About Our Curriculum
The curriculum is designed to provide the most general surgical exposure possible, allowing residents to develop and sharpen their knowledge base and surgical skill set. Rotations will be structured to provide exposure to the management of pre-and post-operative patients and surgical subspecialties not offered at Mountain Vista Medical Center. While most rotations will be completed at Mountain Vista Medical Center, rotation subspecialties not offered at the hospital will be completed at the offices of various local physicians or other teaching facilities. The General Surgery Program Director has the final determination on such changes.
Mountain Vista Medical Center incorporates a 4-week block schedule, resulting in 13 clinical rotations per academic year.
The General Surgery Rotation encompasses a wide variety of clinical pathology and exposure. The essential content areas of focus are the abdomen and its contents, the alimentary tract, skin, soft tissues, and breast. The rotation also includes colorectal, endocrine surgery, head and neck surgery, and surgical oncology.
Mountain Vista Medical Center and Tempe St. Luke's Hospital are the sites for the general surgery rotations. Tempe St. Luke's is within the Steward Healthcare Family of Hospitals; Residents participate in surgical cases with program faculty at Mountain Vista Medical Center as the primary Site and Tempe St. Luke's for additional surgical case exposure during one of their five general surgery team rotations. The one month at TSL during each PGY-level reflects the total general surgery experience.
Participating Sites
- Mountain Vista Medical Center (Primary)
- Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital
- HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center
- Valleywise Health
- Tucson Medical Center
- St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center
- HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center
- HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center
Core Didactics: Regularly scheduled formal organized didactic series will be held along with morning report and a monthly journal club. Didactic topics will be determined by a systems approach with each month integrating all aspects of surgical medicine and principles.