General Surgery Residency News & Announcements

Hirose-Gram

Dear Surgical Residents, 

Greetings from the surgery education leadership. Hope you are all staying healthy and well as we enter into fall and winter. A few items of note:

Resident recruitment: Application season is upon us and we are in the process of reviewing applications with an eye towards our interview season. For those of you who have worked with any of the students who have rotated as sub-Is, either from UCSF or from other institutions, please let us know any of your thoughts. You can either directly message me or any of the associate program directors, or submit your comments HERE

We will have three interview days, each on a Wednesday: 12/6/23, 12/13/23, and 1/10/24. Our format will be similar as last year:

Tuesday night:

• Virtual "reception", including residents and applicants only

Wednesday:

• Grand Rounds (research resident presentations)
• Leadership interviews
• Faculty interviews
• Resident interviews 
• Presentation by current categorical PGY1
• Chat room in afternoons, hopefully including residents who presented during morning Grand Rounds

We very much appreciate all the residents' participation and input in this process. To the extent possible, please sign up to participate in these important events (see sign up info below). The success of our resident recruitment efforts are highly dependent on your participation.  

Upcoming times of limited resident availability: For all residents and faculty rotation leaders, please refer HERE for a list of upcoming resident absences.  

For the month of October, please note:

• Wednesday October 11th and Wednesday October 18^th until 12:00 noon are designated as wellness times. Please anticipate more limited staffing during these days
• Monday October 30^th 4PM-7PM: Resident Research Opportunity Showcase Millberry Union. Categorical PGY1 and 2 GS, vascular, and research-track plastics residents are required to attend. Please anticipate shortages at these levels during this time.

Feedback to program: one of our priorities for improvement in the upcoming year is providing an environment where residents feel comfortable bringing up issues and concerns without fear. To this end, please be aware all of these mechanisms to bring up concerns:

1. MedHub confidential comment (optional question on all MedHub evaluation forms): these are seen by the PD (K. Hirose) and APDs (Drs. Shen, Mukhtar, Vu) only. If the comment is regarding one of these individuals, it will be seen only by the vice chair of education
2. Site ombudsperson
3. Surgical Education Committee (either directly by attending a meeting, or through your class representative)
4. Pat O'Sullivan feedback sessions (see didactic curriculum for upcoming sessions)
5. UCSF SAFE reporting system (outside of department of surgery—directly to GME)
6. Direct communication with program director, associate program directors, vice chair for education, chair
7. Administrative chief residents
8. Digital suggestion box

VA CT rotation: as discussed in last SEC, we have decided to remove the intern from this rotation and reassign to the UC cardiothoracic surgery service, due to issues with service/education balance on the rotation. We will reinstitute the VA rotation once these issues have been addressed. 

Thanks very much and all the best heading into October.

Kenzo Hirose

For Rising Chief Residents: Leadership Role Selection

It is time to start thinking about chief resident leadership roles for the 2024-2025 academic year. The intent of these roles is to provide you with opportunities to interact with program leadership, help identify issues and solutions to improve the resident experience, and - most importantly - to leave your mark on this training program. The positions are designed so that each chief resident will have one role. Our goal is to align you with a position that becomes a rewarding opportunity for your professional development, as well as provide you with an opportunity to diversify and enrich your residency experience (and CV). 

Chief resident leadership role descriptions can be found HERE

All rising chief residents should submit preferences for their leadership position, along with a brief statement of interest (no more than 1-2 sentences) by completing this form by Wednesday, October 25th. If you have any questions regarding any of the positions or expectations, please feel free to contact the program directors or any of the current resident leaders in these positions

Note that research residents also have leadership opportunities - rising research residents, stay tuned for more details!

Important Pager Updates

This is a reminder that beginning October 10th, physical pagers will be replaced with Voalte communication. Pager numbers will still be operational, but all pages will be routed via Voalte (which you should have installed on your CarePhone.) Please be sure to log into the Voalte roles you are covering on UCSF Health services - this is especially important for services with service pagers. If you are not correctly logged into the service role/unit, pages sent to service pagers will go nowhere.

Note that when at a non-UCSF Health site (e.g., VA or ZSFG), you can log into Voalte without a service-specific role.

Please refer to Provider Clinical Communications FAQs for more information on Voalte.

Peer Mentorship Program

We would like to remind everyone of the Peer Mentorship Program. The Peer Mentors are a group of UCSF surgery residents who have undergone training specific to supporting residents and helping them access the appropriate care when needed. They are available any time a resident needs someone to talk to. The Peer Mentors team have representatives from multiple levels of training (R2-R5) and are here to provide a confidential resource to discuss any challenges a resident might encounter, professional or personal.

Everyone struggles at some point during surgical residency, and no one should feel alone. The goal of the Peer Mentors is to support one another and to make the surgical residency program a stronger and healthier community.  

Please reach out to the peer mentors listed on our Peer Mentorship page at any time, and contact Wen Shen or Nathan Brand with any questions about the program.