General Surgery Residency Overview
The Department of Surgery is committed to providing the highest quality medical care to active duty soldiers, their families, retired personnel, their family members, and emergency civilian patients. Many physicians at BAMC are sub-specialized in surgical disciplines that uniquely enable them to provide the newest and most effective therapies. General surgery residents participate in and learn these innovations. Additionally, through the collaboration of investigators at BAMC with the National Institute of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and other institutions, the newest pharmaceuticals, devices and treatment are often available at BAMC before they are available to the general medical community.
The clinical curriculum consists of 36 months of general surgery plus subspecialty rotations in pediatric surgery, plastic surgery, urology, trauma, orthopedics, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery, transplant surgery, burn care, surgical critical care, anesthesia, and neurosurgery. PGY-2 through PGY-4 residents spend 10 months doing additional subspecialty training at the program's affiliated institutions - Darnell Army Medical Center, Fort Hood, TX (www.crdamc.amedd.army.mil/), Vascular Associates of San Antonio, the Transplant Center at San Antonio Community Hospital, Santa Rosa Children's Hospital and various local hospitals with a private practice group in the city. All outside rotations except for two General Surgery rotations at Fort Hood, Texas, are performed in the city of San Antonio. This maximizes exposure to the BAMC teaching conferences and minimizes travel away from home during residency.
The core academic curriculum is primarily conducted on the general surgery service. Academic conferences held each week include bedside teaching rounds, case presentations and discussions, formal weekly lectures, and ACS weekly quizzes. Weekly reading assignments are given as part of a structured curriculum.
Monday - ICU rounds, Morning report
Tuesday - ICU rounds, Morning report, Morbidity and Mortality, Preoperative Conference, Grand Rounds, Multidisciplinary Breast conference
Wednesday - ICU lecture, Morning report, GI Conference (once a month)
Thursday - ICU rounds, Morning report, Vascular Surgery conference (twice a month), Multidisciplinary Tumor Board (twice a month)
Friday - ICU rounds, Morning report
Saturday - Morning report
Additional Conferences over the course of the year include: Mock Oral Boards, Trauma Conference, Guest Lecturers, opportunities to travel to National Conferences, Research Meetings and Hospital wide Grand Rounds.