Our Residents Answered
What stood out to you the most when applying to UF?
- Location – it’s in central Florida with easy access to travel to all the big cities. I figured I’d be tied up with residency obligations throughout the week but wanted to be able to take day trips on the weekend. Gainesville was perfect!
- Answered by Dr. Kevin Campbell, 2020 UF Urology Graduate
I saw UF had a fellowship in endourology/minimally invasive surgery. I was wondering how this has impacted your training as a resident (pros and cons)?
- The fellowship has been a great addition to our residency training. The fellow is hands on in teaching us residents during our robotics and stone rotations. The fellow also leads some of our MIS animal lab exercises as well. I never felt as though I was fighting for cases or time with attendings compared to the fellow. The fellow is truly a part of our team.
- Answered by Dr. Andrew Rabley, 2021 UF Urology Graduate
After being in residency for (X) number of years, what do you feel like has been the most rewarding aspect of training at UF?
- The quality of training and collegiality. All of our faculty take an active interest in teaching and all the major specialties are represented with faculty trained at top fellowships. Also, the service specific model allows for residents to rotate through services as a junior and chief. You can see the progress you make during that time.
- Answered by Dr. Kevin Campbell, 2020 UF Urology Graduate
How does UF balance education, OR time/technical skills training, and resident wellness? Do you feel like UF excels in one of these areas in particular ? How?
- There’s a portion of the department website devoted to resident wellness. How many programs have that? Our residency director continues to look for ways to improve resident education.
- Answered by Dr. Kevin Campbell, 2020 UF Urology Graduate
Have you ever felt “burnt out” while in residency? How did faculty, co-residents, etc. help you through this?
- On General Surgery rotations, you churn through many patients which gives you the appropriate tools for patient care when you return to Urology. Those times are stressful and you bond with your co-residents which lasts for your 5 years.
- Answered by Dr. Kevin Campbell, 2020 UF Urology Graduate
Are there any opportunities to engage in service?
- There are medical mission trips available. Generally the upper level residents are the ones to go on these as they require certain surgical skills.
- Answered by Dr. Kevin Campbell, 2020 UF Urology Graduate
How manageable is it to start a family while in residency?
- Half of our residents are married and half of those have children. Completely doable and Gainesville is a safe and opportune city to raise a family in.
- Answered by Dr. Kevin Campbell, 2020 UF Urology Graduate
What percent of the residents own their own home?
- Roughly half. Residents are able to purchase a home or rent an apartment on their salary in Gainesville. It’s completely up to the resident’s comfort level.
- Answered by Dr. Kevin Campbell, 2020 UF Urology Graduate
What is the research expectation at UF and do you feel there is adequate support to accomplish those expectations? e.g. I have heard of another program where they are expected to complete x amount of projects a year, but has inadequate support to be successful.
- You can perform research in whatever field you wish. Faculty members are engaged in research and you can assist with their research as well if you don’t have a specific project you’d like to work on. Each project has a faculty mentor who you choose that can assist with your project. There is a research requirement of one project per year. Also each year, each resident gives a Grand Rounds presentation and you can write if you don’t have a separate project.
- Answered by Dr. Kevin Campbell, 2020 UF Urology Graduate
General advice: What skills or qualities should medical students seek to develop prior to starting their intern year at UF? What expectations do you have for incoming interns?
- Intern year, especially in the beginning, is a time where students learn to become a doctor. You learn the ins and outs of basic patient care and start the journey of learning clinical and surgical urology. This involves immersing yourself in the task at hand, no matter the rotation or situation. An eagerness to learn and participate as a part of the team is essential and will translate to greater learning and earned responsibilities. Of course hard work, punctuality, and the ability to work well with others will be essential.
- Answered by Dr. Tanner Rawlings, 2022 UF Urology Graduate
Our Faculty Answered
What qualities or characteristics do you hope to foster in your residents?
- Compassionate, high-integrity, committed, inquisitive, detail-oriented, highly capable and meticulous surgeons are some of the words that come to mind when I think about our residents and the qualities that we try to instill here at UF Urology. This especially comes to mind as we see our chief residents graduate each year. Just like raising your own child, our faculty have so much hope and expectations for their future as we see them “fly the coop and spread their wings”.
- Answered by Dr. Li-Ming Su, David A. Cofrin Professor of Urologic Oncology, Chairman, Department of Urology
What has driven you to stay at UF?
- This is an easy one to answer. I have been here at UF for more than fifteen years. First of all, my parents live here in Gainesville and this is one of the reasons for me leaving Johns Hopkins and returning home in 2008 when I joined the faculty at UF. Equally important, as a reason to stay here at UF, is the people within our department. We have a close knit work family. I could not be more proud to be part of such an upstanding group of faculty, residents, nurses, extenders, and staff as we have in our department. The culture of our department is extremely strong and is one of collaboration, support, recognition of each other’s contributions, expertise and accomplishments. In addition, we have a great work-life balance here at UF. Gainesville is a fantastic and very safe place to live with lots of outdoor activities to participate irrespective of your interests and hobbies.
- Answered by Dr. Li-Ming Su, David A. Cofrin Professor of Urologic Oncology, Chairman, Department of Urology
How do you see the residency program and/or department changing in the next 5-6 years (if at all)?
- We are still in what I call the “sweet spot” with regards to our residency program and department growth. Some departments are top heavy with lots of older physicians near retirement. Others are in their nascent stages of development as a department. We at UF have a vibrant group of young faculty who are in the prime of their career with many years of experience based on strong fellowship training from places such as Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Indiana, Vanderbilt, Minnesota, and others, but still with many years of active practice ahead. So we have great stability in our faculty group. We cover all areas of urology subspecialization extremely well with advanced fellowship-trained faculty. This includes broad coverage of open, laparoscopic, robotic, endoscopic, and percutaneous procedures. Our residents are extremely well exposed to the broad spectrum of subspecialty urology cases and patient care. In fact, I would expect that we will need a fourth resident line in the coming years.
- Answered by Dr. Li-Ming Su, David A. Cofrin Professor of Urologic Oncology, Chairman, Department of Urology
I have been extremely impressed with the number and variety of clinical trials (i.e. PDIGREE study, AMBASSADOR trial, etc.) being performed at UF. Do urology residents have the opportunity to dedicate focused time to participate in the recruitment, analysis, and dissemination of this research? Or do residents do research on the side throughout their rotations?
- Thank you for noticing our clinical trials involvement. Much of this work is attributed to Dr. Paul Crispen’s involvement in clinical trials recruitment for bladder cancer studies through the UF Health Cancer Center. In addition, you may have noticed that we have active basic science research in the realm of immune escape mechanisms as related to urologic malignancies as well as stone disease research. While we welcome resident involvement in all aspects of our research enterprise, in reality, our residents mainly engage in clinical research with our faculty. Each resident chooses a faculty mentor to help guide them with research ideas and projects as well as career planning throughout the 4.5 years of urology training (0.5 years of general surgery internship). Although our program does not have dedicated time to research, our residents have very easily accomplished our goal of actively participating in a research project every 6 months and publishing at least two peer reviewed articles by the time of their graduation.
- Answered by Dr. Li-Ming Su, David A. Cofrin Professor of Urologic Oncology, Chairman, Department of Urology
General advice: What skills or qualities should medical students seek to develop prior to starting their intern year at UF? What expectations do you have for incoming interns?
- As you probably know, interns rotate in urology for six months of their first year in training which is great for the intern as well as us. We have a fantastic relationship with the general surgery department and have been able to request internship rotations that are more salient to their future urology practice such as transplant surgery, vascular surgery, surgical ICU, colorectal/MIS surgery, outpatient minor surgery, and trauma surgery. With regards to qualities of a great intern, I would say focused, punctual, great at multi-tasking, thorough in closing the loop, efficient, organized, compassionate, dedication, perseverance and eagerness. The last word resonates especially with me as I tell this to my residents every day. One needs to have an “urgency to learn”. Each day you step foot in the hospital, you should ask yourself the questions “what am I going to learn today about medicine that is exciting?” and “how can I maximize my day to its fullest to gain this knowledge?”.
- Answered by Dr. Li-Ming Su, David A. Cofrin Professor of Urologic Oncology, Chairman, Department of Urology
Is there a lot of stability within the faculty appointments? I.e. any reason to expect turnover?
- The faculty appointments are extremely stable. There are no reasons to expect significant turnover. In fact, the expectation is that the number of faculty will continue to grow in the near future.
- Answered by Dr. Li-Ming Su, David A. Cofrin Professor of Urologic Oncology, Chairman, Department of Urology
- Answered by Dr. Lou Moy, Associate Professor, Associate Program Director
