Mission
Our mission is to provide the highest quality care to our patients while developing excellent 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 knowledge, clinical judgment and technical skills
- Advocate for the underserved
- Are dedicated to the compassionate care of all patients and families
- Perform research aimed at improving clinical outcomes with basic, translation and clinical research, overcoming disparities in care delivery and continuous quality improvement
- 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. This is a 500- bed tertiary and quaternary academic medical center serving a catchment area of over 1.5 million people.
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: A critical access hospital that provides experience in general surgery, laparoscopy, and endoscopy in a community-based surgical practice.
- Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center in Windsor, Vermont: A critical access hospital providing exposure to rural general surgery, advanced laparoscopy and endoscopy.
- Veteran's Administration Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont: Providing experience in general surgery and advanced laparoscopy with military veterans often with multiple co-morbidities.
Training
The quality of the educational experience is the highlight of our training program. In an academic medical center with a paucity of fellowships, our general surgery residents are exposed to a vast array of surgical disease and technically complex operations. Additionally, they develop critical leadership skills early in their training as the senior resident on services beginning in the PGY-3 year. While the training is challenging, the learning environment is supportive with a focus on camaraderie and wellness. Residents enjoy their friends and families, each other and the beauty of Northern New England in their time out of work.
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 case diversity that are on par with any program in the country. As noted above, the absence of fellowships (in MIS and vascular only) means residents are directly involved in the care of all complex patients in our busy tertiary/quaternary hospital.
Clinical and research experience
Residents may elect to take time off from clinical work after the PGY-2 or PGY-3 year. Research years are strongly recommended but not mandatory. Some residents opt for 2 years of career development time, some 1 year and some opt to complete their training in 5 years. For those who opt to take time off, there are myriad options for career development which are tailored to the long-term goals of the individual resident. Research in health care disparities, outcomes, translational science, quality or clinical questions are all options. Residents may also be interested in the Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency, Residents have participated in global surgery initiatives or obtained Masters degrees in education, journalism, business, ethics and public health. If you can dream it, the program will help you do it.
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. Those who opt for fellowships have done very well matching into their top choices for programs. Flexibility in training in the PGY-4 and PGY-5 years helps our residents prepare for community general surgical practice or provides additional experience to prepare residents for their chosen fellowship.