Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship

The Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship uses the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).

Applicants must submit the following through ERAS:

• Application form
• Curriculum vitae
• Three or more letters of recommendation
• Medical school transcript
• USMLE scores for parts I, II and III
• Personal statement
• Medical school dean’s letter
• Photograph

Virtual Tour

Penn State Health

Penn State Health is an integrated academic health system serving patients and communities across 15 counties in central Pennsylvania. It employs more than 20,900 people systemwide.

The system includes Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State Health Children’s Hospital and Penn State Cancer Institute based in Hershey, Pa.; Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center in Enola, Pa.; Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center in Camp Hill, Pa.; Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center in Lancaster, Pa.; Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center in Reading, Pa.; Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, a specialty provider of inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services, in Harrisburg, Pa.; and 2,417 physicians and direct care providers at 225 outpatient practices. Additionally, the system jointly operates various healthcare providers, including Penn State Health Rehabilitation Hospital, Hershey Outpatient Surgery Center and Hershey Endoscopy Center.

In 2017, Penn State Health partnered with Highmark Health to facilitate creation of a value-based, community care network in the region.

Penn State Health shares an integrated strategic plan and operations with Penn State College of Medicine, the University’s medical school. With campuses in State College and Hershey, Pa., the College of Medicine boasts a portfolio of more than $150 million in funded research and more than 1,700 students and trainees in medicine, nursing, other health professions and biomedical research.

Learn more about Penn State Health

Penn State Health Children’s Hospital (left), Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (center) and Penn State Cancer Institute (right)

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

500 University Dr., Hershey, Pa., 17033 (Derry Township, Dauphin County)

• The health system’s 611-bed flagship teaching and research hospital
• The only medical facility in Pennsylvania accredited as both an adult and a pediatric Level I (highest-level) trauma center
• Dedicated surgical, neuroscience, cardiovascular, trauma and medical intensive care units
• Accredited Life Lion critical-care transport providing more than 1,100 helicopter and approximately 750 ground ambulance transports per year
• More than 1,300 faculty members and more than 650 residents and fellows
• Approximately 29,000 admissions, 73,000 emergency department visits, 1.1 million outpatient visits and 33,000 surgical procedures annually
• Designated as a Magnet hospital since 2007

Learn more about Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Penn State Health Children’s Hospital

600 University Dr., Hershey, Pa. 17033 (Derry Township, Dauphin County)

• An eight-story, 263,000-square-foot-facility built in 2013 and expanded in 2020
• 160 licensed pediatric beds, 26-bed pediatric intensive care unit and a 56-bed neonatal intensive care unit
• Level IV (highest-level) neonatal intensive care unit
• Level I quaternary (highest-level) pediatric intensive care unit
• Level I (highest-level) pediatric trauma center designation
• Intermediate care unit
• Dedicated pediatric operating rooms
• More than 150,000 pediatric outpatient visits, 20,000 pediatric emergency room visits, and approximately 5,000 pediatric patient discharges annually

Learn more about Penn State Health Children’s Hospital

Welcome to Hershey

More About Hershey

Interested in learning more about living and working in Hershey, Pa.? See details here:

• Benefit and stipend information
• Virtual tour
• GME policies
• Wellness resources
• More about Penn State Health and its locations
• Application and visa requirements

Wellness, including emotional, spiritual, social and physical health, is a crucial component to training and to becoming a professional, compassionate and resilient physician. Self-care is a skill which must be continually practiced and reinforced. Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health are committed to addressing wellness among residents and fellows, with multiple resources readily available.

Institutional resources

• Visit BeWell – a health program designed to support Penn State Health employees
• See Penn State College of Medicine wellness resources here
• Employee Health Care Concierge and Case Management Service
• Partners in Medicine
  Moving to a new city with your family does not have to be stressful. Residency programs have assisted many significant others with finding employment. There is also a GME-Wide Partners in Medicine (PIM) group that offers networking opportunities as well as various social and community oriented activities.
• The Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine
• Active and easily accessed Office of Professional Mental Health

Graduate medical education resources

• See resident and fellow wellness resources here

Institutional Resources

Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine celebrate, embrace and support the diversity of all patients, faculty, staff, students and trainees.

Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

In keeping with this, Penn State Health has an active Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with various programs, networks and resource groups, including:

• Talks and lectures on diversity, equity and inclusion through the Inclusion Academy
• Regular events on topics such as eradicating racism and creating a culture of inclusiveness
• Many Business Employee Resource Groups (BERGs), including:
  • Disability Business Employee Resource Group
  • Interfaith Business Employee Resource Group
  • LGBTQ+ Business Employee Resource Group
  • Military and Veterans Business Employee Resource Group
  • Multicultural Business Employee Resource Group
  • NextGen Business Employee Resource Group
• Black Physician Professional Staff Association – Resource Group
• Hispanic Professional Association
• Asian Physician and Professional Staff Association
• International Workforce Inclusion
• Inclusion Academy

Learn more about the Penn State Health Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Learn more about the College of Medicine’s Office for Diversity, Equity and Belonging

Office for Culturally Responsive Health Care Education

The vision at Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health is to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they will need to provide culturally excellent health care and research for an increasingly diverse U.S. population. The Office for Culturally Responsive Health Care Education was formed to help meet that goal.

Learn more about the Office for Culturally Responsive Health Care Education

Office for a Respectful Learning Environment

In addition, the institution does not tolerate discrimination, biases, microaggression, harassment or learner mistreatment of any kind, and any concerns are immediately addressed by the Office for a Respectful Learning Environment.

Learn more about the Office for a Respectful Learning Environment

Network of Under-represented Residents and Fellows
The Network of Under-represented Residents and Fellows (NURF) is a group of diverse residents and fellows representing all specialties. NURF’s goal is to promote cultural diversity in the residency programs through community involvement, mentorship with diverse faculty, professional networking and support for the recruitment of diverse medical students into the residency programs.

NURF is sponsored by the Penn State College of Medicine Graduate Medical Education Office and the Penn State Health Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Learn more information about NURF

Mailing Address

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery
500 University Dr.
P.O. Box 850
Hershey, PA 17033

General Contact Information

Phone: 717-531-5164

Fax: 717-531-0646

Rotations

The Colon and Rectal Surgery service is divided into two teams, the blue team and the white team.

The Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow will rotate services every six weeks, alternating with the chief General Surgery resident, giving the Colon and Rectal fellow six months on each service in total. While on each service, the Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow will be responsible for the daily care of their assigned attending’s inpatients, participate in clinic with the assigned attending and assist in the operating room.

There are four General Surgery residents assigned to the service on a rotating basis: a chief resident, a second-year resident and two interns. The General Surgery residents rotate on the Colon and Rectal Surgery service for three months at a time, and will spend six weeks on each rotation.

At no time will both the chief General Surgery resident and the Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow be assigned to the same team. The junior residents on the service (second-year residents and interns) will work with both teams.

Operative cases will be assigned to the chief General Surgery resident and the Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow by service.

Certain “index” cases, such as sphincter reconstruction and resection of presacral tumors, will be assigned to the Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow regardless of the team they are on.

General Rotation Schedule

Sample Weekly Schedules

Blue rotation

• Monday: Operating room
• Tuesday: Academic
• Wednesday: Clinic
• Thursday: Operating room
• Friday: Operating room

White rotation

• Monday: Operating room
• Tuesday: Operating room
• Wednesday: Operating room
• Thursday: Operating room
• Friday: Clinic

There is a full complement of residents and medical students on the Colon and Rectal Surgery service. The Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow will be part of the team and interact with the residents and medical students on a daily basis. 

The fellow will be expected to assist in the daily care of patients and teach the junior residents the same. They will also be expected to provide formal and informal teaching sessions to the residents and medical students on the service.

The Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow will have no in-house call responsibilities. They will be expected to share home backup call for the in-house junior residents with the chief General Surgery resident assigned to the service. The fellow will also be expected to alternate weekend call, including patient rounds, with the chief General Surgery resident.

Three weeks of vacation are provided per year, with an additional five days of CME/education time that may be approved at the discretion of the program director.

The Colon and Rectal Surgery service works closely with other services in the hospital, including gynecologic oncology, urology, oncology, radiation oncology and especially gastroenterology. Not only do the services coordinate care of the patients, but there are several interdisciplinary conferences among the groups, such as IBD conference and GI tumor board.

In addition, representatives from many of these services will provide lectures to the Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow.

Through sharing of patients, lectures and conference interactions, Colon and Rectal Surgery fellows will gain a broad multidisciplinary approach to the care of patients. In addition to close interaction with other services in the hospital, the Colon and Rectal Surgery service maintains a close relationship with the enterostomal therapists. Their assistance in taking care of patients with ostomies is invaluable. They regularly attend the division’s preoperative conference so that they can be involved in patient care from the beginning.

In addition to the clinical staff, there is a full-time basic science research staff consisting of one PhD, two postdocs, one resident, one clinical research fellow and three research technicians.

All of these conferences are mandatory for the Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow.

Pre-Operative Case Conference

Every Wednesday, 7 to 8 a.m.

All the operative cases for the following week are discussed, including indications for surgery, workup and pathophysiology. Pertinent studies such as colonoscopies, CT scans, barium studies and pathology will be reviewed.

GI Tumor Board

Last Friday of the month, 7 to 8 a.m.

Interesting/complex patients with GI cancers (primarily colon and rectal cancers) are presented and discussed in a multidisciplinary conference. In attendance are surgeons, gastroenterologists, pathologists, radiologists, oncologists and radiation oncologists. The cases are presented by the Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow and the General Surgery residents.

Inflammatory Disease Center

Every Wednesday, 3 to 4 p.m.

This is an interesting case conference run by the Department of Medicine’s Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. At each conference, a surgical case is presented. The fellow will be responsible for half of these presentations; they will also be expected to attend the conference the other weeks when the topic of the case being presented by the GI service is appropriate.

Colon and Rectal Didactic Series

Every Friday, 7 to 8 a.m.

The Colon and Rectal Didactic Conference is designed to cover all aspects of colon and rectal surgery. The Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow and the chief General Surgery resident will be required to give one lecture every three months. Topics will be assigned. There will be lecturers from outside the department to cover the following topics:

• Radiology of the colon and rectum
• CT scans
• Fluoroscopic exams
• Pathology of the colon and rectum
• Cancer and polyps
• IBD and miscellaneous
• GI medicine
• Medical management of IBD
• Medical management of constipation
• Oncology
• Medical treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer
• Radiation for rectal cancer
• Surgical management of liver metastasis
• Anesthesia for colon and rectal surgery
• Aspects of general anesthesia
• Local and regional anesthesia
• Pediatric colon and rectal surgery
• Imperforate anus
• Hirschsprung’s disease

The rest of the conferences will be given by the Colon and Rectal Surgery faculty.

Colon and Rectal Journal Club

Every other month

Colon and Rectal Journal Club will be held four times per year (every other month). Two to four current articles relating to colon and rectal surgery will be discussed. The Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow and the chief General Surgery resident on the service will present the articles.

All of these conferences are mandatory for the Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow unless otherwise stated.

Morbidity and Mortality

Every Wednesday, 5 to 6 p.m.

The Colon and Rectal Surgery fellow will present the morbidities and mortalities from the colon and rectal service at this conference. In addition to providing the details of the case, they will be required to discuss the teaching points and present a pertinent literature review.

Grand Rounds

Every Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m.

Journal Club

One Thursday a month, 7 to 9 a.m.

This program is required only when the subject material is appropriate to Colon and Rectal Surgery. Optional for other topics.

Core Competencies

Monthly

These conferences are organized by the Office of Graduate Medical Education. Learn more about these lectures here.

Colon and Rectal Lab Meeting

Every Friday, 9 to 10 a.m.

Ongoing basic science research projects in the Colon and Rectal Lab are discussed.

Surgical Research Seminar

Every Wednesday, noon to 1 p.m.

Research being performed in the Department of Surgery is presented.

The annual Resident/Fellow Research Day is held each year (with exception of during the COVID-19 pandemic) on and around the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center campus.

The intent of the event is to provide an opportunity for residents and fellows to showcase their research accomplishments to their peers in other clinical departments, as well as their colleagues in the basic sciences.

Learn more about Resident/Fellow Research Day here.

Previous presentations from the Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship are listed here.