Surgical Critical Care Fellowship

The University of Florida Surgical Critical Care Fellowship offers a dynamic 12-month, multidisciplinary training program by a team of critical care specialists at UF Health Shands Hospital, which is a Level I trauma center and tertiary surgical referral center serving north and central Florida, as well as southern Georgia.

120 combined critical care beds include the trauma ICU (TICU), surgical ICU (SICU), cardiac ICU (CICU), thoracic ICU (TICU), vascular ICU (VICU), neuro ICU (NICU) and burn ICU (BICU). In collaboration with the surgical services, the critical care teams manage 3,500 critically ill patients across trauma surgery, burn surgery, emergency general surgery, surgical oncology, pancreas-biliary surgery, bariatric surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, vascular surgery, otolaryngology, urology, plastic surgery and transplantation surgery. Primary learning objectives include, but are not limited to, advanced airway management, critical care ultrasonography (ex. FAST, TTE, TEE, ultrasound guided procedures), bedside procedures such as percutaneous tracheostomy, tube thoracostomy, vascular access, trauma and postoperative resuscitation, as well as sepsis, ARDS, and renal failure management.

Program Mission

The fundamental mission of the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship is to train highly skilled, knowledgeable and compassionate surgical critical care specialists.

Program Aims

The aims of the surgical critical care fellowship are to ensure 100% of program graduates achieve board certification within two years of program completion and to produce well-rounded graduates with a strong academic foundation as evidenced by fellow participation in clinical or basic science research during the course of their training. Fellows will also demonstrate an understanding of the greater health care system with 100% of fellows participating in at least one quality assurance/patient safety project during training.

Clinical Experience

Surgical critical care fellows are required to complete 9 months of critical care training, with 5 months being spent in the TICU and SICU.  One month each in the Burn ICU, Cardiothoracic ICU, Neuro ICU, Thoracic/Vascular ICU. The electives available are vast, including, but not limited to trauma surgery, burn surgery, emergency general surgery, abdominal wall fistula surgery, cardiothoracic ICU, medical ICU, pediatric ICU, neonatal ICU, VA SICU/CTICU, research, nutrition, ultrasound/echocardiography, airway, transplant, critical care nephrology, gerontology and advance radiology. All call duties are almost exclusively in-house 12-hour shifts. Trauma and critical care call duties are not combined, although there is the ability to take trauma and emergency general surgery call throughout the entire academic year. Surgical critical care fellows are expected to actively participate in fellowship education, as well as protocol implementation and construction. ATLS and ATLS instructor classes are offered and surgical critical care fellows are encouraged, but not required, to enroll in these classes. Robust training with internal credentialing in critical care ultrasound is also provided.

If desired, a distinct second year of trauma fellowship can be tailored to the specific trainee interests and can include a faculty appointment, robust trauma and emergency surgery clinical experience, research and/or a master’s program in public health or medical education. The University of Florida and UF Health Shands Trauma Center was approved as an official fellowship training site for Acute Care Surgery by the American Association for the surgery of Trauma in 2014. Learn about our program: Acute Care Surgery Fellowship.

UF’s College of Medicine also offers critical care medicine fellowship programs in anesthesiology, emergency medicine and pulmonary medicine. Surgical critical care residents work in a multidisciplinary fashion with attendings and residents/fellows from all disciplines, allowing for a robust, comprehensive approach to their critical care education.

• ST ICU = South Tower 4W or 4E (SICU)
• CICU = East Tower Cardiovascular ICU
• NICU = East Tower Neuro ICU
• BICU = North Tower Burn ICU
• THOR/VASC = East Tower Thoracic/Vascular/ECMO ICU
• ELECTIVE(S) = Neuro ICU, CT ICU, Vascular ICU, Burn Surgery Research, Medical ICU, IR/Advanced Radiology, Pediatric Surgery/ICU, ICU Pharmacy, Geriatrics in the ICU, Burn ICU, Thoracic ICU, Trauma/ACS, Ultrasound/Echo, Airway, Nutrition, Transplant, ICU Administration, Palliative Care in the ICU, or Critical Care Nephrology.

Research

The Department of Surgery acute care team has a robust research presence at the University of Florida. Multiple faculty members have active research programs within the Department of Surgery’s Laboratory of Inflammation Biology and Surgical Science which focuses on the role of innate cellular immunity and inflammatory mediators in the host response to severe trauma, burn injury, and sepsis. The team, under the direction of principle investigator Fred Moore, MD, was recently awarded a National Institutes of Health P50 center grant to establish the UF Sepsis and Critical Illness Research Center to study the persistent inflammation, immunosuppression and catabolism syndrome (PICS) following sepsis in surgical intensive care unit patients. Trainees with interest in a career in academic medicine are encouraged to pursue a faculty-mentored research project during their fellowship. Faculty expertise and potential research projects span a broad spectrum of research approaches from basic laboratory and translational research, to clinical and outcomes research. Individual research projects, additional research time, and/or master’s programs in public health or medical education can be designed to tailor to the trainees’ interests and career goals.

Curriculum

• Departmental M&M/Grand Rounds – Friday(s) 7:00 A.M.
• Critical Care Conferences
  • August Bootcamp – Simulation Boot Camp
  • August Educational Month – Daily Noontime Lectures
  • Acute Care Surgery/Trauma Conference – Monday 7:00 A.M.
  • Critical Care Protocol Conference – Two Mondays/month 1:00 P.M.
  • Critical Care Lectures for Fellows – Tuesday 1:00 P.M.
  • Trauma Quality Meeting – Third Tuesday/month 7:00 A.M.
  • Critical Care Simulation – Alternate Tuesday 12:00 P.M.
  • Ultrasound Curriculum – Alternate Tuesday 12:00 P.M.
  • Critical Care Journal Club – Alternate Wednesday 1:00 P.M.
  • Critical Care Board Review/Case Conference – Alter Wednesday 1:00 P.M.
  • Critical Care Grand Rounds (Surgery/Anesthesia/Pulmonary/Neuro) – Thursday 12:00 P.M.
  • Combined ST Critical Care/ACS/Trauma M&M – Wednesday 7:00 A.M.
• Textbook of Critical Care
• Access to Society of Critical Care Medicine question bank
• MCCKAP Self Assessment Exam (March/April)

Application & Requirements

Four positions are available each academic year, one of the four continuing on to complete a second year as an acute care surgery fellow. Surgical critical care trainees must be board-eligible in general surgery, urology, neurosurgery or obstetrics and gynecology. The program is approved by the Residency Review Committee for Surgery through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and participates in the National Resident Matching Program. Upon completion of the fellowship, the fellow will be eligible to take the surgical critical care board exam.

Interested applicants will need to click on the link below in order to submit an application, additionally questions regarding the program can be directed to Kassandra Moench and/or Jessica Taylor, please refrain from emailing the program about your application status.

Program Leadership

Program Director

Jessica Taylor, MD, MBS, FACS

ASSOCIATE PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Alicia Mohr, MD, FACS, FCCM

Medical DIRECTOR – UF HEALTH SHANDS SURGICAL ICUS

Philip A. Efron, MD, FACS, FCCM

Faculty

View the fellowship program’s division of Acute Care Surgery faculty here.

SCC Residency Listings

• EAST

Surgical Critical Care Resources

uf department of surgery

Resources