Welcome to the General Surgery Residency Training Program at the University of Florida Department of Surgery. As you peruse this site, we trust that you will see the outstanding general surgery training experience that we have to offer.
As a gator surgeon who matched into our UF General Surgery Residency as an intern and has remained heavily involved in clinical care, education, research and administration ever since, I attest that this residency is the gem of our great department. Through this biased lens, I will provide an overview of our program.
Delivering the best surgical care possible is our highest and most important calling. Our trainees receive high levels of graduated, earned autonomy in learning to deliver excellent care at our three adjacent UF Health hospital towers and the immediately adjacent Veterans Affairs hospital. Our trainees are very well prepared to practice after graduation. Our 11-county catchment area ensures a broad patient base and substantial breadth and depth of clinical experience. UF Health sees patients not only from every county in Florida but from across the country and all over the world.
An excellent didactic program provides the structure to acquire knowledge and problem-solving skills that will serve as the foundation for sound surgical judgment and evidence-based practice. Our first- and second-year clinical residents participate in a flipped classroom style conference that is based on the national Surgical Council on Resident Education (SCORE) curriculum and includes domain expertise from faculty surgeons. Our third- and fourth-year clinical residents participate in a weekly review of important surgical literature with integrated discussions of implications for practice led by faculty content experts. Our chief residents participate in a self-designed curriculum focusing on leadership, the business of healthcare, career development and other topics of their choosing. By popular demand, our chief leadership curriculum has been extended to all levels of residency. Our Morbidity and Mortality Conferences occur every other week, alternating with Grand Rounds, and focus on opportunities to improve the care we provide. Every year, two Morbidity and Mortality Conferences are replaced by board-style mock oral exam sessions, two are replaced by descriptions of spectacular saves, and two are replaced by discussions of ethical complications led by the chair of the Clinical Ethics Service for UF Health. All didactic activities occur during a weekly four-hour block of educational time that is protected from clinical duties. If I hear a pager go off during education time, it becomes mine until 11 AM.
We strengthen and test technical skills through weekly hands-on training sessions that cover open, laparoscopic, robotic and endoscopic procedures including cadaver and perfused porcine exercises, as well as several nontechnical skills (e.g., palliative care planning, root cause analysis performance, ergonomics). Interns and second-year clinical residents also participate in an evidence-based, longitudinal surgical boot camp, deliberate practice, a twice-per-year Surgical Olympics curriculum and earn pager-free cases in addition to weekly assigned cases. All skills lab activities occur during protected educational time. Our residents also complete a robotic surgery curriculum in which proficiencies gained correlate with operative autonomy and console time in the operating room. The highly trained UF General Surgery resident also benefits from individual technical instruction from many master surgeons. We seek to optimize clinical training such that each trainee experiences the vast scope of general surgical operations. Therefore, each trainee exceeds all ACGME case log requirements and develops a foundational set of technical skills and abilities that can be applied to successfully complete any operation, including those that are rarely performed.
As a highly academic department in a research-intensive College of Medicine, the Department of Surgery has numerous faculty members funded by the National Institutes of Health and ranks in the top 15 Departments of Surgery in the United States according to Blue Ridge Rankings. Most residents spend two or more years engaged in full-time academic development in addition to their traditional five years of clinical training. These fully funded experiences have enabled UF residents to become among the most productive in the country. While most residents choose to engage in existing research fellowships, residents are also welcomed to pursue other professional development opportunities in education, simulation, law, public health or other relevant domains. We encourage and enable but do not require the pursuit of an advanced degree (e.g., Ph.D. or Masters) during academic development time.
Our residents participate in a formal mentoring program in which they are matched with an engaged faculty mentor for the first three years of clinical training. Throughout residency, our residents enjoy a vibrant, wellness program that is led by residents, supported by faculty and makes the most of the wonderful people in our department and all Gainesville has to offer (river tubing, scalloping, poolside BBQ, tailgating, Halloween party and pumpkin carving, Thanksgiving dinner, holiday party, post-ABSITE low country boil and bonfire, residents vs. faculty kickball, axe-throwing, annual Vascular Surgery fishing tournament, class dinners, graduation parties, etc.). Bonds of camaraderie are important to the social fabric and team-based culture of our department. Our residents also lead an active Recruitment Committee and a heavily engaged Volunteering Committee; all three resident-run committees carry out their work with the full support of program leadership and a Resident Council chaired by our administrative chief residents and including representatives from each class.
These activities serve our mission to provide the best general surgical training available by inculcating highly motivated learners with knowledge that translates into superb clinical judgment and exceptional technical skill while instilling in our trainees a deep commitment to the patient, confidence based on self-education for lifelong learning that will allow them to adapt to the ever-changing demands associated with the profession of surgery. The depth and breadth of our clinical experience, the quality of our educational systems, the vibrance of our academic development pathways and the strength of our culture provide limitless opportunities for the relentless pursuit of excellence and leadership in academic surgery.
Tyler Loftus, MD, PhD
Program Director, General Surgery Residency