Each categorical and non-designated preliminary General Surgery Resident will be assigned a Faculty Advisor at the beginning of the academic year, at the PGY-1 level. This person will be the resident's advocate for both personal and residency related issues. The resident and faculty advisor will meet formally for at least every two months during the academic year to review the resident's performance and to address any personal issue that may affect the resident. The Faculty Advisor must document his meeting with his advisee either via formal documentation or via e-mail submitted to one of two residency coordinators (Grace Morales at NSUH and Chrissy Deiker at LIJMC). These documents will be kept in the resident's file. To enhance the value of the Advisor/Advisee Program, it is encouraged that the Advisor meet socially with the resident and his/her significant other (spouse/fiancée/girlfriend or boyfriend) to establish a closer and more meaningful relationship.

At completion of the first year of training, each categorical resident may choose his/her own advisor for the duration of the training, or keep the assigned advisor, if so chosen. Ideally, the choice of an advisor for the duration of training should be based on career choice, compatibility, interests and availability. The advisor may be the same person as the Research Mentor in case the categorical resident elects to pursue two or three years of research with Dr. Wang or one of his associates, or with any other research associate in the Department of Surgery.