SURGERY CLERKSHIP - FAQs
SURGERY DEPARTMENTS/DIVISIONS
GENERAL SURGERY: UCLA/SMH/VA/OV/Harbor/Cedars
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
GI/Colorectal = U Service
Oncology/Pancreas = C Service
Trauma/Emergency Surgery = L Service
Trauma Night Call = A service
Pediatric Surgery
Vascular Surgery
Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center
General Surgery
Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center
Acute Care Surgery
VA Medical Center, West Los Angeles, CA
General Surgery/Vascular
Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, Sylmar, CA
General Surgery
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
General Surgery =
General Surgery =
General Surgery =
General Surgery =
Trauma
GI/Oncology
Colon Rectal Surgery/Ambulatory
Vascular
Cedars – Sinai Medical Center
ACS = Trauma & Non-Trauma Emergency Surgery
AGS = Advanced General Surgery
CRS = Colorectal Surgery
Onc = Surgical Oncology
MIS = Minimally Invasive Surgery
Vasc = Vascular Surgery
SURGERY SUBSPECIALTY ROTATIONS:
UCLA/SMH/VA/OV/Harbor/Cedars/Kaiser
Anesthesiology
Cardiothoracic
Head & Neck Surgery
Neurosurgery
Ophthalmology (Jules Stein Eye Institute)
Orthopaedic Surgery
Plastic Surgery
Thoracic
Transplant
Urology
Emergency Medicine
HARBOR-UCLA MEDICAL CENTER
Students scheduled for their inpatient rotation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center should report to Kristan Holstrom at
8:00 am at 1000 West Carson Street, Torrance, CA, in the 1 East Bldg. Conference room for orientation. Her contact
information is 310-222-5251 and kholstrom@labiomed.org. She will assist you with getting computer user access,
Human Resources, and contacting your team. Parking is free and located all around the campus (excluding Lot D).
Please bring a pair of scrubs.
For directions to Harbor, check out this link: http://www.harbor-ucla.org/directions.php
http://www.harbor-ucla.org/check_in.php
Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center
Students should contact the Surgery Office: Tiffany Fry at 323-783-0256 and tiffany.a.fry@kp.org or Narine
Mirzakhanyan at 323-783-7836 and narine.mirzakhanyan@kp.org
VA WEST LOS ANGELES MEDICAL CENTER
If you are scheduled to rotate through the General Surgery/Vascular Service at the VA Medical Center, WLA
(Wadsworth), please page the intern (GS/VA) before you begin your rotation to find out where and when to meet the
team. The General Surgery rotation schedules can be viewed at the Department of Surgery website:
http://www.surgery.ucla.edu/resident
Please contact the medical student VA coordinator prior to starting a rotation at the VA.
Miyoko Thompson at miyoko.thompson@va.gov or 310-478-3711 ext. 40750. Gerald Blanding at
Gerald.blanding@va.gov or 310-478-3711 ext. 83327 for computer codes. Another person of resource is Thomas
Szymanek, Office of ACOS/Edu in Bldg. 218, room 200C. His contact information is 310-478-3711 ext. 41395 and
Thomas.szymanek@va.gov. Parking is located on the West side of Building 500. A parking decal is not required if
you are scheduled at the VA for less than 2 weeks.
OLIVE VIEW-UCLA MEDICAL CENTER
Students scheduled for their inpatient rotation and Urology Track C at Olive View Medical Center should report to
Lorena Ponce at 7:00 am at 14445 Olive View Drive, Sylmar, CA. When you arrive, go directly to the main building,
2nd floor, Room 2B156 for the orientation. Her contact information is 818-364-3195 and loponce@dhs.lacounty.gov.
This orientation will consist of assignment of parking, lockers, issuing of scrubs and meal tickets, as well as taking
your picture for identification. Please be prepared to pay $2.00 for meal card and $40.00 for scrubs. The total
amount will be refunded at the end of the rotation, so please keep your receipt.
Park in area behind Fire Dept. – Orange Parking Bowl. Map of Olive View area:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=14445+Olive+View+Dr,+Sylmar,+CA&sll=37.0625,95.677068&sspn=42.310334,92.460937&ie=UTF8&ll=34.326426,118.445749&spn=0.01081,0.022573&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr
CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER
Students scheduled for their inpatient rotation at Cedars Sinai Medical Center should Alan Pierce at 310-423-5874 or
alan.pierce@cshs.org.
Please park in Lot 2 (open air parking lot) on George Burns Drive, between Beverly Blvd. and Alden Drive. Bring
your parking ticket with you so you can be reimbursed from the parking office for that day. The parking office
requires a $15.00 deposit, which will be returned to you on your last day of the rotation when you check out. Alan will
assist you with the check-in process, badges, scrubs, parking, and meeting with your team.
For directions to Cedars, check out this link: http://www.cshs.org/318.html
SANTA MONICA-UCLA MEDICAL CENTER
For the inpatient rotation please page the intern (R1) before you begin your rotation to find out where and when to
meet the team. The General Surgery rotation schedules can be viewed at the Department of Surgery website:
http://www.surgery.ucla.edu/resident
Students scheduled for their inpatient rotation at Santa Monica Hospital should sign in with the Medical Staff Office
and pick up their ID badges from the Security Office (310) 319-4883
The Surgery Office is located at 1304 15th Street, Suite 213. Telephone (310) 319-5153
ROUNDS AND CONFERENCES (UCLA, VA, SMH, OV, CS)
The department has established protected educational conferences for all surgical residents and students on
Wednesday mornings. These are required for ALL students rotating through surgery services, except for students
at Harbor and Cedars. During the three-hour consecutive block students will be unavailable for clinical duties. The
three one –hour sessions are as follows:
7:00 am - Surgical Morbidity & Mortality (M&M) conference.
8:00 am - UCLA Surgery conference including Grand Rounds and other lectures
9:00 am - Core Lecture Series for medical students.
Attendance is required of all third year medical students assigned to any of the General Surgery & Sub-Specialty
services. General Surgery conferences are held in room 73-105 CHS. You are expected to be prompt and dressed
professionally for these conferences. No scrubs.
At each lecture session there will be sign-in sheets. The Surgery Education Office maintains the sign-in sheets and
tracks the attendance of students for the Wednesday lectures. Failure to attend and/or leaving early from these
lectures will result in a Physicianship Form, can greatly reduce your Surgery final grade and may be noted on your
final summative evaluation.
For the Core lecture Series; a schedule of lecture topics is located on ANGEL. In addition, you can find PowerPoint
presentations of all topics for your review.
OTHER CONFERENCES – (UCLA, WVA, SM, OV, H, CS)
Each of the services you rotate through will have their own conferences you must attend while on that service. There
may come a time when a conference on the service you are rotating on conflicts with a General Surgery conference,
i.e. Grand Rounds, it is expected that you will attend the General Surgery conference.
The Harbor lecture schedule is posted on ANGEL in the Harbor folder. Attendance at these lectures is mandatory. If
you are unable to attend a lecture please call Kris at 310-222-5251.
Cedars Continuity students will attend Grand Rounds at Cedars followed by student core lectures at UCLA.
CLINICS
Each of the services you rotate through will also have specific days of the week designated for clinic. You are
required to attend and participate in these scheduled clinics.
CLINICAL AND ON-CALL RESPONSIBILITIES
You will be expected to attend and participate in the clinics on the services you rotate through. You will be scheduled
to be on-call by the Attending/Chief Resident on the service. Generally, the on-call schedule is every fourth night.
There is up to a 30 hr. max in-house call. If you come in at 6am you are to go home no later than 12pm the next day.
There should be a 10-hour grace period between shifts. Not all services require you to take call.
SBHLP SCHEDULES
The Surgery coordinators at UCLA, Harbor, WLA VA, Cedars-Sinai, Santa Monica and Olive View Medical Centers
have all been provided a copy of the Systems Based Healthcare & Longitudinal Preceptorship (SBHLP) schedule for
this block.
Please do not attempt to take a day off and say that you were at SBHLP, as this could earn you a Physicianship
Form.
DRESS
While on the Surgery Clerkship rotation, please dress professionally. This includes shirt and tie for gentleman and
appropriate dresses/slacks for ladies. Please wear your white lab coat ID name badges at all times. The exception
to this would be when you are in the operating room and must wear scrubs. Please do not make a habit of wearing
scrubs all of the time.
PATIENT CASE LOG SYSTEM
Please enter all the surgery core problems you have seen. If you do not have the opportunity to see a core problem
you are expected to learn about it through lectures, reading materials, cases, etc. and log them in as didactics in the
Surgery Patient Log System portal found on ANGEL. All patient cases must be entered by the end of the clerkship.
If you are experiencing difficulty please contact Katherine Wigan at kwigan@mednet.ucla.edu or Zhen Gu at
zgu@mednet.ucla.edu
SICK DAYS & OTHER APPOINTMENTS
If you are ill and cannot report to work, you will need to notify your Chief Resident. If you cannot reach them, please
call Iris in the Surgery Education Office at 310-206-2567. She can notify the Chief Resident.
If you have scheduled other appointments during your assigned rotations, please provide advance notification to your
Chief Resident. Iris should be made aware of all absences from the surgery rotation.
Advice: It is recommended that you ask about course expectations at the beginning of your time on each
service, and that you seek verbal feedback on your performance from your residents or faculty during each
rotation.
SURGERY FINAL EXAMS
Radiology Exam: The radiology exam is scheduled for Wednesday, March 26, 2014 in the TLC Lab BioMed Library
at 3:00 pm.
Shelf Exam: The shelf exam will take place on Thursday, March 27, 2014 in the TLC Lab BioMed Library at 8:00
am.
Practical Exam: The practical exam will take place at the Medical West Building, 2nd Floor on Thursday, March 27,
2014 at a time to be determined.
You are expected to dress professionally for the Practical Exams. Please wear your white lab coat and ID
badge.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR LEARNING THE MATERIAL LISTED IN THE SURGERY CURRICULUM UNDER
EACH GENERAL SURGERY AND SUBSPECIALTY SECTION REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT YOU
ROTATE THROUGH THAT SERVICE.
SURGERY EDUCATION OFFICE
The Surgery Education Office is located in room 72-215 CHS near the O elevator. The Medical Student Coordinator
is Iris Mau and she can be reached at 310-206-2567or imau@mednet.ucla.edu. We provide an “open door” policy to
any students with questions or issues that may need to be addressed and resolved during the Surgery Clerkship. If
you encounter any difficulties with attendings or house staff, please contact Dr. Chen (pager 21607) immediately.