Greeting from the Director to the Applicant
The faculty of the Department of Surgery at Stanford deeply appreciates your interest in our Training Program. I hope that my enthusiasm for this great University is apparent. Recruitment in the Division of General Surgery during the last 6 years has succeeded in such a way that your training here will be truly world class. Stanford has a long history of educating outstanding clinical surgeons, beginning with Emile Holman; a Halsted-trained surgeon who was Professor and Chairman of the department from 1926 to 1955. Because we are part of a world-renowned research university, the Stanford General Surgery Training Program provides an opportunity to integrate clinical training in surgery with training in basic and/or applied research in preparation for a career in academic surgery. Because of misrepresentation of our University, there has been a tendency to think of the clinical training at Stanford as secondary. Nothing could be further from the truth; outstanding clinical surgeons are trained here and are routinely performed in the top five percent of the primary components in surgery and especially complex surgical oncology, biliary and pancreatic surgery, hepatic surgery and the like. We strive as well to provide an unparalleled opportunity for bright and highly motivated individuals to acquire the skills, knowledge, and resources to become the future leaders in surgery in this country. Additionally, our program is committed to achieving all of this in an environment which stresses diversity. As noted in the description of the Division of General Surgery, this mission can be achieved by creating an environment in which an outstanding surgical faculty has the opportunity to work in concert with highly motivated women and men who share our vision. This relationship represents the best features of mentoring and assures the type of educational process necessary to achieve the lofty goals of both the mentor and the trainee.
The Surgery Training Program is divided into two parts. The first part, the Core General Surgery Residency, is a one or two year program providing a core body of knowledge, not only for the General Surgery residents, but also for those going on to train in surgical sub-specialties such as orthopedics, neurosurgery, ENT and plastic surgery and related specialties such as anesthesia or interventional radiology. The program is driven by a core curriculum, which determines not only the subject matter of the core course, but also, the clinical rotations. It provides a broad based and well-balanced foundation in surgery.
The second part, the Senior General Surgery Residency, is a three year program of intense, in-depth experience in General Surgery, including Trauma/Surgical Critical Care, Surgical Oncology, Endocrine Surgery, Advanced Minimally Invasive Surgery, including Bariatric Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Transplantation Surgery, Colorectal Surgery, and Pediatric Surgery. At the completion of the chief resident year, residents have performed more than 1,000 operations and are well qualified to join an academic faculty in Surgery, enter the practice of General Surgery, or enter a fellowship.
In addition, there is an opportunity for individuals to spend two or three years in a period of intense study which we have termed Professional Development usually after the second clinical year of training. Beginning in the first year of training, discussions occur between categorical trainees and their mentors designed to culminate in the choice of a laboratory for research training, which is based in the Surgical Innovations Program, or the Bio Design Program obtaining an advanced degree, including a PhD, MPH and MBA among others. This may occur anywhere at Stanford or elsewhere. The goal is to develop the skills in scientific investigation, beginning investigation, and development to assure success in the future.
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There are five hospitals incorporated into the Stanford Surgery Training Program, all of which are outstanding and are complimentary to each other: Stanford University Hospital , Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Palo Alto Veterans Administration Health Care System, Kaiser Permanente Medial Center and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center . These institutions provide our residents with a broad and well-balanced exposure to the various modes of practice encompassing all they may experience during their careers.
To achieve anything which others certify as "great" requires hard work, dedication, good teachers, a supportive environment, and a lot more. This cannot be misconstrued with work that has no educational value, or work hours so laborious that learning cannot occur. However, discipline is also an extremely important component to surgical training. Surgery is not a discipline that lends itself to “shift work”. If there is any lesson that we wish to teach each other in this regard, it is that the wellbeing of our patients come first and that our patients’ needs often take precedence over our own, even when it is inconvenient.
As many of you know, we’ve had a long-standing relationship with Hôspital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles, Haiti where I first went in the 1970's as a Yale Surgical Resident. We are currently working a new international program to include multiple sites in Haiti, including Paul Farmer’s Hospital in the Central Plains as well as hospitals in Guatemala, Vietnam, China, and the Philippines. This is a profound and fascinating experience for surgical residents. Thus we have begun to develop an elective to address not only clinical surgery, but an experience in the allocation of healthcare resources and the practice of medicine in a resource poor environment.
A number of new programs and designations which highlight surgical education have occurred at Stanford over the last three years. In 2006 I was honored to be named a Parker J. Palmer Courage to “Teach” Award recipient by the ACGME, the most prestigious teaching award given by that organization each year. More recently, Stanford received the American College of Surgeons accreditation as an education institute – the decision made by a comprehensive evaluation of our program by a team of representative of the ACS. Finally, under Dr. Krummel’s incredible leadership the Goodman Simulation Center was developed in 2006.
The Goodman Simulation Center at Stanford is located in the heart of Stanford Hospital. The Center was created with a focus and vision of simulation-based training as an integral part of both surgical training and patient safety. The GSC utilizes part-task trainers, mannequin team training and state of the art 3-D imaging for surgical planning. The Goodman Simulation Center is one of three Simulation Centers at Stanford and part of the consortium of the Center for Immersive and Simulation-based Learning (CISL) at Stanford University http://cisl.stanford.edu. This Center is operational thanks to the shared vision and significant resources made available by the donors), the School of Medicine, Stanford University Hospital, and the Department of Surgery.
The Goodman Simulation Center is a Level 1 American College of Surgeons (ACS) Accredited Educational Institute http://www.facs.org/education/accreditationprogram/list.html) as well as a Fundamentals of Laproscopic Surgery (FLS) approve test site http://www.flsprogram.org/testcenters.php
Each of the five hospitals has been incorporated to bring the program into compliance with the new RRC/ACGME requirements for the workweek and periods completely off-duty. This faculty is dedicated to teaching and research and the highest quality of patient care. On behalf of the entire faculty we appreciate your interest in Stanford. I am pleased to inform you that at our last site visit in February of 2003, we received a perfect review with no citations and a commendation for the quality of the educational program. We look forward to meeting you in the not too distant future.
