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        Student Surgical Society

        The Penn State College of Medicine Student Surgical Society (SSS) is a student-run group that strives to provide medical students who have an interest in surgical specialities with opportunities to obtain more information and experience to assist with their career decisions.

        Our officers include the following:

        Faculty Advisor – Dan A. Galvan, M.D.
        President – Dave Yearsley
        Vice President – Chandan Misra
        Secretary – Toby Long
        Treasurer – Brad Mathers

        Surgical Resident/Medical Student Connection
        Are you interested in working in surgery – any type of surgery? Do you want to get information on a surgical career from those that have recently lived through the medical school years? Well, we have the program for you. The Student Surgical Society would like to invite you to sign up for the Surgical Resident/Medical Student Connection, where we match you (and perhaps a fellow student) with a surgery resident. The resident will be a resource for you throughout the school year and you can arrange time to discuss different aspects of surgery including: 1. How do I know surgery is right for me? What should I being doing now in order to someday be a surgeon? 3. What would be the best way to approach my clerkship rotations? 4. Anything else you might want to discuss. All we need from you is your name, email, year of school, and if there are any areas in which you are interested (e.g. general, cardiothoracic, etc). Please email the above information to Dave Yearsley at dmyearsley@yahoo.com.

        Emergency Medicine Medical Student Externship Program
        This program is brand-new this year, born from student demand. The SSS is trying to get 1st and 2nd year medical students involved in patient care in the Emergency Department. Students sign-up in shifts to “work” in the ED and perform a number of tasks, including patient hygiene, taking vitals signs, collect and label specimens, and a number of other activities. Once students complete specified number of shifts, they can then “graduate” and take on new duties such as foley catheter placement and venipuncture.

        Twice a semester, the SSS brings you into the operating room – almost. We do this by broadcasting a live surgery from Hershey Medical Center’s OR into one of our lecture halls. Students not only have the opportunity to view live shots of the operation. They are able to ask questions to the surgeons in real time. For the first half of the year, we have schedule a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (removing your gallbladder through a small hole) and a gastric bypass. Dates are still tentative.

        The SSS is able to bring students a number of lunch lectures. These include a lecture on Transplant Surgery given by Dr. Zakyiah Kadry. We are also please to welcome Dr. Kenneth Graf and his lecture entitled “Surgery on the Front Lines,” in conjunction with the Military Medicine Group. We also have a number of other lunch lectures in the works. Stay tuned.

        The SSS is working very hard with the Emergency Medicine Interest Group (EMIG) to provide first and second year students with a number of hands-on simulation labs covering a variety a medical procedures. These include suturing, casting, foley catheter placement, NG tube placement, starting IV’s, drawing blood, airway management, and brand new for this year is an ultrasound lab.

        So far, the SSS is working on two fundraisers. First, we will be having a sweatshirt sale. The cost of the hooded sweatshirts will be $20. They will be gray, medium weight sweatshirts. They will have the SSS logo on the front left lapel and another SSS design on the back. Our second fundraiser will be a sub-sale, the date of which has yet to be decided.

        The SSS encourages all students who are interested in a career in surgery to become student members of the American College of Surgeons. Becoming a student member of the ACS has a number of benefits, including:

         

        • Online access to the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS)
        • The weekly electronic newsletter "ACS NewsScope"
        • Waived registration fee for the annual Clinical Congress
        • Eligibility for enrollment in the College-sponsored insurance programs (health, life, auto, disability, loan payment)
        • BAC credit card
        • Discounted select textbooks purchased at Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
        • Access to "Members Only" area of the ACS Web site
        • Representation on selected ACS Committees (Subcommittee on Medical Student Education and Committee on Informatics)
        • Use of the ACS travel agency