General Surgery Residency

Jan Swasthya Sahyog now offers a three-year DNB General Surgery course recognized by the National Board of Examinations. There are currently two post MBBS seats available annually.

JSS believes in training true surgical generalists who can provide the critical access to surgery needed in rural areas. Residents are broadly trained in the outpatient and inpatient aspects of surgery with an emphasis on surgical subspecialties for which you may be the only hope a poor patient may have in a resource-limited environment. We also believe that strong medicine training is important to manage the comorbidities that your patient may have and you will train alongside our Family Medicine residents to help learn these broader skills. The JSS hospital at Ganiyari sees over 50,000 patients per year, admitting over 3,000 patients, and conducting close to 2500 surgeries. In addition, our community programme caters to the comprehensive needs of 40,000 residents across 70 villages through a network of village health workers and three health and wellness centres. We use a mix of paper and electronic medical records, and utilize tele-consultations from specialists across India and globally.

People in small places don’t have small problems. We see many neglected diseases of poverty from leprosy, all forms of TB, and even common conditions present late, with complications, or have a different pathophysiology such as ‘lean’ diabetes. These difficult cases, not classically considered ‘surgical’, often require surgery here at JSS to assist in their diagnosis or management as a result of deprivation. Our residents also gain experience treating a wide array of less common clinical issues, from various solid cancers to paediatric surgical cases for which we are a referral center. Notably, we do not see much trauma at JSS. Our residents benefit from our founders, who graduated from AIIMS and provide daily guidance and mentorship. Students also learn from visiting faculty in various subspecialities including surgical oncology, neurosurgery, urology, surgical gastroenterology, plastic surgery, besides allied specialities such as Gynecology and Obstetrics, orthopedics and ENT surgery. Trainees rotate for some subspecialities such as CTVS, at the AIIMS, Raipur. Besides the Institute’s faculty, Residents also learn from our skilled, experienced staff including senior nurses, OT assistants, and laboratory technicians in a non-hierarchical, cooperative team environment. All residents engage in meaningful research, with each student tasked with writing a final thesis by the end of the programme which we expect to be of publishable quality.

Because JSS serves a poor, tribal region of rural Chhattisgarh, many of the conditions we see are compounded by social, political, and economic marginalization. In addition to engaging in clinical work, our DNB residents are taught about the intersection of illness and poverty, and they engage in health projects that seek to address some of the underlying issues of ill health. Becoming a true generalist, and learning this wide scope of clinical skills requires dedication. We ask a lot of our residents, not only hard work and long hours, but a commitment to our vulnerable patients and the value of social justice. The unique JSS culture may be infective and we look forward to welcoming those who share our dream and assure them of a life changing experience.

Basic shared room accommodation is provided on campus, along with a simple mess for all meals, and print and electronic access to a host of medical materials for learning.

For more information: http://www.globalsurgery.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/India-Teaching-Case.pdf