Surgery

Our program is focused on training surgeons to be independent within the typical five-year training period. A number of our graduates choose to go into practice straight out of residency and are successful. For those that choose fellowship, they have matched at highly competitive programs, including Harvard (transplant), UC Irvine (colorectal), Johns Hopkins (endocrine), Mayo Clinic Rochester (cardiothoracic), Cleveland Clinic (breast surgical oncology) and University of Tennessee (trauma/critical care). 

We host medical students from Creighton, the University of Arizona, Midwestern and other schools. Although we do have excellent burn and surgical critical care fellowships with one fellow each per year, our primary focus is on our general surgery trainees.  

Our Saint Vincent de Paul clinic, based within the Virginia G. Piper Medical Clinic, is a free clinic that fills a gap in the health care system by serving uninsured and underserved patients, so they do not delay care until crisis. It lives inside a larger mission to feed, clothe, house, and heal people in our community who have nowhere else to turn, while creating meaningful opportunities for volunteers to serve with compassion.

Saint Vincent de Paul sits at the heart of Creighton University School of Medicine’s mission to serve the underserved. In partnership with Dignity Health Medical Group, Saint Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, and Valleywise Medical Center, the clinic welcomes uninsured and underinsured adults, including many recent immigrants, with care that is dignified, culturally informed, and accountable to outcomes. We operate a hernia clinic based on charity care from our healthcare system that delivers advanced repairs to the same standards as any of our patients. We also run an endocrine biopsy clinic for timely image guided diagnosis, and we have opened a broader general surgery clinic to evaluate and prepare patients for needed operations. Our goal is simple. Reduce emergency room recidivism, restore health, and help patients return to the life they want to live.

Contemporaneously, we are working with our anesthesia colleagues to build a surgical mission to Puerto Penasco that will extend hernia and essential procedures to neighboring communities. This work strengthens the bridge from community clinic to hospital care and reflects the values that guide Creighton University School of Medicine. Residents get the opportunity to train in a resource-scarce environment while upholding the highest standards. Faculty lead with service and accountability. Patients move smoothly from clinic to surgery to follow up with one coordinated team and one standard of care. This is how we unify around purpose and move together.

Philanthropy is the cornerstone of this work. When we practice philanthropy in a resourced setting, where real support is directed to people who have traditionally lacked it, the effect is deeply uplifting. It restores purpose, strengthens community, and protects teams from burnout while advancing wellbeing and resilience. It also gives residents a formative view of high-level care delivered with humility. Philanthropy is not an add on. It is the foundation that keeps the mission moving.

THOMAS GILLESPIE, MD, FACS
Academic Chair & Tenured Professor of Surgery, Assistant Dean for OME
Creighton University School of Medicine - PHX
 THOMAS.GILLESPIE@commonspirit.org

Our vision is to be the leading General Surgery Residency Program in the Southwest, with a reputation for clinical expertise, scholarly activity and inquiry, innovation in both surgical education and practice, habitual self-reflection, and service to our patients and our community.

• Inclusivity and diversity
• Integrity and accountability
• Collaboration and innovation
• Collegiality and professionalism
• Compassion and service

• To train clinically excellent surgeons equipped to flourish in our ever-more-challenging practice environment, to be good stewards of resources and to be prepared for independent practice or a specialty fellowship of their choosing
• To develop and cultivate individual scholarly interests, leadership development and professionalism by action and example; to provide resources and opportunities for trainees to forge their own path in surgery
• To produce surgeons uniquely skilled in addressing healthcare disparities and overcoming barriers to care, who choose to either stay in or return to Arizona, in service to the community they trained in
• To foster a collegial environment that is conducive to education, camaraderie and compassion—for patients, colleagues and self

Our Program is very excited to announce that we have secured and implemented a one-year fully funded Research Fellowship for our Surgery Residency Program at Creighton-Phoenix!

The Research Fellowship Director is Dr. Jordan Weinberg, a full Professor with extensive experience in research and academics. This year of research is reserved for our own residents wishing to perform primarily clinical, outcomes-based research including using our Knowledge Donor platform for teaching, training and creating new educational models. The first resident to do this just completed their year in June; and was highly productive doing a combination of research with our Knowledge Donor program and with the Norton Thoracic Institute. This resulted in multiple publications, as well as regional and national presentations, including Society of Thoracic Surgeons and American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress; some of which are still ongoing.  Another resident just started working on their own projects; and at least one resident is already preparing for next year's Fellowship.

This research year is entirely voluntary - no one would be mandated to do it.  Should there be more than one applicant, funding is a competitive process with a Research Committee to evaluate applicants.  However, there are additional sources of funding which may make it possible to have more than one resident in the lab at one time.

We believe that this funded year of research makes us stand out from many other academic/community hybrid Surgery Residency Programs.
 

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education had granted continuous approval to the VHMC five-year surgery program since 1954 and to the St. Joseph’s program since 2008. VHMC and St. Joe’s both have long histories of success in preparing physicians for the medicine of tomorrow. Together they offer Arizona's longest running residency programs and train hundreds of physicians every year in a wide range of clinical settings.

In recognition of that success, Creighton University School of Medicine joined with Valleywise Health Medical Center, District Medical Group, and Dignity St. Joe’s to create the Creighton University Arizona Health Education Alliance in 2017. Creighton is the Sponsoring Institution for all graduate medical education for both hospitals and opened a brand new medical school in Phoenix, the first class matriculated August 2021. 

We received approval from the ACGME for merging the two programs into one new program in April 2021. With this new program we are leveraging the strengths of each former program.  There have been major changes and likely there will be more in the future. What will not change is our dedicated teaching faculty, strong and diverse trainees, a high volume of patient care encounters and operative experiences, and our commitment to resident education and professional and personal development.