A Word from the Program Director

The Department of Surgery at the University of Oklahoma offers four categorical General Surgery positions each academic year. All categorical PGY-1 residents are selected through the National Resident Matching Program. (University of Oklahoma Program number is #158819)

We are now accepting applications exclusively through the Electronic Residency Application Service for positions beginning in July, 2009.

Individuals considering a position in the General Surgery residency program of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals will find basic information on the following pages useful to assess our residency training program. Those seriously interested in more information are encouraged to visit the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Any questions or comments can be E-mailed to Surgery@ouhsc.edu or write:

M. Alex Jacocks, M.D.
Professor of Surgery
Residency Program Director
Department of Surgery
University of Oklahoma
P.O. Box 26901 WP 2140
Oklahoma City, OK 73190
(405) 271-8096
FAX: (405) 271-3919

The Residency

The education of surgeons motivated toward and capable of practicing surgery of the highest quality for an entire career is the major objective of the University of Oklahoma Department of Surgery. The process begins with the selection of candidates possessing ample intellectual capacity, high moral standards and humanistic attitudes who are willing to make a serious commitment to an intense and demanding educational experience. The modern surgeon is involved in every aspect of a broad spectrum of disease. His/her responsibilities include establishing the diagnosis and managing preoperative care, performing an extraordinary variety of technical procedures and, finally, directing postoperative care and rehabilitation. He/she must learn to relate effectively and productively to patients, their families, and a spectrum of colleagues. Every surgeon should recognize the importance of new knowledge and should participate in its acquisition. It is essential that he/she view surgical residency as a segment of an educational process which will continue throughout an entire career.

Program Design
The first year of the residency program in General Surgery is designated as a Surgery Categorical by the Director of Residency Training Programs and the NRMP. Four places are offered. In addition, the institution offers a Urology Categorical (three positions), an Otolaryngology Categorical (two positions), a Neurological Surgery Categorical (one position) and an Orthopedic Categorical (5 positions). Individuals accepted into these programs spend part of the first year in the Department of Surgery. The result is that there are seventeen house officers rotating at the first year level in the Department of Surgery. There is no "pyramid."

Several years ago, in response to changing requirements of the American Board of Surgery, the decision was made to require that all residents have five full years of clinical experience. Since research experience is also considered important, individuals are encouraged to add a year or two of research experience after either Years II or III of the residency. This can be spent either in this institution or elsewhere but will prolong the total period of postgraduate surgical education. Most, but not all, residents choose a research year.

Year I (Assistant Resident) - The first year is designed to allow the resident to acquire a broad base of knowledge and skills in the care of surgical patients. This includes appropriate evaluation of patients, participation in the operative management of patients and primary responsibility for postoperative care, all with experienced supervision. This year also allows residents to gain knowledge and expertise in the surgical subspecialties, rotating on general surgery, trauma/critical care, thoracic surgery, plastics and pediatric surgery. There is some variability in the schedules of first year residents. Not all residents will rotate on all subspecialty services, but the overall experiences are comparable.

Year II (Assistant Resident) - During the second year, there is increased emphasis on acquiring technical skills. Besides general surgery, rotations include thoracic surgery, transplant, vascular lab and head and neck surgery.  In addition, there is more time available for the essential activity of any educational program - reading. The facilities available for self instruction will be described in a subsequent section.

Year III (Assistant Resident) - This year is designed to strengthen the resident's education in general surgery and is a key year for operative experience rotating on general surgery and pediatric surgery.

Year IV (Assistant Resident) - The resident at Year IV is acutely aware that the Senior Year is just ahead and plans the year to fill in any gaps and to augment strengths in his/her education. Ordinarily, the four three-month rotations are all on general surgery and trauma services includes a private hospital rotation .  The Residency Program Director also works with each resident to coordinate rotations suitable for an individual residents needs to include rotations such as breast, dermatalogy, endoscopy, radiology, rheumatology, vascular, etc.

Year V (Senior Resident) - The entire year is spent in general surgery with six months at Presbyterian Tower and six months at the Veterans Administration Medical Center. The Senior Resident is in charge of a surgical service and performs procedures independently. He has supervision at all times and is encouraged to seek consultation. This year the surgical resident becomes a surgeon, adding a large technical experience to the preceding years of learning about patients and their diseases. It is the most intense and, at the same time, one of the most rewarding years in the lives of the majority who experience it.

Optional Year - As mentioned, selected residents are allowed to take an additional year, or in some cases two years, working outside the field of clinical surgery. This is most commonly a research laboratory experience. The laboratory efforts in our Department are coordinated by Dan Brackett. Recent residents have done work at Sloan-Kettering, UCSF, Vanderbilt and the University of Washington.

Board Certification
Each year a written In-Training Examination developed by the American Board of Surgery (ABSITE) is given to all residents. Three other exams (May, August, November) are administered to residents prior to the ABSITE. These allow both the resident and the program to compare the resident's performance with all residents taking the examination. Residents at all levels are expected to score in the 50th percentile or higher and improve from year to year.

Operative Experience and Rotation Schedule
Each resident keeps a detailed record of his personal operative experience, using the ACGME computerized program. Copies of these records are on file in the departmental offices. On an average, the Senior Resident performs more than 400 major procedures in his final year. In the years prior to becoming Senior Resident, the resident performs an average of 550 operations and serves as the first assistant on an additional 200 procedures. These procedures include virtually all operations in the field of General Surgery, with a smaller number of procedures in the surgical subspecialties.

Hospital and Academic Facilities

The Oklahoma Health Sciences Center is a 200-acre campus, one mile south of the state capitol in Oklahoma City. Located within the Center are the Colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Allied Health, Public Health, Nursing, Pharmacy, the Graduate College, the Robert M. Bird Library, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Dean McGee Eye Institute, Department of Health, Oklahoma Blood Institute and the Medical Examiner's office.

OU Medical Center
Presbyterian, and the Women's and Neonate Pavillion are collectively referred to as OU Medical Center and are part of the HCA Health Care System. There is a 10 member board which oversees the coordination of the hospitals and College of Medicine activities. The hospitals participating in teaching and research activities are ensured in a document called the Academic Affiliation Agreement (AAA).

Presbyterian Tower
This is a full service, acute care hospital with 400 adult beds.

There are 18 operating rooms with an adjacent recovery

room. Patients are housed in private rooms. Services are

not assigned to specific areas, but surgery patients are

admitted primarily to two nursing units.

The hospital serves as a referral center for all of Oklahoma and

is the only hospital of its kind in the state.

In the 2006 calendar year, 1514 patients were admitted

to the General Surgery Services of The University Hospital

and 1447 in-patient and 967 outpatient operations were performed.

The hospital operates a large outpatient clinic. The Surgery Clinic meets two days each week and, in 2006, a total 2,793 patients were seen.

The OU MEDICAL CENTER remains the only American College of Surgeons (ACS) - verified designated Level I trauma center in the state, the past year responding to 2,277 trauma activations and admitting 1,567 patients. 

The departmental administrative and teaching areas are in the Williams Pavilion Building, which is connected to the hospital by a covered overhead walkway.



The Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) was constructed in 1953 and was one of the first veterans hospitals to be located within a university medical center. The building has undergone continuous renovation since the late 1990's. An entirely new operating room suite with recovery rooms, intensive care units, and inpatient and outpatient facilities was opened in 1994, with all surgical service activities located on one contiguous floor. The hospital is physically connected to other units of the complex by an overhead walkway. With 184 acute care beds, the hospital serves as a major teaching acility of the University. The administrative relationships between the University and the Oklahoma City Veterans Administration Medical Center have traditionally allowed the closest cooperation between the educational programs and the hospital. Members of the surgical faculty who have administrative assignments at the VAMC are also active at other campus hospitals. A portion of the research activities of the Department of Surgery is carried out in the research laboratory at VAMC. During 2001-2002, there were 612 admissions to the General Surgery Services and 860 operations performed.

Women’s and Newborn Pavilion (formerly

Everett Tower/Children's Tower)

Women’s and Newborn Pavilion houses the OB-GYN services

and their patients and all of pediatrics.  Children's services is

the referral center for the entire region and is the only

comprehensive children's hospital in the state. Each of the

surgical disciplines is responsible for a service. The

General Pediatric Surgical Service is responsible for a majority

of the complicated pediatric surgical care in the state. During

2006-2007, there were 2400 operations performed on this

service. A chief resident in Pediatric Surgery is selected in a

national match every other year to serve for two years.  The Chief Pediatric Resident averages 1500

cases over the two years. In addition, three residents from general surgery (at Levels I and III) are assigned

to this important service.


Departmental Conferences