Surgical Education

Welcome to the Department of Surgery Surgical Education Website.

The Southern Illinois University Department of Surgery aims to have a national and global impact for excellence in surgical education. We have a long history of excellence and innovation in surgical education, due in large part to the vision of our first department chair, Dr. Roland Folse.  Our department has a number of firsts to our credit. These include hiring the first PhD educator and surgical nurse educators in the country, creating the first Fellowship in Surgical Education and the Surgeons as Educators Course in partnership with the American College of Surgeons. In addition, we were the center of development for the American College of Surgeons / Association of Program Directors in Surgery National Skills Curriculum. Our educational research team has received more than $1.2 million in research funding and has published widely in peer reviewed journals.

Our goals are:

• To provide an opportunity for collaboration in surgical education across disciplines. 

• To facilitate and advance faculty development particularly in surgical education.
• To develop and implement surgical education programs at all levels.
• To promote and encourage research and evaluation in surgical education.

To this purpose we have a talented faculty and staff with a national reputation in surgical education. Seven of the 60 fulltime faculty members of the department of surgery already have or are completing a master’s degree in education. In addition we have 9 PhD research facultywho provide support for our 6 residency.  and three fellowship training programs. SIU has one of the first skills laboratories in the USA designed specifically for training surgical residents. More recently we have developed a simulation center in which our and students residents learn team training and leadership skills under the direction of our faculty.

Hilary Sanfey
Professor of Surgery & Vice Chair for Educational Affairs