Rural/Underserved General Surgery Residencies

[irish2009]

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hello,
i am an M3 looking into electives (and residencies) in general surgery in a rural or underserved hosptials. i am equally interested in urban underserved areas. i suppose what i'm looking for is best described as the 'undesirable locations' for many. does anyone know of any programs fitting this description in general surgery? i have a lot to learn...

thanks in advance.

 

[DrDawg]

In Chicago Cook county and Mt Sinai hospital are largely underserved. I believe the residency are through Rush and Rosalind Franklin respectively. I am sure there are many in NYC, and other major cities

 

[Winged Scapula]

I might ask what your reasoning is. If its to serve the underserved as a surgeon, most any urban hospital will give you training that is applicable to all practice environments. You don't necessarily need to do your residency in an "urban jungle" or rural environment to seek employment in those settings afterwards. If you want to practice rural general surgery, you might need a program with more blunt than penetrating trauma.

No one program is going to serve all your needs...one may have more penetrating trauma, another blunt; one less ped surgery and another tons of it.

If you are considering a rural practice, another option is to think about a Rural Surgery Fellowship...there's one offered at Cooperstown. It purportedly gets you some minor ortho and neurosurg training in addition to general surgery. 6 - 12 months in length, I believe.

 

[quagmire]

if you want to find out what a rural general surgeon's life is like you may just have to go find a rural general surgeon and work with him for awhile. Residency programs by necessity have to have a lot of resources in order to teach their residents so you won't get the experience of a true rural doc at a residency program.

if you are ultimately interested in being the only general surgeon for miles around I would suggest going to the residency program that gives you the broadest spectrum of training that you can find and going to a place where you don't have to be a fellow to do more complex cases. in addition to rural surgery fellowships you should look into the acute care surgery fellowships as well as they may also give you some ortho or neurosurg experience.

good luck

 

[irish2009]

I might ask what your reasoning is. If its to serve the underserved as a surgeon, most any urban hospital will give you training that is applicable to all practice environments. You don't necessarily need to do your residency in an "urban jungle" or rural environment to seek employment in those settings afterwards.

thank you for the response. i espeically appreciate the suggestion of the fellowship at cooperstown. the more names the better (and thanks to drdawg for that) - as i mentioned initially, i have A LOT to learn.

i suppose my reasoning is simply to be 'serving' in as much of an underserved area as possible throughout my carreer. you're right, i could obviously go after i finish my residency, but if there are teaching hospitals in underserved areas i can start earlier. this is an added 5+ years of time that i can feel like i'm a little closer to doing what i actually want to be doing.

 

[irish2009]

if you are ultimately interested in being the only general surgeon for miles around I would suggest going to the residency program that gives you the broadest spectrum of training that you can find and going to a place where you don't have to be a fellow to do more complex cases. in addition to rural surgery fellowships you should look into the acute care surgery fellowships as well as they may also give you some ortho or neurosurg experience.

thank you, quagmire, for the help. do you happen to know the NAMES of any specific programs that have the qualities you mentioned (ie don't have to be a fellow to do the more complex cases)? b/c that would be quite helpful. i suppose i just don't know how to go about finding out these kind of details in terms of where to do a residency...