Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences offers a 12-month postgraduate Nurse Practitioner (NP) or Physician Assistant (PA) General Surgery Fellowship at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota and in the Mayo Clinic Health System.

Program highlights

This program is designed for highly qualified graduate nurse practitioners and physician assistants to become skilled, compassionate, and efficient surgical providers.

The curriculum contains diverse didactic instruction and direct patient care clinical experience embedded in the foundation of Mayo Clinic: excellence in patient care, education, and research. The program provides the graduate NP or PA with the training needed to deliver the highest quality perioperative care to patients.

Completion and certification 

Upon graduation, fellows receive a Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences certificate documenting completion of the 12-month postgraduate fellowship in general surgery. This certificate verifies that each fellow has completed all the components listed in the syllabus. Such experience and training will allow fellows to be more competitive for positions in general surgery provider positions.

Accreditation information 

See accreditation information for Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

Program goals

The fellowship aims to:

• Develop a diverse differential diagnosis and respective diagnostic and treatment plan based on the patient's presenting symptoms along with evidence-based, cost-effective medical/surgical care
• Strengthen physical assessment and critical thinking skills
• Advance competence in common bedside procedures needed for treatment of surgical patients
• Cultivate leadership and process improvement skills
• Integrate a broad knowledge base of disease process and treatment, along with recognition of spiritual and cultural diversity needs, to enhance education to patients and families