Surgical Opportunities for Medical Students

The Department of Surgery offers pre-clinical courses that can be electives or fulfill scholarly concentration requirements.

SURG 204: Introduction to Surgery

This lunch seminar is designed to give preclinical medical students a broad overview of surgical specialties and life as a surgeon. Interactive talks by leading surgeons from General Surgery, Surgical Oncology, Trauma/Acute Care Surgery, Breast Surgery, Colorectal Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Endocrine Surgery, Transplant Surgery, and Plastic Surgery will highlight the array of operation types performed and diseases and conditions encountered in their disciplines. In addition, each lecturer will provide students with a road map as to how to successfully enter each specialty field of surgery. Lunch will be provided.    

SURG 205: Technical Training and Preparation for the Surgical Environment

This course is designed for preclinical students in the School of Medicine interested in acquiring the technical skills and clinical orientation necessary to learn and participate in the surgical environment. Students will begin with scrub training to learn sterile technique prior to participation in the operating room followed by basic surgical techniques (including knot tying, suturing, hand-sewn bowel anastomoses, vascular skills and laparoscopic skills) to enhance their operating room experiences. In addition, the course will expose students to life as a surgeon. The class requires one to two mandatory operative shadowing experiences with an attending surgeon outside of normal class hours. Opportunities for one-on-one surgical faculty membership will be provided.

SURG 234: Service Through Surgery: Surgeons with an Impact

Surgeons with an Impact is a weekly lunch seminar course with guest lectures and facilitated workshops with the following objectives: 1) Participants will be able to understand the role of surgeons in addressing health inequities, social justice, and poverty, 2) Participants will be exposed to the potential of expert surgeons through lectures from diverse professionals, 3) Participants will reflect on how addressing inequities can align with their career goals in surgery. Health justice topics covered will include: surgery and global health, advocacy and trauma surgery, transplant justice, inequities in pediatric surgery, serving veterans through surgery, accessing surgical obstetrics and gynecology care, women in surgery, LGBTQ advocacy and surgery, and race and surgery; as well as diversity among surgeons themselves.

SURG 236: Seminar in Global Surgery and Anesthesia

Providing safe, mutually beneficial, and sustainable surgical services in low-resource settings presents a unique set of considerations. This seminar, formatted as five two-hour sessions, will explore the background rationale for the evolving field of Global Surgery and discuss the unique implications surrounding implementation of global surgical programs. Course format will blend didactic presentation, discussion-based journal clubs, and case-based study. Topics covered will include the burden of surgical disease, human and infrastructure capacity building, outcomes, ethics/equity, economics, innovation/technology, volunteerism, training, safety, and research agenda. Instructors will provide mentorship to participants, helping them to formulate feasible research or potential MedScholar project.

SURG 238: Practical Introduction to Surgical Research

This course is designed to accelerate students' readiness to conduct independent clinical research. We will provide pearls for every key research step, from idea generation to efficient manuscript writing. Topics ranging from data analysis pitfalls to writing effective cover letters will elevate students' academic productivity potential regardless of prior research background. Students will leave every lecture with practical skills to apply. Students will draft and receive 1:1 feedback on a Med Scholars grant throughout the quarter, culminating in a grant proposal ready for submission to the Med Scholars committee.

SURG 239: Practical Introduction to Surgical Management

This is the second part of a 2-course Surgery Scholarly Concentration sequence. We will provide continued interaction with surgeon mentors. This will include a thorough understanding of the work of the surgeon scientist. This will be accomplished through interaction with surgeons in scheduled research meetings as well as interaction in the operating room. Students will participate in operating room (OR) experiences through shadowing and learn practical patient pearls including how to effectively and efficiently write clinical notes pertaining to the peri-operative management of surgical patients. 

SURG 244: Culinary Medicine (Teaching Kitchen) Elective

This 8-week elective course exposes health professional students (or other students interested in health careers) to fundamental cooking skills in the context of learning healthy behaviors in order to counsel patients effectively on nutrition and diet as future clinicians and also for bettering one's own health. The emphasis of this course is on the basic preparation of healthy and delicious whole foods and the applications of these basic culinary skills. This engaging course will be taught by Dr. Hauser, a dually trained chef/MD, with guest clinicians representing various specialties and nutrition science (PhD) faculty. No cooking experience is required.

SURG 245: Introduction to Vascular Surgery

Introduction to Vascular Surgery is a weekly seminar series featuring trainees and faculty in the Division of Vascular Surgery aimed at preclinical MD and MSPA students. Students will learn about the pathophysiology/manifestations and treatment of vascular disease, as well as diverse career paths within the field. Topics covered will include peripheral arterial disease, aortic aneurysms, carotid disease, fistulas/dialysis access, venous disease, vascular trauma, and visceral atherosclerosis/abdominal oncologic resection.

SURG 280: Early Clinical Experience in Surgery

Provides students an opportunity to see patients, and correlate clinical findings with preclinical coursework. Students spend a half day, twice monthly, in a general surgery clinic. Students participate in conferences, shadow peers, and accompany attending physicians.

SURG 299: Directed Reading in Surgery

Consists of studies in progress, including cardiovascular and circulatory problems; gastric physiology; hemostatic disorders; homotransplantation; liver disorders; orthopedic pathology; bone growth; radiation injury; immunology, bacteriology, pathology, and physiology of the eye; physiological optics; comparative ophthalmology; neurophysiology of hearing; spatial orientation and disorientation; nasal function; and psychophysics of sensation.

SURG 370: Med Scholars Research

Provides an opportunity for student and faculty interaction, as well as academic credit and financial support, to medical students who undertake original research. 

INDE 290/291 Walk With Me (pre-clerkship)

This patient-engaged course for pre-clerkship students places patients, families, and caregivers front and center on the shared journey to explore health from a person-centered perspective and increase understanding of the challenges of managing optimal health in a complex healthcare system. The curriculum is organized around a monthly workshop series. Each month we explore a different health systems science topic through expert lectures incorporating the perspectives of patients and family caregivers, with time to engage in discussion and explore person-centered solutions to real-world problems. Students are paired with a patient partner for 3 quarters and meet 2 to 3 times each quarter outside of class to explore the patient experience, in clinical and non-clinical settings according to shared interests and schedules.

Students must have successfully completed all pre-clerkship requirements prior to beginning clerkships. All current Stanford medical students must complete the required clerkship curriculum:

SURG 300A. Surgery Core Clerkship (must be completed within the student’s first 12 months of clinical rotations)

Provides students with clinical experience in the evaluation and treatment of a wide variety of surgical diseases. Emphasis is placed on teaching students to recognize and manage basic clinical problems. Students function as active members of the surgical team and follow patients throughout their inpatient course. Outpatient clinics provide the student with the ability to participate in the initial work-up and care plan of perioperative patients. Basic surgical skills are taught in the operating room, in the emergency department setting, and in the Goodman Surgical Education Center. The clerkship offers an opportunity for students to integrate their knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and physical diagnosis into a treatment plan for patients with surgical diseases. A blended learning curriculum is in place for all students at all sites. It combines case discussions with video pre-session material and related skills sessions. This curriculum covers the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases and principles of surgical management. A required textbook will be provided. Each student spends one four-week rotation at Stanford, the VA, Kaiser, or SCVMC. The remaining four weeks will be spent rotating on two different Surgical Subspecialties – Breast Service, Cardio-vascular, ENT, Plastic Surgery/Hand Surgery, Cardio-thoracic, Transplant, Trauma, Urology, or Vascular. A 1/2 day orientation is held at the beginning of the eight-week period. The NBME Subject Exam is a required component of the clerkship. 

SURG 319A. Introduction to Plastics & Reconstructive Surgery Clerkship

This clerkship is meant for those students who did not have the opportunity to rotate on the hand/plastic surgery service during their core surgery clerkship. This clerkship will introduce students to plastic and reconstructive surgery. Plastic Surgery encompasses a broad field and has been described as operating on the "skin and its contents." Students will be part of the team in managing patients both in the inpatient as well as outpatient setting. Students will participate in daily rounds and have direct patient care responsibilities. Students will assist in the Operating Room and learn fundamental suturing skills. Students will work in the clinic to understand the indications and contraindications to plastic surgery, and also about how to discuss surgical procedures with patients and families.

SURG 398A. Clinical Elective in Surgery

Provides an opportunity for a student in the clinical years to have an individualized clinical experience in one of the fields of Surgery. The quality and duration of the elective will be decided by both the student and a faculty preceptor in the Department of Surgery.

The following surgical courses are approved for Selective II Clerkships (SubInternship):

SURG 334A. Advanced Vascular Surgery Clerkship

This intensive sub-internship provides a focused study of disease processes of contemporary vascular surgery. This includes problems related to lower extremity occlusive disease, arterial aneurysms, cerebrovascular problems, and venous disorders. There is a special emphasis on preoperative patient assessment both clinically and radiographically. The student will be exposed to the management of vascular patients by both traditional open techniques and cutting edge minimally-invasive endovascular routes. Extensive operative experience in the hybrid operating room and the angiography suite is provided. Procedures include diagnostic arteriography, arterial and venous reconstruction, aortic endografting, limb salvage, carotid interventions, and other advanced catheter-based interventions. The student will be an integral part of the vascular surgery service and work alongside interns, vascular surgery residents, and the vascular fellows. Weekly attendance at surgical and multidisciplinary conferences at SUMC is required. 

SURG 338A. Advanced Surgery Clerkship

Allows a student to function as surgical interns, but with reduced patient loads. This surgical sub-internship curriculum is designed to provide senior medical students with the skills and knowledge necessary to function as an intern. The curriculum focuses on practical skills, including wound care and bedside procedures, and intern-level floor management, from writing orders to managing pages from nurses. Students are assigned to one of the general surgery teams at SUMC. The student will be fully integrated to the service and expected to participate in all teaching conferences and grand rounds. The student will have weekly meetings with the course director. The student must have successfully completed Surgery 300A. 

The following elective offers an in-depth look at life as a surgeon:

FAMMED 310A: Continuity of Care Clerkship

 In the Continuity of Care Clerkship, students work with a preceptor in an ambulatory setting, in any field of medicine, including Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and other sub-specialties. They are released from other clerkships for one afternoon a week for a total of four afternoons per period. One afternoon every odd period is reserved for the Continuity of Care group session consisting of student presentations. Students participating in this clerkship work with one faculty preceptor and his/her patients for 9 periods. This continuity experience allows students to establish a mentoring relationship with their preceptor, to see a cohort of patients repeatedly, gain insight into patient care and chronic disease management over time, and develop a deeper understanding of their specialty of choice.

Stanford Medical School offers a maximum of three months of elective rotations to students who are currently enrolled in their fourth or final year MD program at a school accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education or Education Department of the American Osteopathic Association. A list of surgery clerkships that are open to visiting students is noted below.

SCORE Program

The School of Medicine offers the Stanford Clinical Opportunity for Residency Experience (SCORE) brings fourth-year medical students from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences to Stanford for a four-week residential clinical training program in one of our clinical departments. Learn more. 

Kountz Fellowship

Established in 2008, this fellowship provides a stipend for a senior student to participate in a sub-internship with Stanford's Division of General Surgery. Apply through SCORE!  View the program overview here.