Department of Surgery

The mission of the University of Kentucky Surgery Education Office is to work with surgical faculty in meeting the Department’s educational goals for undergraduate medical education. This mission is accomplished by providing ongoing educational services, by implementing and evaluating educational innovations, and by conducting educational research to improve the quality of the medical education process. The Department of Surgery considers the training of residents and medical students to be one of it highest priorities.

The Surgery Education Office works with faculty on departmental as well as divisional educational services and research projects. It routinely evaluates educational programs and activities, faculty teaching, and resident and student performance.

Surgery Education Office staff assist with the daily administration of the Third-year Surgery Clerkship and the Fourth-year Surgery Acting Intern program. The Surgery Education Office uses the Blackboard e-Education platform to communicate information regarding the clerkship and acting internship to medical students. Use of this system requires a User Name and Password. If you are a UK student and do not have a User Name and Password, please contact Darrin Burchell in the COM Learning Center, at 323-3580 or djburc1@email.uky.edu.

To ensure the quality of undergraduate medical education in surgery, the Surgery Education Committee was established. This committee comprises one faculty member from each of the subspecialty divisions and each of the four sections in General Surgery, the Surgery Education Office Administrative Staff Director, and staff members. Dr. Joseph Iocono serves as the committee chairman. The committee addresses topics important to clerkship student education including test development, faculty feedback to students, and student evaluation.

Research in medical education is a particular strength of the Surgery Education Office. Over the past decade, the educational faculty have worked with various faculty members from all surgical divisions on a variety of important programs in surgery education. Based on this research, Department of Surgery faculty have made numerous presentations at national and international surgery and education meetings and have published widely in peer-reviewed medical journals.

In addition to working with the medical students, the Education Office assists the Department of Surgery faculty members with the preparation of information for annual reviews and promotion dossiers.

The goal of the Surgery Education Office is to promote a positive and effective educational environment for faculty, surgical residents and medical students.