General Surgery Program Curriculum

General Surgery Residency Curriculum

Learn about resident rotations for each year of Creighton's general surgery residency program.

Clinical Years 1 and 2
Clinical Years 3 and 4
Chief Year

Clinical Years 1 and 2

During the first two years, residents rotate among five hospitals. These include three Omaha hospitals:

CHI Health - Creighton University Medical Center Bergan Mercy
Omaha Veterans Administration Medical Center
University of Nebraska Medical Center,
and one in Kansas City, Missouri: Children’s Mercy Hospital.
CHI Health Immanuel Medical Center

The primary teaching site is CHI Health - Creighton University Medical Center Bergan Mercy. Three services provide exposure to the full range of general surgical diseases. Other rotations at this institution include vascular and plastic surgery.

Rotations at other institutions offer experience in:

Pediatric Surgery
Liver, Kidney and Small Bowel Transplantation
General and Vascular Surgery

Each service provides a unique learning opportunity for the resident surgeon.

Current General Surgery Residents

General Surgery Scholarly Activity and Research

Clinical Years 3 and 4

The senior years of the program begin with the third clinical year. Rotations include:

General Surgery
Trauma Surgery
Head and Neck Surgery
Burn Management
Breast Surgery
Acute Care Surgery

Residents rotate between CHI Health - Creighton University Medical Center, the Omaha VA Medical Center and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Lincoln. Ultimately, residents will be exposed to 6 different clinical environments. Clinical experiences at each add immeasurably to a resident’s medical knowledge, diagnostic ability, and surgical confidence.

We have revised our curriculum to include a 1-month elective opportunity, in response to resident input, in the 3rd or 4th year of our residency program.

Chief Year

The Chief Residents take on a managerial role with regard to the academic program and the supervision of junior residents.

The chief year rotations are all spent at CHI Hospital Locations in the Omaha Metro areas and promotes an emphasis on General Surgery, Bariatric Surgery, and Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgery.

Robotic Surgery Boot Camp - A Resident Opportunity

The Robotic Surgery boot camp is designed to provide all Creighton surgical (general surgery, urology, GYN and other surgical disciplines) residents with an integrated approach of computer-based learning modules and hands-on training.

Expand to learn about this half day course.

The curriculum provides all residents with basic knowledge of robotically assisted laparoscopy, its instrumentation, system components, and troubleshooting techniques through a computer-based testing.

It also provides residents with a dry lab to familiarize themselves with the components and instrumentation of the robotic operating system and its uses.

Boot Camp Activities

The boot camp covers such subjects depending up on resident level of training:

Boot Camp levels
- Junior level (1st and 2 yr)
- Senior (Third year and after)
Port Placement & Docking
Patient-side Assisting
Emergency Procedures
Energy Application & Advanced Instrumentation
Suturing with the da Vinci System
Emergency Procedures

Individual departments also have periodic robotic skills sessions.

General Surgery:

General surgery department arranges periodic skills session. This will be faculty led supervised activities with small group robotic practice sessions.

The Skills session includes