ACLS during Surgery Residency Orientation

[akx961175]

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I guess current residents can shed the most light on this.
Is ACLS training and certification typically integrated or part of orientation for general surgery residency programs prior to starting intern year in late June?
...or is this something we should be taking care of through our medical schools/some other means prior to showing up on day 1?
Thanks.

 

[LucidSplash]

I guess current residents can shed the most light on this.
Is ACLS training and certification typically integrated or part of orientation for general surgery residency programs prior to starting intern year in late June?
...or is this something we should be taking care of through our medical schools/some other means prior to showing up on day 1?
Thanks.

ACLS and ATLS were integrated into orientation for me. Some others (from my medical school class) were expected to show up certified in ACLS. Your program's expectations and plans will be conveyed to you after Match Day and it will vary by institution. Only a couple more weeks of waiting! Then all the paperwork really begins.

 

[Smurfette]

Most places will arrange time during your orientation to do this. They will let you know. They will not expect you to already be certified unless they come right out and tell you this soon after the match. FWIW, I don't know offhand of any programs that expect incoming interns to have completed ACLS independently before starting.

For whatever reason, my program didn't give us ATLS until we were PGY2s.

 

[DrNick Riviera]

We got ATLS during orientation and were required to pass. Our program does not provide ACLS, but ABS requires that you are ACLS certified at some point in order to sit for the boards. I personally did ACLS prior to starting in July. I felt more comfortable having done ACLS, knowing that I may have to run a code, etc at some point. And I can say that having done ACLS certainly has come in handy.

 

[opr8n]

at our shop we do BLS, ACLS, ABLS, ATLS all incorporated during the two week orientation

you are required to pass ABLS to do the burn rotation

you are required to pass ATLS to do the trauma rotation, if you fail you have to retest in dec

 

[Winged Scapula]

Most places will arrange time during your orientation to do this. They will let you know. They will not expect you to already be certified unless they come right out and tell you this soon after the match. FWIW, I don't know offhand of any programs that expect incoming interns to have completed ACLS independently before starting.

For whatever reason, my program didn't give us ATLS until we were PGY2s.

Really? We were told we couldn't be on the trauma call schedule unless we were ATLS certified (so it was offered during orientation).

 

[Smurfette]

Really? We were told we couldn't be on the trauma call schedule unless we were ATLS certified (so it was offered during orientation).

Yep. I did trauma before I was ATLS certified. One of my classmates missed it as a PGY2 and didn't end up doing it until PGY4 because the new program coordinator didn't check this. As a PGY4, she couldn't do trauma until after ATLS though, since she would be in charge of the team. I think as long as the more senior people on the trauma team were certified, they were ok with the juniors not having it. Or maybe since ATLS is four years, the program didn't want to pay for the certification twice for a resident to have to renew as a PGY5?

 

[Buzz Me]

We do ATLS during orientation, BLS/ACLS during the first year at some point.

 

[45408]

We do ATLS during orientation, BLS/ACLS during the first year at some point.

Mine was the opposite. ACLS during orientation, ATLS a few months later.