Our goal is to train fellows to the advanced level of performance expected of board-certified subspecialists
Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) is a 1,008-bed tertiary care hospital in the heart of Dallas with a high level of acuity and approximately 40,000 admissions a year. Since 1997, the American College of Surgeons has recognized BUMC as a Level 1 Trauma Center with approximately 3700 admissions yearly, of which 20% are penetrating trauma. There are 123 total ICU beds, 57 of which are surgical ICU beds for which would be seen by the surgical critical care fellows. Currently, our surgical critical care faculty provides care for trauma, acute care surgery, general surgery, solid organ transplant, heart and lung transplant, cardiothoracic, neurosurgery, orthopedic and orthopedic spinal surgery, ENT, oral surgery, OB-GYN, and plastic surgery.
Our ECMO program is a Platinum Center of Excellence and is in the top 10 Adult ECMO centers in the country by volume with a very active E-CPR program.
Baylor All Saints (BAS) is an ACS Level 3 Trauma Center with 538 beds with programs of excellence in cardiology, transplantation, oncology, women’s, and children’s services. Surgical critical care covers all the ICUs at BAS and has the capability for up to 6 ECMO patients.
As the largest not-for-profit health care system in Texas and one of the largest in the United States, Baylor Scott & White serves 41 counties through 52 hospitals, more than 1,200 access points, more than 7,100 active physicians, more than 52,000 team members and the Baylor Scott & White Health Plan.
Curriculum
Surgical care
The 12-month fellowship is designed to provide surgical critical care fellows with an education in the principles and practice of state-of-the art trauma and surgical critical care according to medical knowledge and patient care, practice-based learning and improvement, systems-based practice, professionalism, and interpersonal and communication skills. This is accomplished by exposing the surgical critical care fellows to a broad array of surgical illnesses through didactic instruction in the basic and clinical sciences, as well as education during teaching rounds, primary patient care, educational conferences, and specialized rotations.
Upon completion of training, the surgical critical care fellows are expected to integrate the acquired knowledge into the clinical situation to demonstrate proficiency in:
- Surgical critical care decision-making
- Specific organ system support
- Evaluation of new technology and treatment techniques
- ICU administration
- Outcomes assessment
- Research design
- Interaction with patients, families and other medical professionals
Our fellowship is individualized to each fellow and is focused on developing the fellow's future practices whether in academics or a private setting. The fellowship year is also customized to address specific deficits that fellows might have with respect to operative, non-operative and interventional management.
Rotations
- Surgical and Trauma ICU (STICU BUMC) –3 months
- 23 ICU beds
- Cardiothoracic and Transplant Surgery ICU (CTICU BUMC) – 3 months
- 34 ICU beds, including patients with heart and lung transplants, total artificial hearts, durable and percutaneous LVAD and RVADs (including Impella) and ECMO
- Surgical Critical Care patients throughout all the ICUs at BAS – 3 months
- 29 ICU beds, including patients with durable and percutaneous LVAD and RVADs (including Impella) ECMO, and solid organ transplants including liver and kidney
- Emergency General and Trauma Surgery BUMC – 1 month
- Two elective months (only one can be non-surgical)
- Possible electives:
- Nephrology
- Vascular Surgery
- Colorectal Surgery
- Infectious Diseases
- Interventional Radiology
- Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Thoracic Surgery
- Anesthesia
- GI/ Endoscopy
- Possible electives:
The PD will work with the fellow to tailor an elective that meets the fellow’s needs .
Call schedule
All fellows: One Friday 24-hour call every 4 weeks at BUMC.
- The STICU fellow covers the daytime (7A-5P) for the BUMC fellows
- BAS fellow does a full 24-hr call.
BUMC rotators: Saturday / Sunday ICU Day call on 7 Roberts (every 3 weeks).
- Monday following weekend call off
Days off per month: approximately 7 total including 2 weekends the Sunday and Monday after Friday call and one Monday after the weekend call.
Scholarly activities
Conferences for surgical critical care include
- Journal club
- Process improvement and quality assurance meetings
- Research
- Didactic lectures
Also, collegial interaction with the pulmonary critical care service and their fellows (2 per year) includes a weekly combined didactic lecture series that alternates between specialties.
The fellows will participate in an ASSET course, ATLS certification or re-certification and if available, an ATLS Instructor course and a board review course.
Research
Critical review of research is an integral requirement for the fellows. The fellows are expected to create two Practice Management Guidelines for Trauma topics and keep the current guidelines up to date.
Also, there are dedicated research lectures by active researchers and meetings with research support staff that includes a Director of Trauma Research who holds a Doctorate degree and has over 120 publications. The fellows are expected to develop at least one research project and to submit it as an abstract for presentation at a national-level conference and complete a manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
There also are ample opportunities to accomplish this during the one-year fellowship with several active research projects and up-to-date databases that are specific to our program.
A budget is available for travel to a national conference for trauma or critical care.
How to apply
We use the Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery Fellowship Application Service (SAFAS) to electronically accept fellowship applications, letters of recommendations, dean’s letters, transcripts and other credentials directly from your medical school.
Application requirements
Eligible candidates should also submit:
- Dean's letter
- Medical school transcript
- Personal statement
- Three letters of recommendation from attending physicians
Prior to appointment in the program, fellows must have completed at least three clinical years in an ACGME-accredited graduate medical education program in one of the following specialties:
- Anesthesiology
- Emergency medicine
- Neurological surgery
- Obstetrics and gynecology
- Orthopedic surgery
- Otolaryngology surgery
- Thoracic surgery
- Vascular surgery
- Urology
Fellows who have completed an emergency medicine residency must also complete one preparatory year as an advanced preliminary resident in surgery at Baylor Dallas. The content of this year should be defined jointly by the program directors of the surgery program and the surgical critical care program. It must include clinical experience in the foundations of surgery and the management of complex surgical conditions.
At a minimum, this preparatory year of education must include supervised clinical experience in:
- Pre-operative evaluation, including respiratory, cardiovascular and nutritional evaluation
- Pre-operative and post-operative care of surgical patients, including outpatient follow-up care
- Advanced care of injured patients
- Care of patients requiring abdominal, breast, head and neck, endocrine, transplant, cardiac, thoracic, vascular and neurosurgical operations
- Management of complex wounds
- Minor operative procedures related to critical care, such as venous access, tube thoracostomy and tracheostomy
Interviews and selection
Submitted applications are thoroughly reviewed and acknowledged. The program director may also contact the applicant by phone initially. Invitation to interview in person is based on program needs and the individual’s qualifications and references. In addition to the requisite eligibility criteria, selection for the program is based on favorable interviews with existing faculty and fellows, favorable completion of his/her current program, as well as the applicant’s expressed interest in the surgical critical care program.
Candidates meet with the program director, associate program director, division director, faculty, fellows and unit staff. The rank order list submitted to the National Residency Match Program (NRMP) is based on faculty consensus of the standardized evaluation results. Housestaff physicians are selected from among eligible applicants on a compilation of the following: preparedness, ability, aptitude, academic credentials, communication skills and personal qualities such as motivation and integrity.
Learn more about Baylor Scott & White's housestaff appointment eligibility, including guidelines for international medical graduates.
Faculty and fellows
The surgeons in the Division of Trauma, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery have always been closely involved in general surgery resident education (10 residents a year), research and quality initiatives. Our surgeons also serve as Texas A & M Health Science Center College of Medicine faculty and are heavily involved in medical student education. There are 48 medical students in each class that rotate on our campus starting in their 2nd year. The Division of Trauma, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery faculty (23 faculty) are a diverse group which includes surgical critical care, emergency medicine, anesthesia, and pulmonary critical care intensivists.
Baylor All Saints (BAS) general surgery residency program with 3 residents per year and medical students from Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine as well as Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University.
Working at Baylor Scott & White Health
Stipend and benefits
In addition to competitive stipends, we offer our residents a full menu of employee benefits. We help offset the cost of many of these benefits; others are options you can choose to pay for yourself.
Well-being resources
This time in your professional career can be extremely challenging. As a Baylor Scott & White graduate medical trainee, there are a variety of resources available to you, ensuring you get the most out of your educational experience.
Life in Dallas
Dallas provides access to metropolitan entertainment and culture while maintaining the lowest cost of living among the top 10 largest U.S. cities.
Contact us
Wendy Shelley
GME Program Administrator-Medical Education
Department of Surgical Critical Care
Email: Wendy.Shelley@bswhealth.org
Verification Requests: BUMCGMEVerifications@BSWHealth.org
Baylor University Medical Center
Roberts Hospital
3500 Gaston Ave.
Dallas, TX 75246