General Surgery Residency

The residency in general surgery at SIU is a comprehensive, five-year educational program that encompasses all of the major surgical disciplines.  Its goal is to prepare the graduate for the practice of general surgery, or fellowship training in one of the surgical subspecialties.  The program seeks to provide a strong foundation in the clinical discipline of surgery in the setting of educational excellence and scholarship.  The program has a nationally and internationally recognized heritage of outstanding achievement and leadership in surgical education, which continues to this day.
The training program includes an emphasis on skills development with the assistance of an internationally recognized skills laboratory and curriculum.  Current residents develop core skills to predefined levels of proficiency in the laboratory setting, progressing thereafter in the use of those skills in direct patient care.  Residents perform a high volume of surgical procedures, including a broad spectrum of complex cases, under the tutelage of both full time academic and private practice faculty.   Excellent experience in trauma/critical care, transplant surgery, pediatric surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, head and neck surgery, colorectal surgery, oncologic surgery, minimally invasive surgery, and all other core general surgical disciplines is achieved over the course of the program.  Research is encouraged, and educational scholarship in particular is an area of significant academic strength.  Residents participate in residents as teachers programs as well as a number of novel evaluative experiences designed to optimize their development in all core competency areas.  Regular conference schedules include visiting professor programs with nationally prominent faculty, grand rounds, core topical conferences, a weekly morning report/attending rounds conference, and a text review conference.  Regular subspecialty and multidisciplinary conferences, as well as journal clubs, mock oral exam programs, and annual research days are also held.
In addition to these clinical and educational strengths, the residency program has earned a reputation for collegiality and support.   Faculty advisor/mentors are appointed for each resident, relationships between residents and faculty are highly valued, and the support environment amongst the residents themselves is frequently recognized as a strength by interviewees during recruitment season.   In all these endeavors and relationships, the consistent goal is to provide high quality education and patient care in a collegial, supportive, and educationally dynamic learning environment that can prepare the trainee for the task of lifelong learning, and for a variety of potential career goals.
All training takes place on the main teaching campus, which is constituted by two teaching hospitals within a few blocks of each other:   Memorial Medical Center (562 beds), and St. John’s Hospital (731 beds).  These hospitals serve as tertiary facilities for a broad geographic area in central and southern Illinois, and provide a very solid and self-contained forum for the development of patient care and surgical skills.  The hospitals are strongly supportive of the training program, and contribute greatly to the program’s educational quality both through the physical environment and through fiscal support as well.   A regional burn center at Memorial Medical Center, a dedicated pediatric hospital as part of the St. John’s complex, and a shared Level I trauma program all serve as examples of the resources provided as a foundation for resident education.  Additional residency training programs in most disciplines, including surgical subspecialties such as orthopaedics, plastic surgery, urology, and otolaryngology, as well as fellowship level programs in vascular and colorectal surgery, attest to the educational foundation present.
The SIU General Surgery Residency Program participates in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).  The following documentation along with your application is required by our Selection Committee:

1. Dean's letter of recommendation
2. Transcripts
3. Three letters of recommendation other than the Dean's letter
4. USMLE Step I scores (Step II required before residency program starts)
5. Class standing and/or other documentation of academic achievement
6. Personal Statement
7. CV

Deadline for submitting your transmitted application to our ERAS Post Office is November 1, 2011. Paper applications are not acceptable; all applications must be processed through ERAS. Preferred minimum score on the USMLE Step I is 210.  High scores and academic honors do influence our selection committee.   We do not sponsor H-1B visas.  Interview dates for 2012 will be on the following Friday's: November 16, 2012, November 30, 2012, December 7, 2012, and December 21, 2012. Interviews are by invitation only.

Contact for residency application information:
Bernie Lornitis, Residency Coordinator
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
Division of General Surgery
P.O. Box 19638
Springfield, IL  62794-9638
Phone:  217-545-4401
E-mail: blornitis@siumed.edu 

Complete list of staff available for download here