Surgical Education is divided into three major segments:

Students: A third-year surgical clerkship for medical students from The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - New Jersey Medical School is offered under the direction of Gregory Gallina, M.D., associate director of Surgical Education. The program is a clinical clerkship providing an introduction to general surgery. Students are assigned to one of three surgical teams where activities are integrated with surgical attending physicians, residents, and advanced practice nurses.

The program offers broad exposure to same day general surgery as well as sophisticated general, vascular, pediatric, and thoracic surgery procedures. The clerkship provides participation in operative surgery, bedside rounds, and didactic lectures by a team of teaching attending surgeons, as well as other clinical duties including pre- and post-operative care and non-operative surgical management.

Residents: The resident program is under the direction of Arnold Byer, M.D., vice chairman and director of Surgical Education in The Department of Surgery. Sixteen residents encompassing post-graduate years (PGY) 1 - 5 rotate through the surgical service of Hackensack University Medical Center.

Three residents are assigned full-time to The Surgical Intensive Care Unit. The remaining 13 are assigned to three surgical teams, "A", "B", and "C." Each team focuses on one of the surgical sub-specialties in addition to general surgery. For example, the "B" team also includes vascular surgery. The junior residents rotate every six weeks, the PGY - 4 rotations vary from six weeks to three months at a time, with a PGY - 5 spending a total of six months of the year at the medical center. The other hospitals in the integrated surgical residents' rotation are University Hospital in Newark, the Veterans Administration Medical Center at East Orange, and St. Michael's Medical Center in Newark.

Fellowships: The Laparoendoscopic and Robotic Surgery Fellowship Program lasts one year.

There are two fellows in the program who have the status of junior attendings and work exclusively with the laparoendoscopic and robotic surgeons. This is a high-volume and high-quality service covering a broad range of laparoendoscopic and robotic operative procedures.

The Bariatric Surgery Fellowship program lasts for one year. It is underwritten by an educational grant from The Ethicon Division of Johnson and Johnson Healthcare. The fellow works exclusively with the bariatric surgical service, which is one of the busiest in the world based on number of procedures, and provides a high volume of laparoscopic and open bariatric surgery.

The fellowship programs in surgical oncology, breast disease, and vascular surgery are due to start on July 1, 2005.

We also offer a clinical surgical rotation for students studying to become physicians' assistants. The program, which lasts six weeks, is under the direction of Patricia Donahue, RN, chief advanced practice nurse in The Department of Surgery.