General Surgery Residency

The Department of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine is dedicated to training the leaders in American surgery—experts in clinical surgery, creators of knowledge, and indefatigable educators who will influence the field of surgery for generations to come. Graduates from our program experience a broad range of clinical settings and graduate with a high volume of surgical cases of all levels of complexity. Our training program is marked by early experience in the operating room; junior residents commonly achieve 300 to 350 surgical cases in the first two years. Following the principles of graded autonomy, the later years of clinical training are formed by experiences with team leadership, advanced decision making, and busy surgical schedules. With this clinical training in hand, our trainees are selected for the finest, most competitive fellowships year after year.

Part of this success relies on establishing an academic trajectory early in training. We do this by providing robust experiences during the Professional Development years. Known formerly as lab or research years, most residents will take a two year hiatus from clinical work to pursue an interest relevant to their professional development. At Yale, the beauty of this experience is undoubtedly the vast range of scholarly opportunities available to surgical residents. Our residents have access to scholarship within the Department, the Medical School, and Yale University at large, as well as degree programs up to and including Doctor of Philosophy. Our residents present at nearly all national surgical societies and associations, and typically graduate with 10-20 original manuscripts published during their time at Yale.

Whatever a resident’s career interest may be, the Yale Surgical Residency helps to facilitate success by establishing formal mentorship by senior residents and faculty, streamlining scholarly endeavors, and providing resources to ensure success.

How to Apply

The Yale Surgical Residency Program participates in the NRMP/ERAS. We review completed applications in September and October. A completed application will include the MSPE, CV, three letters of recommendation, a personal statement, and your USMLE Step I score. We prefer letters of recommendation from individuals who can comment specifically regarding your clinical and technical skills, scholarly ambition, leadership potential, and institutional citizenship.

There are two tracks in our program. The categorical track is a conventional “rectangular” program. All interns admitted as categorical are expected to complete the full training program. The preliminary track is available for trainees seeking a short-term position as a transition to a categorical position in surgery or another specialty.

J-1 visas are supported in limited circumstances and all international graduates must be certified by the ECFMG prior to applying. All applicants should be certain to specify whether they are applying to the categorical track, preliminary track, or both. Please direct all questions regarding visas to Heather Russell-Milici in the House Staff Office (email)

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic qualified applicants will be invited to interview virtually. Follow us on Instagram to find out more about upcoming virtual information sessions.

Training Hospitals

Yale Department of Surgery prides itself on providing residents with unparalleled breadth and depth of hands-on surgical experience. Residents rotate through

four training hospitals, each of these hospitals provides a unique educational experience.

After spending time at our community and VA hospitals, our residents become proficient in a wide variety of

surgical procedures needed to practice independently after graduation. At the same time, the experience in our tertiary referral hospitals provides a depth of experience needed to perform complex operations.

Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH), founded almost 200 years ago, is located in New Haven, Connecticut, a medium–sized city on Long Island Sound. YNHH, the flagship hospital of Yale New Haven Health System, has 944 beds, 122,000 annual emergency room visits and a daily census of about 730 patients. YNHH, the largest of the three training hospitals of the General Surgery residency, is the location for much of the tertiary and specialty care surgery.

Yale University School of Medicine is physically attached to Yale School of Medicine and creates a complete academic medical center. More than 70 full–time academic faculty represent all surgical specialties, with most actively engaged in research and all providing both clinical and academic mentorship to residents and medical students. Community surgeons practicing at YNHH contribute substantially to resident education. YNHH contains intensive care units for Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Medicine, Coronary Care, Pediatrics, and Neonatology. Other special programs include a Vascular Center and endolaparoscopic training facilities. The Children’s Hospital opened in 1993. Yale has one of the oldest federally funded Cancer Centers and has had both adult and children's clinical research centers for more than 30 years.

We have two locations: Chapel Street and York Street.

Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven

The new Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven consolidates all of the medical center's cancer services, both inpatient and outpatient, into a single world-class cancer hospital. Smilow Cancer Hospital is affiliated with Yale Cancer Center - southern New England's only comprehensive cancer center designated by the National Cancer Institute, and one of only 40 in the United States.

V.A. Hospital

The West Haven Campus of the Veterans Administration Connecticut Health Care System (V.A. Hospital) is a 179–bed tertiary care facility with an additional 30-bed nursing home care unit. Approximately 2,800 surgical procedures are performed annually, including 100–140 cardiac pump cases and a wide variety of specialized minimally invasive operations. There are more than 200,000 patient visits to outpatient clinics annually, and the average inpatient census is 138. This leading V.A. hospital boasts specialized national programs in epilepsy, stroke, blind rehabilitation, PTSD, alcohol, virology and a clinical/research P.E.T. Center.

The V.A. Hospital has consistently ranked among the top five V.A. hospitals for research funding, and currently has six funded surgical investigators with active laboratories on the V.A. premises.

The Chief of the Surgical Service is assisted by Yale General and Vascular faculty, along with faculty in each of the surgical specialties. Also, approximately 75 members of the Yale faculty serve as consultants to the V.A. surgical service. The V.A. service is fully integrated at all levels with Yale Surgery including clerkships for medical students, surgical subinternships, and research positions. There are integrated residency programs in

General Surgery
Neurosurgery
Ophthalmology
Orthopedics
Otolaryngology
Plastic Surgery
Cardiothoracic Surgery
Urology

The Surgical Endoscopy Training Service performs over 150 procedures annually. Twenty–two residents in general surgery and surgical specialties rotate through the V.A. at any one time.

The V.A. Hospital is located two miles from Yale and a shuttle bus, which operates every 15 minutes, connects the two institutions.

Bridgeport Hospital

Bridgeport Hospital (BH), an affiliate of Yale–New Haven Health, is located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, about 20 miles southwest of New Haven. BH has 425 beds and 67,000 emergency room visits and performs more than 15,000 operations annually.

BH has the only Burn Center between New York and Boston, treating over 200 patients per year; is a Level I Trauma Center; and supports a full service outpatient clinic. BH brings to Yale Surgery both a large volume of general surgical, trauma and critical care cases, and a broad spectrum of surgical specialty cases. BH offers Yale General Surgery residents training opportunities and experiences in all surgical disciplines, working with superior and experienced practitioners in a wide range of surgical specialties.

Verifications

The Yale Surgical Education Office provides post-graduate training verifications for the Yale New Haven Hospital General Surgery Residency Training Program in addition to Bridgeport Hospital and Hospital of Saint Raphael’s General Surgery Residency programs. Please email GenSurgverifications@yale.edu.

February 22, 2024

National Search for General Surgery Residency Program Director

The Department of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine/Yale New Haven Health System announced the commencement of a nationwide search for the next program director of the General Surgery Residency Program.