General Surgery Residency Program

1. Involvement of our residents across the continuum of patient care;
2. Graded responsibility and autonomy for patient care based upon the resident’s experience and knowledge;
3. A curriculum that integrates programs of self-study, general and specialty surgical conferences, case-based learning modules, surgical skills laboratories, and assessment;
4. Exposure to general and specialty surgical practices in academic and private practice settings in urban and rural environments; and
5. A culture of inquiry, excellence, altruism, professionalism and integrity.

Our program selects bright, highly-motivated residents and prides itself on early operative exposure, progressive resident autonomy and flexibility tailored to meet individual learning and career goals. We take five categorical residents into our program each year. These individuals generally come from medical schools within the United States.

Our residents generally finish the program having performed about 950 major operative procedures cases averaged for the chiefs and 170 endoscopic procedures. Graduating chief residents have entered fellowship training programs in vascular surgery, pediatric surgery, breast surgery, colorectal surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, surgical critical care and minimally invasive surgery. Upon graduation, approximately 28% of residents join general private practices, 58% pursue specialty fellowship training, and 5% accept positions in hospital-based general surgery.  Over the last 10 years, 52% of our graduates have chosen to practice in Arkansas.