WHY SHOULD I WANT TO BE A PART OF LLUH SURGERY RESIDENCY?

• Early intern OR experience. Our program is one of few where interns are able to get true OR experience from an early start. We pride ourselves that our residents always meet the minimum requirements and even supersede the established numbers for the American Board of Surgery certification numbers.  Our program director, assistant program directors, attendings, and chief residents work hard to ensure exposure to the OR occurs early on to help establish a core foundation to succeed in a strong learning environment.

• Robust and real-time resident feedback. In our program, we understand the importance of feedback for improvement. We utilize MedHub for evaluations as well as a real-time app called SIMPL for operative feedback to help both residents and attendings to improve. Peer evaluations, rotation evaluations, attending evaluations and the overall assessment from the Clinical Competency Committees in review of your milestones per the ACGME are reviewed regularly.  Additionally, your evaluations are always viewable in MedHub and the administrative office is always available to help get you feedback if you have further questions on your progress.

• Resident feedback is valued. Each year, the residents from each PGY level nominate two residents to be their voice on the LLUH Surgery Residency Council that meets with the Program Director bi-monthly. Matters that the residents want to express as needing areas of improvement or questions wanting further insight are discussed with an action plan to clearly validate the requests of all residents. Residents have initiated numerous improvements in our residency in clinical rotations, mentorship, and resident wellness.

• We are here to support all of our residents to achieve their goals. We are thrilled to say that over 80% of our prelim residents obtain categorical positions. Our administrative office has a drive to ensure your success and creates an electronic portfolio for each resident that stays up to date with all necessary documents to remit on your behalf within hours of learning of an open position in which a prelim resident is interested in applying.  For all residents, our program and associate directors are always willing to meet with you to strategize on how to ensure appropriate progression at each level.  Bi-annual evaluations with the program director or associate program directors also afford the opportunity to further discuss plans and review each resident’s milestones to ensure success!
  
  
• We are strong advocates of resident wellness. We absolutely realize how key it is in a busy residency program to achieve a work and home life balance to prevent burnout. We schedule a half day each month for residents on service to be designated as “wellness time” to allow for personal errands such as medical and dental appointments, getting haircuts, studying, or catching up on sleep!
  
  We have a wellness committee and many other resources provided to prevent burnout.  Furthermore, our staff and attendings are available 24/7 should anyone feel the need to address any concerns that may be impacting either their work or personal lives. For more information please see:  https://lluh.org/health-professionals/gme/resources-residents-fellows/physician-wellness-resources

• We celebrate and understand the importance of diversity in our patients, residents, and faculty. While Loma Linda University is a faith-based Seventh-day Adventist institution, our focus is to make man whole.  Our mission is to give the highest level of care to our patients regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, social class, religion, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity. We are looking for residents and faculty who represent these values and can help us to grow individually and collectively.  We intentionally strive to provide opportunities, and tools to overcome barriers to ensure that everyone has the same opportunities to succeed in our program.  We pride ourselves on creating a culture where all residents belong, contribute, and can thrive.

Thank you for your interest in our program!  If you have any questions or would like further discussions on what our program affords specific to you, please reach out either by phone or email to any of the following:

Program Director:  Jukes P. Namm, MD | JPNamm@llu.edu

Associate Program Director:  Naveen Solomon, MD | NSolomon@llu.edu

Associate Program Director:  Aarthy Kannppan, MD | Aarthy.Kannappan@va.gov

Associate Program Director for Simulation: Esther Yung, MD | WYung@llu.edu

Residency Program Manager: Amy Albright, C-TAGME | AAlbright@llu.edu

Residency Coordinator: Sarah Christensen, C-TAGME | SarahChristensen@llu.edu

Residency Coordinator: Tatiana Flowers | TFlowers@llu.edu