Surgical Medical Education

The Department of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is one of three major teaching and research entities of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Surgery. Approximately half of HMS students complete their Core Clerkship in Surgery at BIDMC.

The Director of Undergraduate Education in the BIDMC Department of Surgery directs the Core Clerkship in Surgery. Faculty leadership is deeply engaged in undergraduate medical education, combining clinical excellence with a strong commitment to teaching and mentorship.

Formerly, HMS students began their clinical training in their third year. With the introduction of Harvard Medical School's innovative Pathway's curriculum in 2015, students now complete their core clerkship in their second year of medical school. This earlier exposure to clinical experience allows students more time to explore career paths and develop research interests.

During the clerkship year, HMS students complete three-month rotations in both Surgery and Medicine. They also spend six weeks each in Obstetrics/Gynecology and Pediatrics, and one month in Neurology, Radiology and Psychiatry. Two-week elective rotations are offered in Perioperative Medicine and Fourth-Year Surgical Intensive Care.

The primary objective of the Core Clerkship in Surgery is to provide students with a comprehensive introduction to general surgery, regardless of future career plans. Students learn surgical decision-making, the scope of surgical disease and management, and the importance of patient-centered, team-based care.

During the surgical clerkship, students participate in patient care across a variety of settings, including outpatient clinics, inpatient floors, and operating rooms. Rotations are structured to augment general surgery training with experience in Anesthesia and surgical subspecialties.

Weekly didactic and lecture sessions are held in the Shapiro Simulation and Skills Center, a state-of-the-art videoconference facility with direct connectivity to operating rooms throughout the medical center. This allows students to observe live surgical cases in real time.

The Core Clerkship in Surgery is consistently highly rated by students, who cite the quality of teaching and the department's progressive approach to surgical education. Harvard Medical School has also recognized the excellence of the BIDMC Core Clerkship in Surgery through major teaching awards presented to faculty and staff.

Surgical Boot Camp is an intensive, interactive, practically based curriculum designed to prepare fourth-year medical students for surgical internship. The program helps students develop clinical skills in a safe, structured environment prior to entering residency training.

Over a four-week period, students engage with surgical residents, attending physicians, nurse practitioners, and ancillary staff in a dedicated surgical education setting. The curriculum focuses on performing common operating room and emergency procedures, perioperative floor and ICU management, surgical anatomy, and effective communication.

Special emphasis is placed on practice-based learning, with daily hands-on sessions that include suture and knot-tying drills, trauma and emergency scenarios, laparoscopy skills, and anatomy review.

Students also participate in simulated "mock" home pager calls, during which postoperative scenarios are presented and students must respond quickly and thoughtfully under pressure.

Upon completion of the course, students will have significantly extended and refined their procedural knowledge, gained hands-on experience with challenges commonly faced by surgical interns, and increased their confidence as they transition into the first year of surgical training.