Organization of the Vascular Surgery Service

The Vascular Surgery Service is divided into four separate care teams, each headed on a rotating basis by either the chief resident(s) (PGY-V) or the two clinical vascular surgery residents for one month at a time. These separate care teams allow, in the best manner, to maintain patient continuity of care for the PGY-V residents and the two vascular surgery residents. Twelve months are spent on the Vascular Surgery Service. Thus, at the end of the year, each vascular surgery resident will have spent three months on each of the four services:

The four teams share two PGY-III and two PGY-I residents who fully and actively participate in the educational and clinical activities of the Vascular Surgery Service. The four teams also share two nurse practitioners who help with the in-hospital care of the vascular patients.

The PGY-V and PGY-III residents and the vascular surgery residents attend the outpatient clinic of the respective attending(s) at least twice a week to evaluate patients and provide the follow-up of patients for whom they were involved in the preoperative, operative and in-hospital postoperative care. All senior level trainees are assigned as the initial contacts for new patients in order to provide them with the experience of preoperative assessment, including differential diagnoses, as well as developing a management plan that they discuss with the respective vascular surgery faculty.