General Surgery Residency at Hackensack University Medical Center

Welcome Message from the Chair

Dear Future Surgeons,

Is an extraordinary privilege to play a role in the education of our Hackensack University Medical Center residents. Our residents are a group of extraordinarily driven, compassionate, smart and fun physicians who revel in the joy of caring for others. Our surgeons and residents work together to deliver care of the highest quality in a spectacular, high-volume, cutting edge facility.

We opened the most modern surgical tower in the United States in December 2022. The Helena Theurer Pavilion delivers the absolute latest in technology to patient's in our operating rooms, surgical intensive care units and in our surgical tower.

The benefits of training in a high-volume institution completely focused on education is that graduates have a broad palate of experiences upon which to draw. Our residents go to the finest fellowships in the United States and are also competent to go right into general surgery.

I personally have worked and trained in the Nation's most storied institutions and am so proud and thrilled that our Hackensack University Medical Center surgical residency matches up with the best.

If you are interested in working with surgical attendings and surgical residents who are completely devoted to your development I encourage you to apply.

With great enthusiasm for your future,

Howard Ross, MD, FACS, FASCRS
M. Martin Ross Distinguished Chair in Surgery
Surgeon-in-Chief Hackensack University Medical Center
Professor and Chair
Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine

Welcome Message from the Program Director

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Surgical Residency Program at Hackensack University Medical Center. We have a long tradition of helping to train exceptional surgeons and now we have a remarkable new surgical residency program. We embarked on this endeavor in conjunction with the newest medical school in New Jersey, the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. We are an ACGME accredited Surgical Residency and we train 5 categorical residents per year with a total complement of 27 residents including 2 preliminary PGY 1 positions.

Our inaugural residency class started July 1, 2019 and this first class has matched into extremely competitive fellowships (3 residents are going into a Vascular Surgery Residency, 1 resident has matched into a Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Residency and 1 resident has matched into a Breast Surgery Fellowship).

The faculty and I have designed an innovative curriculum that enhances the essential elements of experiential adult learning in a state of the art hospital, utilizing innovative technology. Our academic and clinical surgical curriculum covers the essential content areas of surgery within a 2-year cycle. We utilize and reference the Surgical Council on Resident Education’s (SCORE) curriculum during the individual rotations and didactics.

Our educational strategies provide visual, oral, and hands-on learning opportunities based on principles of adult learning including didactic lectures, interactive Web-based materials, reading assignments, simulation training, skills labs and teaching rounds on the in-patient units and in the outpatient settings. Dedicated and protected time for educational activities is set aside each week and residents are required to attend these sessions. The conference times allow post call residents to participate and comply with work hours.

Residents are required to participate in clinical research as well as participate in a quality improvement project during residency. Some residents are able to extend their training and take a 1 or 2 year research sabbatical (two residents have already taken a 2 year research sabbatical at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and 1 resident just started a research year at Ohio State University in the Department of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery) .

A successful residency program places the resident first. We encourage our residents to be intimately involved in the evaluation, review and promotion process and rely upon constant feedback from them to create ongoing, positive changes. We believe that residents who shape their program remain active learners throughout their careers and become leaders at their future institutions.

On behalf of the faculty, I welcome you to discover what Hackensack University Medical Center offers and invite you to be part of our surgical residency family.

Burton Surick, M.D, FACS
Program Director Surgical Residency
Hackensack University Medical Center
Professor in the Department of General Surgery
Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine