The core teaching staff at NYHQ is composed of six full-time surgeons with expertise in general surgery, trauma, surgical critical care, oncology, vascular and colo-rectal surgery. Five surgeons from the voluntary attending staff and the Department's chief Physician's Assistant comprise the remainder of the core teaching staff. Staff meet monthly to evaluate resident performance, determine policy for the program, and to advise the Chairman.

The teaching staff has the major responsibility for providing resident and medical student education. Members of the teaching staff have a substantial diversity of interest, allowing expert instruction in virtually all facets of surgery. The full-time faculties keep their private offices in the hospitals and carry beepers to ensure availability to the residents. Large voluntary teaching staffs supplement the teaching core at each institution, and all patients in the hospital are cared for by residents.

Attendings are assigned to cover clinics, emergency admissions, and operations. This is considered a privilege, and not a prerogative. Only those attendings deemed qualified and committed to teaching are allowed to take call. These attendings supervise the residents in their care of "service" patients, but no distinction is made between such patients and "private" patients with regards to teaching. All surgical patients are included in bedside teaching rounds and in discussions at M&M and departmental teaching conferences.

An attending is present at each operation. He/she may allow the chief resident to take a junior resident through a case, but the attending must still be present in the operating room. The only exception to this is in an emergency when the chief resident may start a case while awaiting the attendings arrival at the hospital.

Faculty | Support Staff | Voluntary Surgical Teaching Faculty