Medical school plans to expand residency programs

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004 | 9:14 a.m.

If they train here, they'll stay here.

That's the reasoning behind new plans to expand several of the University of Nevada School of Medicine's residency programs to help the state overcome a severe shortage of medical specialists.

The medical school plans to double the number of residents in its obstetrics and gynecology training program statewide and will add four new Las Vegas positions to its psychiatric residency program.

The school is implementing a new sub-speciality training program for plastic and reconstructive surgery, a new residency in emergency medicine and a fellowship in child psychiatry.

The state has experienced severe shortages in all of these medical specialties, said Dr. John McDonald, medical school dean and vice president for health sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno.

"If you train here, you are more likely to stick in the same spot," McDonald said.

About 75 percent of residents stay in Nevada, UNR President John Lilley said during a Las Vegas Sun editorial meeting Tuesday.

The medical school accepts about 50 students a year into its residency programs in internal medicine, pediatrics, psychology, surgery and obstetrics and gynecology, McDonald said, and is training about 140 physicians in any given year.

Under the expansion, the six-year surgery residency program will increase from three to six residents by 2007 and allow residents to specialize in general and cancer reconstruction, hand surgery, microsurgery, facial reconstruction, treatment for congenital anomalies, burns, breast and aesthetic surgery.

"Our goal is to provide more highly trained health care professionals and to move beyond a focus on primary care to include specialty areas that establish the medical school as a leader in research and clinical education," Dr. William Zamboni, chairman of surgery, said. "The School of Medicine's reconstructive and plastic surgery faculty are among the best in the country with specialties ranging from facial reconstructive surgery to limb reattachment."

Most of the state's medical students do their clinical work in Las Vegas and their initial course work in Reno, even though the entire program is operated by UNR.

The medical school has teaching partnerships with University Medical Center, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and is developing a partnership with the Nevada Cancer Institute, McDonald said.

School faculty and residents see about 300,000 patients a year, including more than two-thirds of all admissions at UMC, McDonald said. Medical school trauma surgeons are also responsible for more than half of all admissions to the UMC Trauma Center and for more than 3,700 births annually.