Clinical training

The six-year Plastic Surgery Integrated Residency at Mayo Clinic's Arizona campus provides training in all aspects of this surgical specialty, including:

• Acute soft tissue and maxillofacial trauma
• Burns
• Cosmetic surgery
• Cleft lip, cleft palate and other congenital anomalies
• General reconstructive surgery
• Hand surgery
• Laser surgery
• Major craniofacial and maxillofacial deformities
• Major tumors of the head and neck, including the skull base and intracranial areas
• Microsurgery
• Basic research and science
• Oral surgery
• Orthopedic trauma
• Ear, nose and throat, and head and neck surgery
• Oculoplastic surgery

Rotation schedule

During the fellowship, you spend at least 50 percent of your time rotating at your home institution — Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.

Off-campus rotations are one to three months in length, and all sites are within a 20- to 30-minute drive of Mayo Clinic Hospital, with the exception of a one-month rotation in oral surgery at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota. This rotation gives you exposure to the heritage of Mayo Clinic, which was founded in Rochester. Mayo provides housing and transportation for this oral surgery rotation.

Rotation descriptions

Craniofacial surgery

This rotation provides you with an opportunity to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients with a full range of craniofacial abnormalities, including aesthetic, congenital, traumatic facial fractures and iatrogenic deformities. A large part of the practice includes working with pediatric patients and involves care at Phoenix Children's Hospital.

Aesthetic surgery

You have rotations at Paradise Valley Cosmetic Surgery Center. This rotation provides exposure to the comprehensive care of aesthetic patients in the private practice setting. In addition, you are exposed to nonoperative modalities, including laser treatment and injectable fillers.

Hand surgery

You rotate with six board-certified plastic surgeons at two different hospitals. The surgeons have special certification in hand surgery and allow you as the resident to participate in the care of congenital and traumatic deformities.

Microsurgery

As a resident, you are exposed to the full spectrum of complex reconstruction, including extensive exposure to microsurgery. Breast cancer, sarcoma, head and neck cancer, gynecologic oncology, and trauma each present unique opportunities for education in the integrated medical practice approach.

Each year, you also have the opportunity to spend time in the skills lab with a murine model to practice vascular anastomoses and refine your skills.

Call frequency

Your call schedule varies by rotation. Mayo Clinic follows the schedule recommendations of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Conferences

In addition to clinical training, you attend and participate in conferences that enhance your medical knowledge. These include areas of basic sciences as applied to surgery, critical care, trauma, diagnosis, pathology and treatment of surgical diseases. Many of these conferences are in conjunction with the off-service rotations and Division of General Surgery during your first two years of residency.

Clinical conferences, seminars, small discussion groups, a journal club and one-on-one instruction are integral parts of the Plastic Surgery Integrated Residency. All residents and faculty are required to attend the Plastic Surgery Pre-Op Conference, plastic surgery research meeting, morbidity and mortality conference, journal club and core curriculum conference.

This is the residency's conference schedule. All are required conferences.

Other training

You also attend the three-day American Society of Maxillofacial Surgeons Basic Maxillofacial Principles and Techniques course in their first year of training. This course is paid for by Mayo and is off-campus at a training site. Details will be given to you at department orientation.

Research training

Mayo Clinic offers outstanding opportunities for you to conduct basic scientific or clinical research. Scholarly activity is recognized as an integral part of the Plastic Surgery Integrated Residency for the faculty and residents. You have a dedicated research rotation in their PGY-1, PGY-2 and PGY-3 years.

In addition to dedicated research rotations, you are required to attend the Plastic Surgery Research Conference, which facilitates the process and development of clinical research, primarily as a collaborative effort between the faculty and residents. Potential research projects are discussed, and current research progress reports are prepared. The fundamentals of generating research, including statistics, ethical principles, and the preparation of presentations and manuscripts, are reviewed with the faculty and residents.

You are expected to participate in at least one research project annually with a faculty mentor, leading to a peer-reviewed publication. Oral presentations at local, national or international meetings are encouraged, with time away from the practice provided in accordance with Mayo Clinic policy.

Evaluation

To ensure that you acquire adequate knowledge and develop the appropriate technical skills to meet program expectations, your performance is monitored carefully during the Plastic Surgery Integrated Residency. You are evaluated using the plastic surgery milestones as well as other evaluation tools.

You are formally evaluated by supervising faculty members after each clinical rotation and meet with the program director to review these evaluations. In addition, you regularly evaluate the faculty to confirm that your educational needs are being met.