PGY-1, three floor APPs; occasionally one PGY-3 on elective
Faculty: Drs. Adams, Chinnakotla, Finger, Humphreville, Kandaswamy, and Pruett

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION MEDICAL CENTER

General Surgery & Colorectal

The general surgery service offers an excellent operative experience for interns with a unique patient population. You will get to work one on one with staff in the operating room and the staff are all very willing to teach. VA grand rounds are held weekly and PGY-1’s are expected to give a presentation on the topic of their choice once per rotation. The average census is 5-10 patients, and you will participate in about 5 cases per week. This rotation also offers Minors clinic on Monday and Fridays, which is a “lump and bump” clinic where interns and students perform simple procedures in the clinic under staff supervision.

This rotation offers an excellent mix of clinic, OR, and Simulation time. You operate 1.5 days a week and practice colonoscopies and EGD's one day a week. Dr. Lee is a great teacher who lets you primarily manage patients. There is a different fellow on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (no fellow on Thursday or Friday), which allows the intern to be the continuity of care and truly run the small service. Interns practice with various simulators three afternoons a week. The average census is 1-5 patients and you will participate in 3-5 cases per week plus colonoscopies/EGD’s on Fridays.

Service Complement: one fellow (CRS only), one PGY-4 (Hennepin), one PGY-2 (UMN), PGY-2 (Hennepin), one PGY-1 (UMN), one Floor/administrative APP
GS Faculty: Drs. Johnston, LaRocca, Suhr, Waisbren, and Ikramuddin
CRS Faculty: Drs. Arsoniadis, Lee

Vascular Surgery

This is a great rotation for early exposure in vascular surgery and provides foundational exposure to the diagnosis, management, and surgical treatment of patients with vascular disease. During this rotation, residents will be exposed to both open and endovascular techniques.


Service complement: one fellow, one PGY-1, one APP
Faculty: Drs. Green, Majumder, and Orecchia 

REGIONS HOSPITAL

Acute Care Surgery-Night

While on night float, you will be the first call for problems with patients on the floor (not in the ICU) in addition to handling direct admissions from other hospitals and clinics that staff have already accepted. Your shift will be approximately 11 hours/night, six days a week (Sunday - Friday nights). The nights can get busy, but there is always a junior resident and a critical care staff physician in house, should you need assistance. You will be responsible for anywhere from 40-60 surgical patients depending on the time of the year. You will be covering the following surgical services: Acute Care, Trauma, Vascular, and General/Colorectal. While operative opportunities are minimal on this rotation, this is a valuable rotation for learning how to "run the show," assess post-operative patients, hone your instincts, and manage time. Sleep is more possible at Regions and there are usually a couple hours each night that can be used to study or relax. This rotation also involves covering large trauma activations that come into the emergency room known as “Trauma Team Activations.”

Service Complement: one PGY-3, one PGY-1
Faculty: Drs. Berndt, Blee, Blondeau, Iyegha, Kenny, Koeck, Lyle, Sheka, Myer, Robbins, Soldner, Storrs, Tomlinson, Palmer 

General Surgery/Colorectal

This service gives the PGY-1 a great deal of opportunity to learn the basics of hernia repair, breast surgery, outpatient surgery, hepatobiliary, colorectal, and GI surgery. The patients on the floor are “bread and butter” general surgery patients with less complex past medical problems. The conferences at Regions are trauma- heavy but also include general topics. The average patient census is 10-15 and you will participate in about 5-10 cases per week.

Service Complement: one PGY-5 (GS), one PGY-4 (CRS), and one PGY-1
Faculty: Drs. Wolpert, Fox, Haas, Buckley, Holden, Brasseur, and Armstrong

Trauma Surgery

Depending on the time of year, this can be a quite busy service with excellent exposure to diagnosing and managing patients following simple and complex traumas. You will be involved in coordinating all aspects of care for these patients. The service is busiest during the summer, but the winter provides a steady flow of snowmobilers who have the added complication of hypothermia. There is a high turnover of patients. The PGY- 1 will participate in trauma team activations and will perform procedures when needed such as chest tubes, lines, and laceration repairs. The trauma experience at Regions is excellent and well-structured, and you should leave with a solid understanding of the principles of managing any injured patient including head bleeds, fractures, penetrating trauma and blunt trauma. The majority of trauma is blunt with about 10% of the volume being penetrating trauma. The average census is 15-35 patients and operative experience will depend on the time of year and number of residents.

Service Complement: one PGY-2; one to two PGY-1s, one to three Trauma APPs

Faculty: Drs. Berndt, Blee, Blondeau, Iyegha, Kenny, Koeck, Lyle, Sheka, Myer, Robbins, Soldner, Storrs, Tomlinson, and Palmer
 

Burn

One of the more unique rotations of the year involving an entire interdisciplinary team specialized for ICU and general burn care. This individual unit has state-of-the-art technology and facilities, great nursing and supportive staff. The service is very busy during the summer months, but you will also see a variety of frostbite and burn patients throughout the winter. Both ICU and ward beds are present on the burn unit. You are given a great deal of autonomy, but there are always in-house juniors and staff to assist in emergencies as well as an “open phone” policy to speak with staff. Lectures and discussions occur multiple times per week depending on patient census. One of your most important resources for day-to-day learning will be the burn nurses. They have seen these burns and have skillfully taught PGY-1s to manage them. The average census is 5-15 patients and you will participate in 3-5 cases per week depending on the census. You will learn the basics of skin grafting and burn excision. Plan to do a lot of sewing, stapling and sweating.

Service Complement: one fellow, one PGY-3, one PGY-1, one to two APPs
Faculty: Drs. Bennett, Miotke, Lacey, and Rogers

NORTH MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER

Emergency General Surgery

This service will expose you to the private hospital setting in addition to trauma and SICU cares. It is meant to be an operative experience. You can assist in general surgery, thoracic, cardiovascular, vascular, colorectal, and/or plastic surgery cases. Each day you choose which surgeon you would like to operate with and then follow the patients you operate on while they are in-patients. It is a good rotation with mostly operative time. There are also opportunities to learn about SICU topics and practice ICU procedures. You will participate in 10- 15 cases per week, depending on the types of operations you gravitate toward.

Service Complement: one PGY-2, one PGY-1, two APPs
Faculty: Drs. Davis, Bowen, Chimukangara, Farhat, Gipson, Hawes, Hromatka, Jenabzadeh, Kemp, Kern, Kissner, Krueger, Lippert, Marcos, Richard, Rudolph, Stennes, Tay, West, Worden, Yelenich-Huss 


PGY-2

University of Minnesota Medical Center: 20-25 weeks
Regions Hospital: 12-15 weeks
Veterans Administration Medical Center: 4-5 weeks
North Memorial Hospital: 4-5 weeks
St. Mary’s Essentia (Duluth): 4-5 weeks

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MEDICAL CENTER

Acute Care Surgery-Night

As the night float PGY-2 at UMMC, you will be responsible for overnight admissions to and management of the Surgical ICU (SICU) service, new overnight ED and inpatient consults, providing supervision/ assistance to the overnight PGY-1 resident, and participating in emergency overnight general surgery cases.  In conjunction with the in-house faculty intensivist, you will gain significant experience with acute resuscitation of complex postop patients and with central and arterial line placement.  You are expected to see and staff all new consults and SICU admissions in a timely manner, along with providing timely updates to the on-call Chief Resident, faculty, and/ or fellow overnight about major clinical events or changes in patient status.  The night float resident works Monday through Thursday nights and a 24-hour call each Sunday and is expected to attend Tuesday morning grand rounds/ conference and morning general surgery teaching conferences.

Service Complement: one PGY-2, one PGY-1 
Faculty: Drs. Beilman, Brunsvold, Bulander, Chipman, Costantini, Harmon, Kendrick, Lew, Martin, McCormick-Deaton, McEachron, Rickard, and Tignanelli 

Emergency General Surgery (EGS)

The General Surgery service at the University provides experience in general surgery and pancreatic auto islet cell transplantation. This is a busy service with an average patient census between 15-35 patients. It provides a sound understanding of the basics of pre­and post-operative care for complex general surgery patients found at an academic institution. You will also have the opportunity to be in the operating room and can obtain a very broad exposure to general surgery. You may participate in approximately 5-10 cases per week. The primary focus of the cases will include bread-and-butter general surgery cases ranging from laparoscopic cholecystectomies to port placements to emerger exploratory laparotomies. You will also be responsible for completing all the general surgery consultations from the ED and the inpatient floors.

Service Complement: one PGY-5, one PGY-2, two PGY-1s, one APP
Faculty: Drs. Beilman, Brunsvold, Bulander, Chipman, Costantini, Harmon, Kendrick, Lew, Martin, McCormick-Deaton, McEachron, Rickard, and Tignanelli 

Surgical Intensive Care Unit

As the second-year resident on this rotation, you are responsible for running the service by managing the team and overseeing the care of all of the patients in the Unit. You will round daily with the SICU staff and a multi-disciplinary team. During this rotation, you will enhance your critical care skills by placing lines and managing ventilator-dependent patients. You will care for patients on a variety of services: general surgery, transplant, hepatobiliary, thoracic, gynecology, orthopedics, trauma and urology. There is a weekly conference and you will be responsible for an M&M presentation at the end of the rotation.

Service Complement: one SICU fellow, one PGY-2, one PGY-1, one APP
Faculty: Drs. Brunsvold, Bulander, Chipman, Costantini, Kendrick, Lew, Martin, McCormick-Deaton, McEachron, Rickard, and Tignanelli 

Pediatric Surgery

The pediatric surgery service is a very busy service. You will be exposed to all the common surgical pathology such as gastroschisis, omphalocele, NEC, pectus excavatum, hernias, Hirschprung, etc. You are responsible for the management of the floor with the NP as well as the consults. You can expect to be a part of 5-10 cases per week. Call is split with the PGY-4 and is done as home call.

Service Complement: one PGY-4; two PGY-2; one floor NP
Faculty: Drs. Acton, Butler, Hess, Lassiter, Robbins, Saltzman, and Segura 

REGIONS HOSPITAL

Acute Care Surgery-Day

This is a busy service with a high rate of patient admissions and discharges. The second-year is responsible for the floor patients and working up new ER and inpatient consults. There is a chief and PA-C on the service to help with the workload. Consults that require operation will be operated on by the second year or chief as appropriate. There is autonomy in decision making for consults and you will be extremely busy. You will round daily with staff. There is no weeknight in-house call but you will take call on the weekend. There is trauma conference and M&M weekly.

Service Complement:  one PGY-5, one PGY-2, one PA-C
Faculty: Drs. Berndt, Blee, Blondeau, Iyegha, Kenny, Koeck, Lyle, Sheka, Myer, Robbins, Soldner, Storrs, Tomlinson, and Palmer

Trauma Surgery

Depending on the time of year, this can be a quite busy service with excellent exposure to diagnosing and managing patients following simple and complex traumas. As a junior resident, you will be responsible for running the service. The service is busiest during the summer, but the winter provides a steady flow of snowmobilers who have the added complication of hypothermia. There is a high turnover of patients. The trauma experience at Regions is excellent and well-structured, and you should leave with a solid understanding of the principles of managing any injured patient including head bleeds, fractures, penetrating trauma and blunt trauma. The majority of trauma is blunt with about 10% of the volume being penetrating trauma. The average census is 15-35 patients and operative experience will depend on the time of year and number of residents.

Service Complement: one PGY-2; one to two PGY-1s, one to three Trauma APPs
Faculty: Drs. Berndt, Blee, Blondeau, Iyegha, Kenny, Koeck, Lyle, Sheka, Myer, Robbins, Soldner, Storrs, Tomlinson, and Palmer

Vascular Surgery

This is a great rotation for early exposure in vascular surgery and provides foundational exposure to the diagnosis, management, and surgical treatment of patients with vascular disease. During this rotation, residents will be exposed to both open and endovascular techniques and gain case exposure to fistulas, bypasses, endarterectomies, aneurysm repairs, and other endovascular procedures. You will gain knowledge to properly interpret noninvasive vascular studies to guide treatment options. 

Service complement: one PGY-4, one PGY-2

Staff: Drs. Rosenthal, Barbato, and Nguyen

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION MEDICAL CENTER

General Surgery & Colorectal

As a second year on this service you will have more operative experience and less responsibility for floor patients. You will have the opportunity to assist with hernia repairs, cholecystectomies, resection for melanoma, and minors clinic. You will be responsible for general surgery consults from the floor and the ER daily. You are expected to manage the consults with the help of the Chief on the service.

Service Complement: one fellow (CRS only), one PGY-4 (Hennepin), one PGY-2 (UMN), PGY-2 (Hennepin), one PGY-1 (UMN), one Floor/administrative APP
GS Faculty: Drs. Johnston, LaRocca, Suhr, Waisbren, and Ikramuddin
CRS Faculty: Drs. Arsoniadis, Lee

NORTH MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER

Emergency General Surgery

This service will expose you to the private hospital setting in addition to trauma and SICU cares. It is meant to be an operative experience. You can assist in general surgery, thoracic, cardiovascular, vascular, colorectal, and/or plastic surgery cases. Each day you choose which surgeon you would like to operate with and then follow the patients you operate on while they are in-patients. It is a good rotation with mostly operative time. There are also opportunities to learn about SICU topics and practice ICU procedures. You will participate in 10- 15 cases per week, depending on the types of operations you gravitate toward.

Service Complement: one PGY-2, one PGY-1, two APPs
Faculty: Drs. Davis, Bowen, Chimukangara, Farhat, Gipson, Hawes, Hromatka, Jenabzadeh, Kemp, Kern, Kissner, Krueger, Lippert, Marcos, Richard, Rudolph, Stennes, Tay, West, Worden, and Yelenich-Huss 

ESSENTIA HEALTH - DULUTH

General Surgery

You will spend 5-6 weeks at our Duluth campus as part of the second year rotations. This is an incredible experience in outpatient general surgery. You get to operate almost every day and most residents will finish the rotation having done 60-100 cases. If you operate on a patient who stays in the hospital, it is expected that you follow the patient on a daily basis. The goal of this rotation is to experience surgery in a rural setting. There are weekly didactics onsite and the rotation continues to evolve as our program establishes the roles of the PGY-4 and PGY-5. At the current time, there is no weekend call, but you do cover overnight C-section call once a week.

Service Complement: Rural residents (one PGY-5 and one PGY-4), and one PGY-2 on elective
Faculty: Drs. Najarian, Monaghan, Flynn, Groeschl, Boller, Zaidi, Colling, Moran, Shoaps, Ottosen, Wilhelmson, Hanson, Hudrlik, and Scott


PGY-3

University of Minnesota Medical Center: 18-21 weeks
Regions Hospital: 12-14 weeks
Methodist Hospital: 6-7 weeks
North Memorial Hospital: 6-7 weeks

Elective: 6-7 weeks

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MEDICAL CENTER

Surgical Oncology

This service is highly educational and well-balanced with time split between patient care on the floor, operating, clinic, and teaching conferences. As the third-year, you are responsible for all of the floor work. You will do a large number of breast, melanoma, and thyroid cases and are expected to scrub/observe pancreas and liver cases. Clinic is three days/week, teaching conference is every Wednesday morning and there are specialty conferences (Breast and Liver) as well. Formal teaching rounds with all faculty occur weekly. The service also provides you with the M.D. Anderson Surgical Oncology Handbook.

Service complement: one PGY-5, one PGY-3, one floor APP.
Staff: Drs. Ankeny, Brauer, Evasovich, Hui, Jensen, and Tuttle

Thoracic Surgery

A fast-paced, high-volume service with opportunities for graduated independence in the operating room. The third-year is responsible for the care of the thoracic ICU patients, consults, and should oversee the management of the floor patients by the intern. Operative cases include thoracoscopic and open lobectomy, pneumonectomy, wedge resections, Nissen fundoplication, esophagectomy, and endoscopy with dilation/stenting. Clinic attendance is required as a lot of teaching happens in clinic. There are also weekly teaching conferences and didactic sessions. There are routinely daily rounds with an attending.

Service Complement: one Fellow, one PGY-3, one PGY-1, two APPs
Faculty: Drs. Andrade, Bhargava, Diaz Gutierrez, and Rao

Elective Rotation

This elective rotation offers PGY-3 residents the opportunity to tailor their surgical training and explore a subspecialty more in depth as a junior resident. Residents may choose between the following rotations: transplant, colorectal, vascular, plastics, global surgery, or palliative care.


Service Complement: dependent on rotation 

Cardiovascular Surgery (CVTS)

This rotation provides excellent exposure and training in caring for critically ill cardiac patients. The third-year is responsible for the surgical patients in the cardiac intensive care unit while nurse practitioners manage the care of post-op cardiac patients on the ward. You will round in the unit daily with the cardiothoracic fellow and may also round individually with both surgical faculty and intensivists. You will manage patients with VADs, BiVADs, heart transplants, post-op CAB and valve patients, and lung transplants. Dr. John conducts weekly teaching conferences. You will also improve your skills at line placement and ventilator management. There is opportunity to go to the operating room and you are expected to assist in opening and closing the chest with the Fellow.

Service complement: One fellow, one PGY-3
Staff: Drs. John, Shaffer, Mulvihill, Kelly, Huddleston Voller, Watt, Soule, Wong, and Shumway 

REGIONS HOSPITAL

Acute Care Surgery - Night

Depending on the time of year this can be an extremely busy rotation. A typical week includes a 24 hour shift on Sunday and then 6pm-7am, Monday–Thursday. You are post-call on Friday and then have Saturday off.  You are the most senior surgical resident in-house and are responsible for seeing all trauma and surgery consults and attending all Trauma Team Activations. You will often have the opportunity to see a patient in consultation and perform the surgery. Occasionally Chiefs are called in to help with more complex operations. The SICU is covered by an ER resident, but the PGY-3 is responsible for coverage of the Burn ICU and floor patients. This rotation allows you to operate autonomously and hone your triage skills. Staff are in-house and will see all consults and attend all cases. The Chief resident is in-house on weekends. You will attend M&M conference once a week at 6:30a Thursday before going home.

Service Complement: one PGY-3, one PGY-1
Faculty: Drs. Berndt, Blee, Blondeau, Iyegha, Kenny, Koeck, Lyle, Sheka, Myer, Robbins, Soldner, Storrs, Tomlinson, and Palmer 

Burn

The third-year functions as the senior resident on this rotation. It is your responsibility to run the service and assist the intern in the management of all burn patients. There is ample opportunity to get to the OR where you will learn techniques of skin excision and grafting. You will also cover ER consults for burns, frostbite, and complex wounds. Clinic occurs four times per week in the afternoon and a resident is expected to attend each day. There is a weekly teaching conference and you will be asked to present at weekly M&M. The faculty are hands-on and will round daily. There are also multiple informal teaching conferences.

Service Complement: one fellow, one PGY-3, one PGY-1, one to two APPs
Faculty: Drs. Bennett, Miotke, Lacey, and Rogers

METHODIST HOSPITAL

General Surgery

This rotation is at a private practice hospital where you will learn what it means to be a busy general surgeon. The operative volume is high and every day you can choose from “bread and butter” general, colorectal, vascular, or hepatobiliary cases. Call is one in four nights. You can expect to be up all night and in the operating room. All consults are initially staffed through the faculty so you can expect most consults to require an operation. You will follow your post-operative and consult patients until discharged. You should confer with faculty directly to discuss their care. Many patients are also followed by Hospitalists. There is a weekly teaching and M&M conference where residents are examined in an oral boards format.

Service complement: three PGY-4, one PGY-3
Staff: Drs. Bauman, Belzer, Chow, Colbert, David, Denes, Grubbs, Heaton, Luthra, Mendeloff, Ose, Ritter, Schueppert, Shabino, Vietzen, Watkins, and Willis

NORTH MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER

More information coming soon.


PGY-4

University of Minnesota Medical Center: 7-8 weeks
Regions Hospital: 14-16 weeks
Methodist Hospital: 21-24 weeks

North Memorial Hospital: 7-8 weeks

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MEDICAL CENTER

Pediatric Surgery
The fourth-year is responsible for running the pediatric service and will oversee the intern. The fourth-year typically rounds on the NICU patients and co-manages the floor patients with the intern. You will be exposed to a wide range of congenital abnormalities including malrotation and diaphragmatic hernias as well as pectus excavatum and Nissen fundoplication. Teaching rounds occur daily with staff. Clinic is a valuable learning opportunity and a chance to see just how fast children recover.

Service Complement: one PGY-4, two PGY-2, one floor NP
Faculty: Drs. Acton, Butler, Hess, Lassiter, Robbins, Saltzman, Hess, and Segura

REGIONS HOSPITAL

Vascular Surgery
This apprentice style rotation has long been a favorite among residents. Dr. Rosenthal does an excellent job of leading you through the work-up, operation, post-operative care, and health maintenance of each vascular patient. You have an opportunity for graduated independence in the operating room and will feel comfortable with vascular anatomy after this rotation. You can expect to perform fem-pop bypass, AV fistula, and AAA repairs. Each day you will round on patients and then discuss them with staff and spend the rest of your day in the operating room or clinic. There is an abundance of teaching on this rotation. You will take Chief trauma call during this rotation.

Service complement: one PGY-4, one PGY-2
Staff: Drs. Rosenthal, Barbato, and Nguyen

Colorectal Surgery
This rotation provides excellent exposure to colorectal surgery at a large referral center in Saint Paul, MN with care focused on a broad range of colon and rectal pathology including colorectal cancer, diverticular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and anorectal disorders. As a senior resident, this is an outstanding opportunity to refine operative skills in procedures like colectomies, low anterior resections, abdominoperineal resections, stoma formation, and anal surgeries (fistulotomy, hemorrhoidectomy, etc).  The fourth-year also participates in the Trauma Chief Resident call pool during this rotation.

Service complement: one PGY-4, one PGY-1 
Staff: Drs. Brasseur and Armstrong 

METHODIST HOSPITAL

General Surgery
The six months you spend at this private practice hospital will be busy and O.R. heavy. There is excellent opportunity for vascular, colon-rectal, hepatobiliary, and "bread and butter" general surgery cases. Call is one in four nights; most of the call is spent operating. This rotation is historically one of our best and provides outstanding exposure to the private practice environment.

Service complement: three PGY-4s, one PGY-3
Staff: Drs. Bauman, Belzer, Chow, Colbert, David, Denes, Grubbs, Heaton, Luthra, Mendeloff, Ose, Ritter, Schueppert, Shabino, Vietzen, Watkins, and Willis

NORTH MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER

More information coming soon.


PGY-5

University of Minnesota Medical Center: 28-31 weeks
Regions Hospital: 14-16 weeks
North Memorial Medical Center: 7-8 weeks

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MEDICAL CENTER

Surgical Oncology
As Chief Resident on this service, you will be in charge of managing all patients and overseeing the PGY-3. Expect to round in the morning with the PGY-3 and then call to update staff on their patients. Formal staff rounds occur weekly. You are expected to attend each staff's clinic. You will have excellent exposure to laparoscopic and open hepatobiliary cases and will perform several Whipples and liver resections. There are several teaching conferences including Wednesday mornings which are conducted in an oral boards format. You will be very busy on this service. Scrub attire is not appropriate for this service.

Service complement: one PGY-5, one PGY-3, one floor APP
Staff: Drs. Ankeny, Brauer, Evasovich, Hui, Jensen, and Tuttle 

Minimally Invasive Surgery/MIS
The Chief Resident on this service should expect to assist in several laparoscopic gastric bypasses as well as independently start all open gastric bypasses. Operative days are long and staff often run two rooms simultaneously. Great experience on a very high volume service in a popular field of general surgery.

Service complement: one PGY-5 
Staff: Drs. Ikramuddin, Leslie, and Wise 

Emergency General Surgery (EGS)
This service can be very busy with auto-islet transplants affording the Chief an excellent opportunity at operative autonomy. You will operate on patients with a variety of concerns including GI, hernia, biliary, complex wound, amputations, fistula creation, AAA ( open and endovascular), and long-leg bypass. You will round daily with the team and report to staff. You will also be responsible for staffing any general surgery consults from the ER or ward. Clinic occurs weekly. 

Service Complement: one PGY-5, one PGY-2, two PGY-1s, one APP 
Faculty: Drs. Beilman, Brunsvold, Bulander, Chipman, Costantini, Harmon, Kendrick, Lew, Martin, McCormick-Deaton, McEachron, Rickard, and Tignanelli 

UMMC Chief Clinic
This service is an opportunity for chief residents to prepare themselves for general practice by running their own clinic, seeing referrals, and scheduling/operating on these patients under supervision of a staff member. 

Service Complement: one PGY-5
Faculty: Drs. Beilman, Brunsvold, Bulander, Chipman, Costantini, Harmon, Kendrick, Lew, Martin, McCormick-Deaton, McEachron, Rickard, and Tignanelli

REGIONS HOSPITAL

REGIONS HOSPITAL

Acute Care Surgery-Day
The Chief on this service is responsible for overseeing the care of all surgical consults from the floor and emergency department. This service is busy with high volume turnover. Each day will be different than the day before but you can expect to round daily with staff. During the day you will run Trauma Team Activations. You will be responsible for a junior resident. Teaching conference and M&M occur weekly.

Service complement: one PGY-5, one PGY-2, one APP
Faculty: Drs. Berndt, Blee, Blondeau, Iyegha, Kenny, Koeck, Lyle, Sheka, Myer, Robbins, Soldner, Storrs, Tomlinson, and Palmer

General Surgery
This service is an opportunity to perform "bread and butter" general surgery cases. As the Chief Resident, you will round daily and update staff. You will also take trauma call.

Service complement: One PGY-5, one PGY-1, one APP 
Faculty: Drs. Wolpert, Fox, Haas, Buckley, and Holden

NORTH MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER

Elective General Surgery & Trauma Surgery
The North Memorial rotation during the PGY-3 to PGY-5 years offers residents a customizable experience with a diverse array of elective cases in general, breast, vascular, thoracic, and colorectal surgery. With the flexibility to tailor case selection and an emphasis on operative autonomy, residents can align their surgical exposure with individual interests and career goals while advancing their technical skills. As a Level 1 Trauma Center, North Memorial also provides invaluable experience in the comprehensive surgical management of traumatic injuries.

Service Complement: one PGY 3, one PGY 4, and one PGY 5
Faculty: 
GS/TACS: Drs. Davis, Bowen, Chimukangara, Farhat, Gipson, Hawes, Hromatka, Jenabzadeh, Kemp, Kern, Kissner, Krueger, Lippert, Marcos, Richard, Rudolph, Stennes, Tay, West, Worden, Yelenich-Huss
CRS: Dr. Barker, Felemovicius, Nugent, Panait
Thoracic: Dr. Solfelt

 

Locations

ummc

University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview (UMMC)

This 432-bed hospital, completed in 1986, overlooks the Mississippi River on the East Bank of the University of Minnesota's main Minneapolis campus. A major regional and national referral center, it draws more than 50% of its patients from outside the Twin Cities. Over 20,000 surgical procedures and 500 solid organ transplants are performed each year.

Minneapolis VA Medical Center

Minneapolis VA Medical Center (VAMC)

This 845-bed hospital, completed in 1988, occupies seven acres near Fort Snelling and the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. As the tertiary referral center for veterans in all of Minnesota, parts of the Dakotas, northern Iowa, and western Wisconsin, it provides all levels of medical, surgical, and short-term psychiatric care.

regions

Regions Hospital

Established in 1872, Regions Hospital is a leading, full-service, private hospital with a Level I Trauma Center. Providing outstanding medical care, with special programs in heart, cancer, behavioral health, burn, emergency and trauma, the hospital serves St. Paul and its surrounding communities.

methodist

Methodist Hospital

A 426-bed facility, Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital is recognized as an area leader in cancer care, cardiovascular services, maternity care and neurorehabilitation medicine. The hospital's 24-hour emergency center treats 46,000 patients a year.

nmmc

North Memorial Medical Center

Founded in 1954, North Memorial Medical Center is a Level I Trauma Center and the only major independent health care provider in the Twin Cities. With 518 beds, North Memorial has provided more than 50 years of service to communities in the northwest metropolitan and throughout Minnesota.