Graduate medical education in surgery in the united states

Graduate medical education in surgery currently consists of 5 or more years of post-medical school training. This training occurs in hospital-based residency programs, and is financed largely by the federal government. The traditional model of hospital-based surgical residency, in which aspiring surgeons participate in the care of patients under the tutelage of fully-trained surgeons, is a century old, and is under increasing scrutiny from patients, educators, and regulatory bodies. As the profession responds to these challenges, our current model of training may be on the brink of significant change.