Obstetrics & Gynecology Residency

College

  • Sidney Kimmel Medical College

Degree Earned

  • Residency

Program Length

4 years

Program Type

  • On Campus

Requirements

Applicant Information

Leadership

Name: Julia Switzer, MD
Position: Program Director, Residency Program

Contact

Name: Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Organization: Sidney Kimmel Medical College

833 Chestnut Street
Mezzanine
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Clinical Experience

The Thomas Jefferson University Obstetrics & Gynecology Residency quickly incorporates trainees into patient care to develop clinical and surgical skills in inpatient and outpatient settings under the supervision of qualified faculty. All major subspecialties are represented in our OBGYN department with unique clinical opportunities in high-risk obstetrics, family planning and surgical robotics.

Rotation Schedule

The resident rotation schedule is developed by the administrative chiefs with feedback and oversight from the Program Director. Resident requests are incorporated into the development of the rotation schedule, accounting for vacation requests, interviews and required testing.

Year One
  • Impatient Family Medicine TJUH
  • Surgical Intensive Care Unit TJUH
  • Obstetrics TJUH Day
  • Obstetrics TJUH Night
  • Ambulatory TJUH (with additional clinical exposures in Family Planning, Ultrasound, Vulvo Vaginal Health, and Jefferson Latina Clinic)
  • Obstetrics TJUH Day
  • Obstetrics TJUH Night
  • Gynecology TJUH Methodist
  • Gynecology TJUH
  • Maternal-Fetal Medicine TJUH
  • Oncology-Flex
  • Float
  • Ambulatory TJUH (with additional clinical exposure in Family Planning, Pediatric & Adolescent Gynecology (Nemours), and Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility (at RMA Philadelphia and RMA King of Prussia))
Year Three
  • Obstetrics TJUH Day
  • Obstetrics TJUH Night
  • Gynecologic Oncology TJUH
  • Gynecology Oncology TJUH - Abington
  • Gynocology - Capital Health
  • Ambulatory TJUH (with additional clinical exposure in Family Planning (TJUH and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania) and Colposcopy)
  • Float TJUH
  • Elective (1st half of academic year)

Year Four

  • Obstetrics TJUH Day
  • Obstetrics TJUH Night
  • Gynecology TJUH
  • Gynecology TJUH Methodist
  • Ambulatory/Maternal-Fetal Medicine TJUH (with additional clinical exposure in Family Planning (TJUH and Philadelphia Women's Center) and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at RMA Philadelphia)
  • Gynecologic Oncology TJUH
  • Float

Clinical Rotation Highlights

At Jefferson, we are committed to the concept of Obstetrician Gynecologists as primary care providers. We have incorporated a high-quality primary care curriculum into our program, including a rotation in family medicine, a lecture series of primary care topics from faculty university-wide and an ongoing ambulatory care experience in our department that emphasizes continuity of care. 

The High-Risk Obstetrical Unit in the Pavilion Building offers a sizable inpatient, high-risk service, including patients with substance use disorder in pregnancy. The nationally and internationally renowned Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) is a large tertiary referral center for high-risk pregnancies, allowing for exposure to a high volume of difficult and unique obstetrical cases.

Our residents have direct exposure to a range of surgical procedures across subspecialties. 

  • The Division of Gynecologic Oncology, part of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, maintains an extremely active outpatient practice, providing outstanding surgical and clinical education. Residents are active participants in both open and robot-assisted surgical procedures. 
  • The Division of Urogynecology has a fully-equipped outpatient facility and an active surgical practice. Specially trained gynecologic pelvic floor surgeons teach residents both inpatient and outpatient management of pelvic floor dysfunction, sexual medicine and pelvic pain. 
  • The Division of Pediatric & Adolescent Gynecology provides trainees with exposure to medical and surgical management of congenital and acquired anomalies impacting pediatric and adolescent patients under the age of 21.
  • The Division of Gynecology includes both subspecialty trained MIGS surgeons as well as general gynecologists who perform a large volume of gynecologic surgery using all accepted modalities of surgery. In addition, residents can pursue robot certification during their residency.

In our ambulatory care practice, residents, attendings and advanced practice providers all see patients in the same practice setting. A full-time faculty member is physically present during each office session to teach and supervise residents and students in various aspects of outpatient care. Resident assignments are based on the concept of continuity of care. Beginning in the PGY2 year, each resident has one half-day per week in the clinic, in addition to the rotation assignments above. There are no "general" or "open" clinic sessions; all sessions are continuity clinics, and many patients stay with the same resident over the three years of ambulatory care practice with us. The continuity clinics are supplemented by specialty clinics and office hours to round out the clinical experience in ambulatory care. 

We are proud to be a designated Ryan Residency Training Program, offering a comprehensive family planning experience to all residents. Residents provide family planning clinical care in almost every rotation, whether as an ambulatory rotation focused on contraception, miscarriage management, and outpatient abortion care, an inpatient obstetrics rotation providing postpartum contraception, or a gynecologic surgery rotation performing procedural abortions. The experience is intentionally spread across the four years and throughout the various clinical sites. As an opt-out program, residents are not required to perform induced abortions, but are expected to participate in abortion counseling and management of complications.

Volumes & Facilities

The breadth and depth of programs at Jefferson provide residents with a substantial inpatient and outpatient base for both clinical experience and research opportunities.

Jefferson OBGYN Outpatient Department
sees
~80,000
patients per year

Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals perform
~3,000
deliveries per year
TJUH Maternal-Fetal Medicine
has a referral base of
~30,000
high-risk deliveries per year
Pavilion Building
  • Labor & Delivery unit is equipped for critical care obstetrics, intensive maternal monitoring and ultrasound. 
  • Department of Anesthesia provides 24/7 obstetrical anesthesia, and has an Obstetrical Anesthesia Fellowship. 
  • High-Risk Obstetrical Unit is designed to care for high-risk pregnancies and is managed by the MFM team. 
  • Intensive Care Nursery, a 40-bed, Level III tertiary referral center, is staffed by board-certified neonatologists and serves as a Pediatric Residency training center.
Outpatient Department

Jefferson OBGYN Outpatient Department, our newly renovated ambulatory care facility, provides comprehensive outpatient services with both general and subspecialty sessions. Residents, nurse practitioners, midwives and faculty members work closely together and share the facilities and support staff.   

Surgery Facilities

TJUH is continually expanding and renovating its operating room space with over 30 operating rooms equipped with the latest operative technology, including laser surgery, minimally invasive surgery suites and surgical robots. These facilities are utilized extensively by the OBGYN department.

Simulation Center

The Rector Clinical Skills and Simulation Center is a state-of-the-art facility with simulated operating rooms, ICUs, patient office rooms and a laparoscopic surgery training room. All of the facilities are available to the OBGYN department, including a top-of-the-line Noelle delivery simulator and virtual reality surgical simulators.