University of Vermont General Surgery Residency

Located at a Level 1 Trauma Center, our General Surgery Residency program allows for individual surgical exposure that is both varied and substantial to prepare residents for careers in general surgery, academic surgery and fellowship training in a further surgical discipline.

Recent graduates have obtained postgraduate fellowships in pediatric surgery, trauma/critical care, cardiothoracic surgery, vascular surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, surgical oncology, trauma/critical care, minimally-invasive and bariatric surgery. The majority of the resident graduates in the past ten years have entered full-time academic surgery. In the surgery residency program, we pride ourselves on the one-on-one interaction between resident and attending.

Categorical Surgery Positions

The General Surgery Residency program is six years in length approved by the Council on Graduate Medical Education of the AMA and the American Board of Surgery. Our program offers three categorical positions during each of the six years. The surgery residency program includes five clinical years and an obligatory research year between the clinical G2 and G3 years.

Residents have clinical responsibilities once or twice a month during their research year. Attendance at local meetings and departmental CME courses is encouraged. Residents who have had abstracts accepted at national meetings may attend the meeting at departmental expense. Research conferences are held weekly, as are several teaching conferences including a resident basic science conference, surgical grand rounds, and quality assurance. Individual service conferences are held as well.

Surgery Positions

At the G1 level, seven positions are offered, three categorical and four preliminary surgery positions. We offer three categorical positions at each of the G2-G6 levels.

Diverse Surgical Training Opportunities

The majority of rotations are designed to provide experience in preoperative, operative, and postoperative care for patients in all areas that constitute the principle components of general surgery. The rotations are divided into various teams. Each team is under the direction of an attending physician who is responsible for overseeing that the educational objectives for the residents are met.

The first two years are designed to provide a broadly-based core experience in both general surgery and selected surgical subspecialties. Emphasis is on the development of cognitive and technical skills. Residents are expected to be fully involved in the care process with increasing responsibility for patient care, including operations, with increasing activity throughout the various levels of the surgery residency program.

Inpatient and outpatient experiences are merged on each service. Each team has a non-operative day during which time the residents are expected to be in the clinical offices evaluating new patients and seeing post-operative patients.

Residents are encouraged to develop their responsibilities as teachers and are responsible for teaching junior residents and medical students. Residents are expected to present at weekly quality assurance meetings and chief residents give at least one Grand Rounds presentation per year.

The faculty is comprised of 67 full-time Board-certified faculty.

Applying to the General Surgery Residency Program

Applications are accepted only through ERAS, the Electronic Residency Application Service. If you are ready for a unique opportunity, please contact the Program Coordinator for more information or apply today.

Kennith H. Sartorelli, M.D.
Associate Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics
Sections of Pediatric Surgery & Trauma and Surgical Critical Care
Residency Program Director