Neurosurgery Pre-Residency

UNM’s Neurosurgery pre-residency research and clinical training program provides the pre-residents with
experience in a neurosurgical training program. You will attend the same lectures as the neurosurgery residents, learn from the same clinical neurosurgery rotations as part of the team, and simultaneously demonstrate your ability to lead a productive clinical research team. You will also gain exposure to the operating room for the spectrum of neurosurgical procedures: the spectrum of spinal procedures, the core neurosurgical oncology procedures- including awake craniotomy for glioma and brain metastases resection, neuroendovascular and open vascular procedures, functional/epilepsy surgeries, and comprehensive exposure to pediatric neurosurgery. You will also attend the multidisciplinary tumor board, epilepsy conference, spine indications conference, and other department & inter-department conferences. Our pre-residents are able to significantly enhance their applications, and previously they have matched into neurosurgery, general surgery, neurology, and other specialties.

Organization

Over the course of 12 months, you will rotate through our different Neurosurgery services:

• Spine/Neurocritical care
• Vascular/Endovascular
• Skull Base/Neurooncology
• Pediatric

You will also spend a key portion of your year leading a neurosurgical research team of medical students with the goal of advancing an area of clinical research, and demonstrating an ability to rapidly publish multiple high-quality papers in a short focused one-year interval. This one-year focus is similar to how most neurosurgery residency programs structure their research year. That skill will be a key part of your recommendation for other training programs as you apply for residency. We will have monthly departmental research meetings with the pre-residents and residents. You will work underneath a core faculty member of the department.

Clinical Strengths

As the only level-one trauma center, and the only comprehensive cancer center with awake craniotomy capability for brain tumors and epilepsy surgeries, UNM provides an immense quantity of cases that provide a rich training environment for our pre-residents. You will learn to evaluate neruosrugicae patients in the clinic, emergency room, wards, & the ICU. You will also be exposed to the bedside ICU procedures such as lumbar drain, external ventricular drain.

Program Goals & Objectives

Upon completion of the Neurosurgery Pre-Residency Training Program, graduates will be able to:

• Perform rapid, efficient, yet thorough, neurosurgical histories & pertinent physical examinations, across the spectrum of possible clinical locations.
• Gain exposure to the neurosurgical operations across the core rotations and learn the various ICU procedures
• Learn how to efficiently present all types of neurosurgical patients to faculty across all the clinical settings
• Develop individualized patient plans for the most common neurosurgical pathologies encountered
• Rapidly and correctly interpret the common diagnostic neuroradiographic modalities implemented
• Lead an intensive, focused research team studying a clinical question that leads to multiple high-quality publications on the topic, working underneath a research mentor
• Learn the commonly used pharmacological tools within the neurosurgical repertoire for the common key neurosurgical pathologies

Pre-Residency Benefits

The University of New Mexico offers highly competitive salaries and tremendous benefits to our residents and fellows. An overview of salary, benefits and employment eligibility is available at the GME office website.

How to Apply

We are now accepting applications for April 2023 (to apply click here). We anticipate interviewing suitable candidates at the end of April 2023. Applicants must be eligible for medical licensure in the state of New Mexico.

Application Requirements

Please submit the following documents to our program coordinator

• USMLE Step 1/2/3 and/or ECFMG certification
• Medical school transcripts
• Curriculum vitae
• Personal statement
• At least two letters of recommendation from faculty members you have worked with.