Mission
Our mission is to provide the highest quality care to our patients while developing surgeons who demonstrate humility, integrity, and intellectual curiosity. We aim to train compassionate, clinically and technically competent surgeons in an environment of mutual respect and non-judgment where each individual can reach his, her, or their full potential.
Program aims
The program aims to train surgeons who:
- Achieve the highest level technical skills
- Advocate for the underserved
- Are dedicated to the compassionate care of patients and families
- Celebrate diversity
- Perform research aimed at improving health care delivery and patient outcomes
- Recognize the importance of caring for self as the first step to caring for others
- Treat all members of the health care team with respect
- Understand and practice best evidence-based medicine
Clinical overview
Our General Surgery Residency program offers a 5-year ACGME accredited surgery program at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, located in rural Lebanon, New Hampshire.
We also provide experiences at the following hospitals:
- Concord Hospital in Concord, New Hampshire: Providing a view of a hospital-based surgical practice in a busy level 2 trauma center
- New London Hospital in New London, New Hampshire: Providing experience in general surgery, laparoscopy, and endoscopy in a community-based surgical practice
- Veteran's Administration Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont: Providing experience with an aging and, often, indigent population with multiple co-morbidities
Training and research experience
The quality of the educational experience is the major focus of the rotations in our training program. Our Surgical Education Committee, which consists of resident and faculty representatives, monitors the quality of each rotation experience and participates aggressively in the effort to continuously improve the curriculum within our training program.
Clinical and research experience
The training experience is intimate due to the relatively small size of our program. Our residents interact closely with faculty at all levels of their training. We have a dynamic faculty who are clinically excellent, nationally engaged and easily accessible.
Our chief residents finish with case numbers and breadth that compare quite favorably with those of their colleagues throughout the nation including in larger, urban centers. With a paucity of fellowships (in MIS and vascular only), residents are directly involved in the care of all complex patients in our busy tertiary/quaternary hospital. The ratio of published, peer-reviewed articles and book chapters to the number of faculty compares favorably to large academic surgical departments across the United States. The same is true for the amount of grant support received from NIH and other outside funding sources.
Research years are strongly recommended but not mandatory. These occur after the second or third clinical year. We encourage all residents to use non-clinical time for career development suitable their long-term goals. This may include health service research, ethics, international health, clinical research, or basic science. The options for career development are myriad. Residents may also be interested in the Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency, or may decide to continue training without interruption.
Post-graduate training
Trainees in our program most commonly pursue fellowship training after the completion of general surgery training. Roughly 20% of our graduates enter private practice or the military following their chief year.