Overview of TCV Residency
The Thoracic Surgery residency program provides two continuous years of clinical training in cardiothoracic surgery. There are four half-day and one full-day outpatient cardiothoracic clinics each week, in which the thoracic residents see the ward and private patients with the attending staff. The thoracic residents have primary responsibility in diagnosing and planning the treatment of all thoracic patients.
The thoracic residents perform the majority of the operations after appropriate planning with the attending staff. A member of the attending staff is scrubbed during the critical part of the operation. Every patient admitted to the TCV Service is assigned to a member of the attending staff who is responsible for supervising and guiding the resident. If, in the opinion of the attending, the complexity of an operation is beyond the experience and ability of the resident, the attending will perform the operation; however, the resident always has the option of serving as first assistant. The thoracic residents are responsible at all times for the patients under their care, unless they are on vacation or administrative leave. They rotate night call for new, emergency admissions.
There are several hours of conferences each week, some of which are planned and conducted by the resident staff with the collaboration and participation of the faculty. All of the major thoracic and cardiovascular surgical journals and many of the important monographs are available to thoracic residents in the TCV Library, located in the TCV Surgery office. In addition, the Health Sciences Library, physically integrated with the Medical Center and open 7 days a week, subscribes to over 2880 journals and provides on-line computer searches with other libraries.
Every three months one of the two senior thoracic residents, under the supervision of the program director, is responsible for the administration of the clinical service and the supervision of the general surgery housestaff assigned to the division. He coordinates admissions, plans the operative schedule, and assigns housestaff duties. He assigns specific patients to the junior thoracic residents, who then become responsible for these cases and report directly to the responsible attending. Each thoracic resident attends at least one national scientific meeting and one or two national continuing educational courses annually, such as the postgraduate courses in thoracic and cardiac surgery of The American College of Surgeons.
The thoracic faculty frequently meet to discuss the resident staff and the overall clinical service. The Director discusses any problems or deficiencies with the individual resident. Each faculty member provides a quarterly written evaluation of each thoracic resident. All thoracic residents complete the annual In-Service exam, and the director reviews the results with each resident. Each thoracic resident submits a quarterly evaluation of the program to the Program Director. The Program Director meets separately with the residents weekly to discuss the service, patient care, and educational needs. During the residents-training, the division administers the ABTS resident case volume.
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TCV Residency Rotation Schedule
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The Division of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery is under the direction of Irving L. Kron, MD. As program director, Dr. Kron is responsible for the coordination and direction of the training program and the overall administration of the service. The Division participates in the National Residency Match Program for cardiothoracic residency applicants. After candidate interviews and consultation with other faculty members, Dr. Kron ranks the thoracic residency applicants for the National Residency Matching Program. Interviews are by invitation and usually occur on a Saturday in February. We abide by the NRM results and Dr. Kron recommends to the Medical Policy Committee the appointment of the matched applicants to the UVa medical housestaff.
The volume of the program continues to grow. The thoracic volume has increased due to the new programs in lung transplantation, thoracoscopy, lung volume reduction surgery for emphysema, and laser surgery. The cardiac volume has continued to increase due to close allegiance with two new cardiac catheterization labs in neighboring institutions, the development of a busy cardiac transplant program, and introduction of minimally invasive and port access cardiac surgery, and laser surgery.
The Division of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery has a major role in the educational efforts of the Department of Surgery. The thoracic surgical staff and residents participate regularly in departmental conferences and meetings. General surgery residents rotate on the thoracic service in their PG-1, PG-2, and PG-3 years to receive instruction, guidance, experience, and progressive responsibility commensurate with their skills and knowledge in the management of patients with cardiothoracic diseases. PG-4 general surgery residents rotate for 3 months each to oversee the vascular patients on the Vascular Surgery Service.
- FREIDA Online (Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database Access)
- Applications for the Thoracic Surgery Residency can be obtained through the:
National Residency Match Program
2501 M Street, NW Suite 1
Washington, DC 20037-1307
(202) 828-0676
http://nrmp.aamc.org/nrmp/
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