Surgical Clerkship

Surgical Specialty Exposures

Off Campus

• Cabrini

  On the first day, students will meet with their preceptor for orientation regarding their surgical rotation. Students will have a scrubbing and suturing session. The preceptor will assign each student to a PGY-2 as his/her tutor for daily ward rounds and patients' care. Students will have the opportunity to be in the operating room daily from 8 am to 12 pm. Students will have the opportunity to participate in any general surgical cases by selecting their cases the previous day. They will participate in daily teamwork rounds. Students will attend teaching attending rounds, surgical grand rounds, morbidity-mortality conferences and Director's rounds. Students will have 1-2 hour seminar sessions three times a week with the Director of the surgical clerkship and 1-2 hour formal lectures with a Teaching Attending once a week. Twice a week, students will be assigned to the surgical intensive care unit from 2-5 pm. Students will be on-call and assigned to a PGY-1 once every four nights. Cabrini Medical Center ill provide students with housing, free lunch and dinner.

• Englewood

  Students rotating on the surgical service at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood , NJ , have the unique opportunity to explore surgery and it's specialties in a very intimate environment and one that is focused on the student. Although the rotation is short, the “smallness” of the rotation permits an intensity that might not otherwise be possible in other institutions. Students are involved with the initial evaluations of patients, the decision making process of whether there is a surgical indication (and most important where there is not), the operative experience and postoperative care and management. Students accomplish this on the wards, in clinics, and in a private office setting. There is often a one-on-one type of relationship between the student and faculty member. Students also participate in surgical conferences and learn to actually organize material for presentation and do so at the conferences. There is also a one hour session for the students with the Chief of the Department that provides an opportunity for discussion of most any topic that interest the students or questions that may pose particular problems. The presentations are relevant to surgery and often provide information that might not otherwise be discoverable in textbooks. There is an on-call assignment that averages 1-2 times per week. This is a real clinical experience and provides materials and information that will not be forgotten.

• Jersey City Medical Center

  The Chief of Surgery has indicated that this four-week elective descried below will be tailored to meet the needs of the two-week exposure.

  The student will become integrally involved in managing SICU patients. Daily bedside rounds will be made with the attending staff. During these rounds the student will be responsible for presentation of at least one patient per day. This verbal presentation and the required notion in the chart will be based on a systems review, with daily planning and decision-making, combined within this structure. The student will be expected to suggest clinical management decisions with approval of the supervising attending.

  The student will be assigned to surgical ICU. Didactic teaching will center around daily patient discussion with varied topics; a monthly Journal Club, covering both trauma and surgical issues; weekly trauma rounds, as well as monthly surgical Morbidity and Mortality and monthly Trauma Morbidity and Mortality. The student will also be responsible for interacting with the consultants and the primary surgical attending, in addition to assisting the 3 rd year rotating student. Mechanical skills may be included: e.g. central line and arterial line insertion. Student will be evaluated by the course director.

• Maimonides Medical Center

  A unique two-week rotation where the student will be exposed to a wide variety of general surgical disease processes---GI, biliary, breast and oncology. To enhance the learning process, each student will be assigned a mentor. Emphasis will be placed on maximizing a hands-on clinical experience. The student will be involved in the initial evaluation, surgical decision making process and postoperative care of the patient. Students will work with the senior resident, join daily work rounds, scrub on interesting cases and be involved in the weekly surgical conference, team rounds and biweekly Journal Club. There will be didactic teaching sessions, especially designed for the students conducted twice a week. Once a week, students will be on call with the senior surgical resident, to evaluate patients who present to the Emergency Room.

• Elmhurst Hospital Center

  Surgical Intensive Care Unit