Southeast Campus

General Surgery - Surgical Oncology

Veterans Affairs Medical Center

SURG 9216

Faculty Director: Mark O. Jensen, M.D., FACS  (Contact Person:  293-4126 or via email at:   mark.jensen@medicine.nodak.edu

Participating Faculty: Kurt Lindquist, M.D., FACS
                                     Linda B. Lindquist, M.D., FACS
                                     Thomas X, Musacchia, M.D., FACS

Offered: All periods
Positions: 1 per period

Objectives of the Elective:

  1. Gain experience and expertise in the diagnosis and management of surgical disease.
  2. Develop progressive technical proficiency as a member of an operating team.
  3. Become familiar with surgical landmarks, gross pathology, and normal and abnormal presentations in the preoperative, operative, and postoperative patient.
  4. Develop expertise in brief verbal or written summaries of a patient's clinical course at "rounds" or in hospital chart.

Instructional Activities:

  1. The work-up and initial plan of management of assigned patients will be presented to a staff surgeon for discussion to include, textbook or literature references.
  2. Pertinent texts, journals, audiovisual, and computer aids are available in the library for student utilization.
  3. The student is to participate in "teaching rounds" with attending staff as well as in daily rounds with the senior resident and staff.
  4. Weekly Friday noon grand rounds presentations (except June - August) are scheduled in the UND educational building. Community and VA attending staff, resident staff, and all clinical clerks participate.
  5. Participation in advanced surgical oncology activities is expected; i.e., tumor board, surgical pathology conference, and surgical basic science lectures.
  6. The student is to participate in the surgical outpatient clinics and will be assigned patients to evaluate at each of the three weekly clinics. Some will be postoperative patients. The surgeon in charge will discuss management and when appropriate demonstrate significant findings in these and other clinic patients.
  7. During operation, the anatomic features and gross pathology will be demonstrated and discussed as appropriate by the staff surgeons.
  8. Participation in the Surgical Anatomy lab course for residents is expected.

Standards of Performance (Outcomes) Indicating Attainment of Objectives:

  1. The student performance and level of clinical competency will be rated unsatisfactory, satisfactory or superior.
  2. Attainment of an objective requires satisfactory performance or better.
  3. No written examinations are planned.

Criteria for Grading:

  1. History and physicals; diagnosis and treatment planning; patient management; procedural skills; operating room performance; interaction and professional conduct; rapport with personnel; appearance and initiatives are individually evaluated.
  2. Each preceptor will use a scale of 1 (unsatisfactory) to 5 (superior).
  3. A consensus final grade for overall clinical competence will be developed from the numerical evaluations (1 to 5).