↩ Surgery
The PGY-1 year is split between general surgery and urology. Each PGY-1 spends 6 months on urology and 6 months on general surgery services at RWJUH.
This year provides a well-rounded preliminary experience with exposure to surgical oncology, trauma, emergency general surgery, and the surgical intensive care unit. The 6 months of urology prepares each individual well for the start of Urology 1 year.
Residents spend the full year at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, and rotate three months at a time on urology or various general surgery services.
The PGY-2 urology junior resident spends a total of 6 months at RWJUH and 6 months at RWJUH-Somerset. The adult urology rotation at RWJUH includes heavy focus on diagnosis, preoperative evaluation, care, and medical/surgical management of a wide breadth of urologic conditions. Operative experience mostly includes cystoscopic and ureteroscopic cases, prostate biopsy, and other minor surgical procedures involving inguinal or scrotal region.
At Somerset, a PGY-2 and PGY-4 are paired to run a service encompassing 7 private urologists. Good exposure is provided with both simple and complex urologic procedures including robotic surgery.
The PGY 3 Urology residents spends total of 6 months on the pediatric service at the Bristol Myers-Squibb Children's Hospital as well as 6 months on research elective.
During the six month rotation, the resident becomes comfortable managing common and complex pediatric problems including hypospadias, vesicoureteral reflux and neurogenic bladder dysfunction. Two pediatric urology faculty in addition to private pediatric urologists provide a busy and extensive operative experience. During the PGY-3 year the resident is also exposed to more complex adult endoscopic cases and begins to perform minimally-invasive, robotic and laparoscopic cases.
The PGY-3 spends a total of 6 months dedicated to basic or clinical science research. The resident selects research projects with his/her mentor that based upon the interest of the resident. The resident is encouraged to present the research at a national meeting and submit the completed work for publication. During this rotation, the resident spends one day per week under the guidance of Dr. Hari Tunuguntla to learn the fundamentals of urodynamic evaluation.
The PGY 4 residents spend 12 months as "Chief" Resident at Princeton and Somerset.
The Princeton 6 month rotation, provides the resident exposure to a high volume private practice experience as a Chief Resident. The resident participates in the outpatient and inpatient management of all patients with a concentration on medical and surgical management of BPH, urinary tract calculi, and benign and malignant neoplasms of the genitourinary tract.
The PGY-4 also spends 6 months as "Chief" at RWJUH-Somerset. This rotation is heavily weighted towards minimally invasive and robotic surgery and allows the resident to gain confidence through independent learning and skills development. The Somerset operative experience includes a large volume of laparoscopic and robotic cases under the supervision of our fellowship trained robotic clinical faculty. As chief, the resident is responsible for teaching and guiding the PGY-2 through surgical cases and inpatient consultations.
PGY-4 year prepares the resident for his or her duties as Chief Resident.
The Chief Year is spent on the two adult Urology services at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
Each service is a high volume operative service with a slightly different focus. The minimally invasive service allows the chief to refine his or her laproscopic and robotic skills. Each chief will spend a large amount of time in the operating room perfecting robotic partial and radical nephrectomy, robotic prostatectomy, robotic cystectomy, pyeloplasty, PCNL, and advanced minimally invasive techniques for the treatment of BPH. Oncology service also includes excellent exposure to robotic and laparoscopic surgery. In addition, this service affords greater exposure to open radical cystectomy, partial nephrectomy, radical nephrectomy (including IVC thrombectomy), as well as RPLND.
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is a busy tertiary referral center for complex urologic disease. The chief residents supervise the care in the weekly outpatient urology clinic and becomes a mentor for the junior resident team. Chief residents are expected to participate in the workup and management of all patients on the service, coordinate the activities of the junior residents and medical students, and serve as the administrative executives for the day to day operations of the residency program.
Resident led lectures, AUA updates, AUA videos, guideline review, inservice preparation