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Welcome
Dr. Jim Fleshman
Chair, BUMC Department of Surgery
Baylor University Medical Center General Surgery Residency program has a rich history dating back to 1903. Surgeons have been training and working in this hospital in affiliation with Dallas Medical College, Baylor College of Medicine, Southwest Medical College, and now Texas A&M College of Medicine. The high standards for resident training have not diminished, and the legacy of great surgeons who have trained and cared for patients here continue to the current day.
Our program is one of the largest community-academic based programs training residents and students with emphasis on academics, high volumes of complex cases, and a faculty committed to specialty care and academic pursuit. Our mentorship program is based on establishing relationships between residents and attending surgeons to guide the residents' professional development. The research projects produced within our divisions are fostered by faculty who have a desire to answer a question about patient care relevant to daily practice. The faculty are divided into 9 divisions around specialty surgery designation: Trauma/Acute Care/Critical Care, Vascular, Transplant, Colorectal, Minimally Invasive/Foregut, General/Robotics, Surgical Oncology, Plastic Surgery and Urology. Each member of the department is working at the highest level of complexity of cases within their specialty.
Residency training at Baylor University Medical Center opens wide the door to any field of work that a future surgeon can desire. Opportunities for research, leadership, teaching students, and establishing mentoring relationships abound. As time has passed, the pursuit of fellowship training to gain expertise in an area of interest has become very common for our graduating Chief Residents. The volume and complexity of cases encountered provides a base for any specialty the resident can imagine. The reputation of the program is that graduates are independent operators able to make decisions and respond to the toughest circumstances. We hope you are ready to join us as we look to the future of surgery.
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James Fleshman MD, FACS, FASCRS
Interview Details
Our interview season will extend over a 7 week period for the 2023 entering resident class. All interviews will be virtual. You will receive Webex invites with the specific times to your email. Our interview process starts at 5 PM Monday night with an intro from Dr. Goldstein followed by the Virtual Happy Hour with the residents. You will then have 4 individually scheduled interviews at various times from Tuesday to Firday. These will be with attending surgeons in our department along with at least one current 4th year resident.​
Here's your chance to interact with the current residents and get an idea of the culture of our program. This is key for you, because just as we are looking to see if you're a good fit for us, you have to make the same determination about whether we are a good fit for you! So, grab a glass of your favorite beverage and join us for a relaxed and casual get-together. This is also your chance to ask any questions you have about the residency. Everything from parking, to food, to call schedules, the residents will give you the honest look at our program.
What about a Second Look?
There's a lot of concern among the applicants interviewing so far about whether or not a "second look" will influence their rank. We would absolutely love to have you come see us if you wish, but this will definitely not influence your position on our rank list.
Overview
Dr. Goldstein
BUMC Residency Program Director
Medical Student Education
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We are the major clinical teaching site for Texas A&M medical students. They spend their first18 months at College Station for basic science. Their next 30 months of clinical is spent at BUMC.
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Medical education is a cornerstone of our program.
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The residents are expected to be actively involved in the education and mentorship of our future physicians.
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Educational courses through Texas A&M Medical School and BUMC occur throughout the year addressing advances in teaching techniques for medical students and residents as well as surgical faculty development. These are recorded so they are available if you are unable to attend the lecture.
Quality Improvement, surgical outcomes, patient safety and population health
The practice of surgery is continually changing with data and metrics playing an ever-increasing role in how we can improve the delivery of patient care and how we are judged against our peers. Using our EHR, ACS NSQIP and QITI we are now able to real time evaluate our performance and compare it to our peers.
During your 5 years of training you will be introduced to how these metrics are collected, how they are and will be shared locally and nationally and what it will mean for the future practice of surgery. You will finish residency with the skill set to use the current tools and have the foundation to adapt to future programs for quality improvement in your own practice.
Life inside and out of residency, Wellness
The camaraderie within the BUMC residency is exceptional. There is a wonderful supportive atmosphere while at work, a close knit relationship outside of work and a I have your back mentality. For an insight into the residents world visit the BUMC general surgery Instagram page.
Program Philosophy
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Surgery residency is a hard but rewarding 5 years. Having a great working environment is key to a successful program. Our approach is first and foremost to create a positive supportive environment on a daily basis. Our goal when you graduate is when you look back you realize it was a short hard 5 years rather than a long hard 5 years.
The best wellness in workplaces results from everyday efforts. Intermittent events can help but cannot replace what happens every day. To accomplish this at BUMC we are committed to a family environment on a daily basis. We all work very hard, residents, attending surgeons and other members of the care team with the goal of training you, the resident, and taking care of our patients.
Even after over 30 years at BUMC I still enjoy coming to work because of the positive attitude, supportive environment and daily interaction with great residents.
At BUMC the residents know that we care about them and their education. This leads to a daily environment of collaboration and at the end of the day a great place to train. As your attending surgeons at BUMC our best day of the year is June 30, the day you graduate as a competent confident surgeon that looks back on their 5 years and will miss BUMC.
GME resources
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Web site for GME compensation and wellness:
Resident Retreat
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Once a year in early spring we have our resident retreat. All the residents are excused from clinical responsibilities. The first half of the day is devoted to discussing what is working, what may need to be changed next year and any other topics of concern to the residents. The second half of the day is our time for what we want to do. This is based on consensus from the residents.
Education Conferences
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There is a full range of protected educational conferences as well as rotation specific conferences. These conferences are designed to supplement your bedside clinical experiences further developing your medical knowledge.
Protected Time Conferences
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Education Conference, Monday 3:00pm-5:00pm. The first 6 months is ABSITE system-based topics. The second 6 months is mock oral preparation, journal club and speciality attending lectures
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Chiefs/M&M, Friday 7:00am-8:00am. Attending lead with residents either presenting selected cases or else cases selected from current case logs.
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Grand Rounds, Friday 8:00am-9:00am. Selected topics and visiting professor presentations.
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Leadership Seminars, Simulation Lab, Friday 3:00pm-4:00pm (various dates throughout the year, but not every week)
Rotation Specific Conferences
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Each service has their own education conferences to further enhance your medical knowledge. These are specific to the subspecialty and often are multidisciplinary further expanding your exposure to experts in the various aspects of patient care. Conferences include:
Liver Tumor Conference, Pancreas Tumor Conference, Aortic Conference, Heart Transplant Selection Conference, Liver Transplant Selection, Kidney Transplant Selection, Trauma Conference, Surgical Critical Care Conference, Vascular Case Conference, Colorectal MDT, Colorectal Basic Science Conference, GI Foregut MDT.
Research
Baylor General Surgery Residency Program believes strongly that research should be part of surgical training. It gives one the tools necessary to evaluate publications and to determine the relevance and appropriateness of published data for changing practice. It shows the world that an individual can carry a research project to completion as a publication in a peer reviewed journal. It also advances the field of surgery, benefiting the patients we care for.
Our focus is on clinical research rather than bench research. There is a strong infrastructure within Minimally Invasive, Colon-Rectal, Trauma, Cardio-Thoracic and Transplant Surgery. The Surgical Research Peer Review Committee meets monthly to review and strengthen projects and allocate available foundation funding.
A list of projects supported by attending surgeons are maintained by our Baylor Scott and White Research Institute research coordinators to help residents get started with a project. We have a dedicated MD PhD, focused on Health System Science, and a statistician imbedded in the Department to aid in project design, data collection tools and analysis of data.
There is an optional opportunity for a limited number of residents to take time away from clinical training between either the 2nd and 3rd year or the 3rd and 4th year to focus on research. There is no requirement for a year off for research. The choice to take time away from clinical training is based on the resident’s need for competitiveness in fellowship application or other career goals.
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Though we do not have a required research year, our residents and faculty have been making significant contributions to the field through original clinical research. Check out our research pages for a sampling of our department's publications.