Welcome to the UConn General Surgery Residency Program page. I hope you enjoy what you learn about our program!
We pride ourselves on coaching and educating residents to be clinically and technically excellent surgeons. Our faculty have cultivated practices that provide a diverse, high-volume, complex surgical experience. They come from nationally renowned institutions, but many have trained at UConn and stayed on to train the next generations.
Our program covers every major hospital in the Hartford region, including two level I trauma centers (approximately 800 and 600 beds, respectively), a free-standing children’s hospital, an academic medical center, and a busy community hospital. Every site offers the residents a unique experience, giving them a comprehensive exposure across surgical specialties that will help guide them when it comes to choosing their future career.
Through engagement with our research curriculum, there is the opportunity to do research projects with a number of faculty over the course of the five years. Additionally, for those who are interested there is the opportunity to choose to do a two-year research fellowships after their second year. Elective two-year research fellowships can take place at the institution of the resident’s choice or one affiliated with our program.
Our program promotes education through rotation-specific conferences at the different sites, protected time on Friday mornings that follow the SCORE curriculum, hands-on skills development simulation sessions, and resident-led journal clubs at attendings’ homes or restaurants.
The Hartford region offers a variety of lifestyles, from rural to urban within a short distance of the city limits. The traffic is manageable and most residents live within 20 minutes of each site.
Locally, there are outdoors activities including kayaking Satan’s Kingdom, lazily tubing on the Farmington River, and hiking the Metacomet or Appalachian Trails. For the sports fan, Hartford has minor league franchises in hockey, soccer, and baseball. For those that want to travel a bit further, we are less than three hours from skiing in Vermont, experiencing the culture of Boston or New York, and relaxing on the beaches of Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Cape Cod.
I wholeheartedly stand by the abilities and competency of each of our graduating chief residents, confident that they will serve their future communities with a competent compassionate care. If you are interested in finding out more, please feel free to contact me.
Eric Girard, M.D.
Program Director
UConn General Surgery Residency
Assistant Professor of Surgery
UConn Health Department of Surgery