Obviously, as it is a brand new residency program, I can only speculate, but I think it will be a great community hospital based general surgery training program. A portion of the Indiana University SOM students rotate through St. Vincent's as 3rd years both in general surgery, as well as peds, ob/gyn, and the ICU. As a medical student at IU, I didn't do my rotation there, but those who did do it there liked it--they saw a lot of private-practice general surgery. St. Vincent also recruited Dr. Jacobson from the IU general surgery department to help develop the residency program and trauma progem at St. Vincent--even though I only worked with him as a medical student, I still remember him quite fondly as a great teacher both in and out of the OR. My only concern with this program would be how willing the rest of the staff are to being teachers, particularly in the OR. As most attendings can probably attest to, taking a resident, particularly junior residents, through a case can be time consuming. These guys have been in private practice and are probably used to being able to crank out cases pretty quickly. With the exception of Dr. Jacobson, who has worked extensively with residents in the past and is a good technical teacher intraoperatively, would the 19 other staff be willing to take on this task?
