The IU School of Medicine Department of Surgery trains third- and fourth-year medical students on the fundamentals of surgical knowledge and care. A 3G Sim Man at Fairbanks Simulation Center offers a simulated patient experience that includes acute problems for students to perform a focused assessment, form an apposite diagnosis and execute the appropriate treatment.
Medical Student Education
Patient Experience
Medical students learn hands-on through clinical practice at five locations in downtown Indianapolis.
Third-Year Clerkship
The surgical block during the Phase 2 curriculum is eight weeks of curriculum that involves four weeks of general surgery exposure and four weeks of exposure to subspecialty surgery. During the eight-week surgical block, students may find themselves assigned to any one of the IU School of Medicine campuses across the state. Regardless of campus placement, students will participate in weekly didactic sessions to ensure comparability of learning outcomes as specified by the ACS/ASE Medical Student Core Curriculum.
During the four weeks of the general surgery, students will spend time with their clinical teams to experience the many facets of general surgery. During this time, students will also participate in small group learning sessions both in a clinical and classroom setting. The subspecialty portion of the rotation will have the student rotating with one of nine chosen specialty services around the state.
Under the work-hour policy for third-year medical students at IUSM, the Department of Surgery honors ACGME guidelines for work hours. The surgical clerkship coordinator will review student logging data in MedHub weekly to determine work-hour violations and adjusts student exposure in observance of work-hour limitations. In addition, logging required clinical encounters in MedHub allows the department to shift students to needed areas of exposure when deficiencies in experience exist.
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IU School of Medicine Surgery Clerkship
The IU School of Medicine Department of Surgery trains third- and fourth-year medical students on the fundamentals of surgical knowledge and care.
Fourth-Year Sub-Internship
The Department of Surgery offers a Phase 3 General Surgery Sub-I experience, as well as various fourth-year clinical electives, exposing medical students to subspecialty areas of surgery, including hepatobiliary, pancreatic, minimally-invasive, breast, plastic, thoracic, cardiovascular, and transplant procedures through one-month electives. Students are integrated into the resident team and aid in all aspects of patient care and operative intervention. Additional electives are available for specialized experiences in ICU care, pediatric surgery, burn surgery and trauma surgery.
Fourth-Year Electives
The Department of Surgery offers a Phase 3 General Surgery Sub-I experience, as well as various fourth-year clinical electives, exposing medical students to subspecialty areas of surgery, including hepatobiliary, pancreatic, minimally-invasive, breast, plastic, thoracic, cardiovascular, and transplant procedures through one-month electives. Students are integrated into the resident team and aid in all aspects of patient care and operative intervention. Additional electives are available for specialized experiences in ICU care, pediatric surgery, burn surgery and trauma surgery.
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Surgical Research Electives
Surgical research electives offer an introduction to surgical research in clinical settings. Surgical faculty offer opportunities in basic science and clinical research. Participation in the research work of the surgery team’s laboratories for general surgery, pediatric surgery, and cardiovascular or transplant surgery exposes medical students to ongoing bench, translational, and clinical research projects. While the research focus of each lab varies among investigators, studies may involve in vitro or in vivo as well as human clinical trials and retrospective case review models. Students may be exposed to and perform basic biochemical techniques, including ELISA, Western Blot, and other processes. In addition, after appropriate training, a student may participate in animal studies involving surgical procedures. Students in the surgery team’s fourth-year electives may participate in ongoing clinical studies at the time of the rotation, and they will participate in group lab meetings and have individual meetings with the primary investigator of the lab in which they’re rotating.
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Surgical Internship Preparation Elective
The Surgical Internship Preparation Elective (SIPE) prepares medical students for surgical internships. This didactic elective is offered to fourth-year students during the spring of each year as preparation for a surgical internship. On a small-group demonstration and discussion basis, students can refine suturing skills, experience invasive techniques such as endoscopy, broaden trauma assessment understanding and expand on methods for evaluating scientific literature.
The SIPE curriculum includes a Residents as Teachers lecture series; Cadaver Labs experience for reintroducing surgical anatomy to perform common operations at the intern level; Common Techniques, including thoracostomy tube, central line placement, chest tube placement and advanced airway management; Surgical Patient Simulation Scenarios done at Fairbanks Simulation Center with a 3G Sim Man; Laparoscopic Skills Training on Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) trainer boxes; Ultrasound in Trauma Session introducing the Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma (FAST) method to students; Mock Pager Scenarios; Lecture Series covering various surgical topics; and lunch sessions with the interns and chief residents.