Operative Experience

Residents at UCSF-East Bay gain extensive experience in all components of general surgery. Our graduates easily exceed the requirements in all of the defined categories in the curriculum specified by the American Board of Surgery. Because we have no fellows, our residents are the primary surgeons in all cases they scrub.

At Highland, we work together on resident-led teams, therefore you will frequently find a senior-level resident taking an intern or junior through a case. For the more difficult and rare operations, an attending will scrub and take the residents through cases. There are always plenty of cases to go around at Highland, and typically cases are assigned based on a graduated level of autonomy. This means that even our interns are expected to be in the operating room, scrubbing cases.

When at Kaiser, the other site where we spend nearly half of our training, there are multiple cases at once thus each resident, including interns, on site is scheduled for their own room with their own cases that they scrub as the primary surgeon with the attending. This early and frequent operative exposure is what we believe sets us apart from most programs. Our graduating residents always have well above the national average in case numbers. While we are never lacking in general surgery cases and trauma surgery cases (we have some of the highest penetrating trauma, which is often operative, in the state of California), our subspecialty experience in Hepatobiliary and Thoracic Surgery are also particularly impressive. Kaiser Oakland serves as a referral center for other Kaiser Hospitals in the region, therefore our residents will often perform 3 Whipples per week directly with an attending, and 5 VATS Lobectomies per week directly with an attending.

Clinical Experience

We feel strongly about having residents learn by doing. Therefore, the majority of our rotations are built on allowing resident-led teams. As early as intern year, our residents experience leading their own team, and as they gain more experience, they earn more responsibilities and opportunities. For example, our interns will often lead the Breast Service at Highland Hospital, which involves rounding on inpatients, developing plans for the patients, and discussing the plans directly with the attending. The Breast Service also runs their own clinic, where the residents are responsible for seeing patients, determining an operative plan, and booking their own patients for surgery. In preparation for cases, the Breast Service resident will also present patients at preoperative conference. Should a complication occur, those residents are also responsible for presenting at M&M conference. We believe this early exposure teaches residents to have ownership over their patients. It also allows for a gradual increase in autonomy and leadership within the program. One of our most popular services is the "Red Service" at Kaiser Oakland, where our junior residents (R2-R3) run an acute care surgery service directly with an attending. This helps prepare residents for running the acute care surgery service at Highland as R5s, which often has a mix of very challenging, sick, complicated pathologies.

Core and Surgical Skills Curriculum

Our program follows the Decker Curriculum, which is in compliance with the ACGME core curriculum. This website has teaching modules, reading, quizzes, ABSITE preparation, and Board preparation. We also have a simulation laboratory at Highland Hospital that is secure and available 24 hours a day for residents.

Our residents also have access to all of the online resources available from UCSF and Kaiser Permanente, including, for example, PubMed, UptoDate, and Clinical Key (which has most major surgical textbooks in e-book format).