Advanced Surgery

NOT AVAILABLE FOR AY2026-2027

Department of Surgery and Surgical Specialties

  • Course Information

    Course Number: RSRG609

    Prerequisites: Completion of all Phase 2 clerkships; interest in a residency in a surgical discipline.
    *M4 students going into non-surgical disciplines will also be considered, but surgical students will have preference.

    Length of Time: 4 weeks

    Phase Availability: Phase 3
    *Sub-I component eligible

    Credit Type: Physician Assessed Patient Facing (PAPFE), Sub-Internship (Sub-I), or Open

    Call: Yes; weekends at the discretion of faculty

  • Contact Information

    Program Directors: TBD

    Coordinator/Scheduling: Allison King (aking75@uic.edu)

    Location: TBD

Narrative Description: This will be a four-week advanced level surgery rotation. The student will be assigned to specific faculty for a specific period of time during the rotation. The areas of surgical fields will include trauma, peripheral vascular, complex general surgery, hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery and intensive care. The student may participate in two to three of these fields. The student will also have the flexibility to see, scrub in and follow patients with specific complex surgical problems. Mercyhealth Hospital, SwedishAmerican Hospital and OSF St. Anthony Hospital will be utilized for this elective rotation.

The M4 elective student will have a separate call schedule from M3 students, and it will be in conjunction with the faculty call schedule.

Learning Objectives:

  1. The student will know how to perform a detailed clinical assessment of patients with complex surgical problems including multisystem trauma and critically ill surgical patients.
  2. He/she will have developed clear understanding with respect to the ordering of appropriate laboratory, radiological and other diagnostic tests, be able to choose the right workup for the surgical problem and accurately interpret the results.
  3. He/she will be able to develop management plans for complex surgical problems.
  4. He/she will acquire the ability to evaluate and manage complex post-operative problems, complications and acquire basic understanding of critical care management of the surgical patient.
  5. He/she will gain state of the art knowledge in surgical discipline by seeking information from the library, online, surgical journals and by one-on-one discussion with the faculty member.
  6. He/she will become more experienced in performing surgical consultations and develop independent thinking with respect to developing treatment plans, writing patient care orders and assisting in complex surgical operations.

Learning Activities:

  1. Daily independent and faculty-led rounds on complex surgery, trauma and ICU surgical patients.
  2. Select and follow specific patients with surgical problems throughout the patient’s course by becoming the primary student doctor in charge under the supervision of the faculty.
  3. Write patient care and diagnostic test orders under the supervision of the faculty.
  4. Participate in selected complex operative procedures under the supervision of the faculty.
  5. Attend weekly surgical student conferences specifically organized for this clerkship and present topics and cases as assigned.
  6. Meet with faculty coordinator bi-weekly to present and discuss complex cases and topics.
  7. Have free time to perform independent online and other information seeking and learning activities.

Method of Assessment: The student will be evaluated based upon the ACGME competencies

Required Reading: Advanced level surgical textbooks to include ACS Surgery, Sabiston, Greenfield or Brunicardi editions of surgical texts, specialty textbooks on trauma, critical care, surgical and critical care journal articles and other current research papers.

Additional Resources: None

Miscellaneous Information: None