The Surgical Skills Lab is located on the third floor at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis. Since inception, ongoing progress has been made to refine lab sessions. Most skills sessions are on Thursday afternoons. The manner of these labs follows the ACS Surgery Skills Curriculum for those sessions applicable to resident needs and development.

Though the PG-1 and PG-2 residents utilize the lab sessions much of the time, specially tailored labs for upper-level residents are also scheduled. Prior to each lab, specific goals and objectives are sent to the residents involved in the session. At the completion of the lab, an evaluation and assessment are completed by the residents and the instructors as well as debriefing by the instructors. This process allows ongoing improvement and refinement as needed for future endeavors and keeps the program accountable with the Accreditation by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) as a focused-level Accredited Education Institute (AEI).

The Surgical Skills Lab serves to accredit the surgical residents in both Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) and Fundamentals of Endoscopy (FES) through on-site testing. The FLS testing involves a remote proctor for the manual skills tasks required. FES manual skills are completed on our GI MENTOR simulator with the SAGES’ provided testing module. Both exams have a written exam that is proctored in the Skills Lab.

The Skills Lab has played an expanded outreach to medical students at all levels. The lab has an integral role in the MS-4 boot camp which is conducted for graduating medical students planning to pursue a surgery or surgically related residency. MS-3s are introduced to the Skills Lab and surgical procedures during Week 1 of their Surgical Clerkship. The upper-level medical students, involved in the Surgical Interest Group (SIG), provide invitations to the MS-1 & MS-2s to become acquainted with the lab and some surgical procedures prior to the Surgical Clerkship.