General Surgery Residency Columbia - Director's Welcome
Welcome and thank you for your interest in learning more about our residency program.
There are many general surgery training programs in the United States and while all accredited programs may offer some similar experiences, there can be an overwhelming amount of variety and differences from program to program. Finding the right program that fits you as an applicant and your career goals is an important first choice as you begin your surgical career. Here at Prisma Health in Columbia, our goal is to allow our residents to reach their full potential to become the best well rounded surgeon they can be. Every graduating chief will be equally ready, confident, and well-trained to enter directly into a busy surgical practice, to be admitted to the most competitive of fellowship programs, or to become an eventual leader in the field of surgery. Regardless of what specialty you may eventually choose or wherever your journey takes you, we will train you to have a solid foundation of surgical skills that you will be able to rely on for the rest of your career.
How do we do that? First there is a focus, early and often, on clinical medicine and operative experience. Unlike some programs where you may rotate through a dozen or more hospital and clinic locations throughout your residency, never feeling comfortable in one place, we focus our educational efforts in only a few select sites. Our faculty members have the opportunity to build a trusting relationship with each resident to ensure their success as competent, compassionate clinicians. This allows for greater freedom and autonomy in the OR and the wards. Autonomy is truly a cornerstone of surgical education, and graduated responsibility is given as each resident progresses in their training. Emphasis is placed on creating surgeons that are confident working independently in a variety of situations.
Surgery requires practice, patience, and sacrifice. We believe that you get out of it what you put into it. We also understand the important role we play in training future surgeons, and our promise to you is that if you work your hardest and put your all into learning and training here, we will support you both inside and outside of the operating room.
