General Surgery Residency – Northeast
Provide lifesaving care for patients of all ages. Learn how with a Geisinger general surgery residency.
About us
The General Surgery Northeast Residency was founded at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center (GWV) in 2009. Today, the Geisinger Northeast General Residency is based at two busy regional referral centers, GWV in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and Geisinger Community Medical Center (GCMC) in Scranton, Pa. The facilities are about 15 miles apart.
Educating you, our future surgeons, as clinically excellent physicians is our goal. You’ll complete the program skilled in practicing high-quality, cost-effective, evidence-based surgical care and able to administer this care with a patient-centered approach.
We are accredited by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The program is a five-year general surgery residency, and we accept four residents into categorical positions each year.
Since our program is based at GWV and GCMC, the majority of your surgical education takes place at those two facilities. This includes rotations in general surgery, acute care/emergency general surgery, vascular surgery, trauma surgery and critical care, surgical oncology, colon and rectal surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, bariatric and minimally invasive surgery, and endoscopy. As a resident, you’ll train at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville for rotations in transplant surgery and in pediatric surgery at Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital.
Fortune/Merative ranked Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center #9 among the 25 Top Teaching Hospitals In 2022.
The Geisinger general surgery residency is integrated with Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, which is based in Scranton. Residents are actively engaged in medical student education.
Geisinger Northeast’s graduate training program in general surgery strives to educate critically thinking surgeons who are lifelong learners and leaders in a constantly changing environment. As a prospective resident, you can take advantage of our health system’s unique features:
- Among the largest in Pennsylvania, with a population reach of more than 1 million residents.
- Continued growth as a network of community, long-term and tertiary care facilities.
- Among the leaders in U.S. healthcare quality initiatives. For example, Geisinger’s Quality Institute is a learning institution designed to build organizational capacity to continually improve and redesign work through education and coaching.
- Geisinger’s commitment to research has grown to include two dedicated research centers, the Siegfried and Janet Weis Center for Research, and Henry Hood Center for Health Research, as well as system-wide clinical departments and service-line faculty engaged in numerous investigative projects.
- National recognition: One important indicator of quality is whether a hospital and its staff are recognized by independent organizations devoted to measuring healthcare quality.
- Among the nation’s first institutions to fully adopt an electronic medical record system (Epic).
- Has one of the largest genomics programs in the world: MyCode, a community health initiative and precision medical project at Geisinger locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Includes a system-wide biobank designed to store blood and other samples for research to be used by Geisinger and Geisinger collaborators.
Our home: Northeastern Pennsylvania
Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a great place to live, with safe neighborhoods, an affordable cost of living and access to recreational activities. NEPA is close to New York City and Philadelphia, giving you access to major cities in just a few hours. Overall, our communities are ideal for living a stress-free, healthy lifestyle. More importantly, NEPA is a place where you can make a difference.
Program overview
Overall programmatic goals and objectives
The curriculum of the Northeast General Surgery Residency is based on the core competencies of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME): patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism and systems-based practice. These are taught through clinical rotations, a SCORE-based academic curriculum, use of simulation and scholarly activity. Goals of the program include:
- Create a modern residency program that provides the foundation for contemporary surgical training that reflects the practice of general surgery in the 21st century.
- Provide a supportive educational environment that fosters the development of professionalism along with personal growth and commitment to compassionate care.
- Train medical students to become competent, confident and compassionate surgeons who will deliver quality care in a cost-efficient manner in the community or an academic setting.
- Provide research opportunities to better interpret and apply current medical literature and offer learning opportunities for surgical residents and students interested in pursuing further specialty training, in becoming independent investigators or in becoming academic surgeons.
- Train surgeons who’ve passed the qualifying and certifying examinations of the American Board of Surgery and the American Osteopathic Board of Surgery to become lifelong learners, teachers and leaders in a constantly changing environment.
- Train surgeons who have passed Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery and Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery with additional experience and qualifications to perform robotic surgery.
While you are a resident, your academics alternate on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons from 1 to 5 p.m. Attendance is mandatory. The academic general surgery curriculum is based on the This Week in SCORE (TWIS) curriculum. The academic schedule incorporates the following components:
- Lectures
- Oral board review
- American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination (ABSITE®) review
- Resident research presentations and project reviews
- Simulation
- Wellness lectures/sessions
- Wednesday mornings from 7 to 8 a.m. will be morbidity and mortality (M&M)
- Trauma systemwide M&Ms will be held quarterly on Thursday mornings from 7 to 8 a.m.
Resident rotation schedules
Our surgery residents in the Northeast have a robust clinical experience in rotations spread out over 13 blocks occurring each four weeks. Below is a sample of rotations.
Surgical oncology & cardiothoracic — Two blocks
General surgery & colorectal surgery — Two blocks
Trauma/emergency general surgery (EGS) — Four blocks
General surgery — Three blocks
Surgical ICU — One block
Medical ICU — One block
Trauma/EGS — Three blocks
Medically invasive surgery — Three blocks
Endoscopy — One block
Vascular surgery — Two blocks
General surgery — One block
Night float — One block
General surgery & colorectal surgery — One block
Surgical ICU — One block
Trauma/EGS — Three blocks
General surgery — Two blocks
Night float — Two blocks
General surgery & colorectal — Two block
Surgical oncology & cardiothoracic — One block
Surgical ICU — One block
Pediatric surgery — One block
Transplant — One block
Trauma/EGS — Three blocks
General surgery — Two blocks
General surgery & colorectal surgery — Two blocks
Surgical oncology & cardiothoracic — Two blocks
Vascular surgery — Two blocks
Night float — Two blocks
Trauma/EGS — Four blocks
General surgery — Three blocks
General surgery & colorectal — Three blocks
Surgical oncology & cardiothoracic — Two blocks
Night float — One block
Simulation
Geisinger Northeast General Surgery Residency has a robust simulation program. Training starts during orientation of PGY1 year in which you’re required to complete the following by year’s end: Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) and intern boot camp. Intern boot camp includes basic suturing, central line insertion and introduction to our online simulation portal.
The simulation curriculum is further divided into Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS), Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (FES), Fundamentals of Robotic Surgery (FRS) and Technical Skills. It is tracked within an online portal accessible by all residents and faculty, which contains up-to-date simulation schedules, assignments, evaluations, credentialing and resources for you to supplement your training.
Physical simulation space is distributed among all rotation campuses to allow equal opportunity for you to hone your skills regardless of your rotation schedule. It consists of two FLS simulators at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center (GWV), robotic simulators at both Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre (GSWB) and Geisinger Community Medical Center (GCMC), and FLS & FES simulators at the Geisinger Education & Medical Simulation (GEMS) Center. The GEMS Center in Danville, Pa., allows resident access on a scheduled monthly basis, built into the education block time.
Small groups of three residents rotate between FES, FLS and central line simulators for 20 to 30 minutes with guidance from faculty and chief residents. FES simulation is carried out on the Simbionix GI Mentor, where you can perform common tasks seen in practice and on your exam. FLS simulation is practiced on the Simbionix Lap Mentor, allowing you to perform various crucial parts of procedures such as cholecystectomy, hernia repair and sigmoidectomy. Technical skills drills include ultrasound-guided central line insertion, focused assessment with sonography in trauma (FAST) exam and arterial line insertion, among others.
In addition to practice opportunities on various simulators, you’ll be individually scheduled for the following required training:
- FLS testing session simulating the FLS exam every four months, including faculty evaluation/scoring
- Robotic in-service annually (four sessions per year available) to teach and refresh you on bedside assist, docking, instrument exchange, troubleshooting, emergency undocking and practicing common skills (e.g., suturing, clutching, port placement) on plastic models
- Endoscopy inanimate porcine lab annually to familiarize residents with endoscopy equipment and practice various endoscopy procedures on porcine stomach and intestine
- Additional practice on the FES simulator(s) in preparation for your FES exam at GEMS Center
- Principles of energy, suturing and stapling porcine lab annually. You can practice various open and minimally invasive energy and stapling devices on porcine stomach/intestine, culminating in simulated porcine hand-sewn anastomotic techniques
- Vascular simulation lab annually, where you can handle and experience cryopreserved tissue while practicing suturing and anastomotic techniques
Additional simulation labs in partnership with industry include a live trauma porcine lab focusing on damage control surgery and hemostatic products, and a fresh cadaver robotics lab that lets you perform select procedures (cholecystectomy, inguinal hernia repair, right hemicolectomy, sigmoidectomy).
You and your fellow residents will benefit from a rich learning environment, easily accessible and convenient resources and faculty guidance. We also plan to develop a simulated patient curriculum with Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.
Frequently asked questions
Upon completing the Geisinger Northeast General Surgery Residency, you’ll be a highly competent and confident surgeon skilled in delivering quality cost-effective surgical care. Geisinger believes in the quality of our graduates’ education. Six of our past graduates have joined our surgical department (service line).
In addition, we’ve successfully placed many of our graduates in fellowship positions. In recent years, on average, two thirds of our graduates have matched for surgical fellowship positions. These have included trauma surgery, critical care, minimally invasive surgery and colorectal surgery.