University of Hawaii Program

Program Identity & Fit

The University of Hawai'i Surgical Residency Program is a five-year, university-affiliated categorical general surgery program built on an integrated community hospital model, training residents across five distinct Honolulu institutions (Queen's Punchbowl, Queen's West O'ahu, Straub Benioff, Kuakini, and Kapi'olani) plus a rural rotation at North Hawai'i Community Hospital during PGY3-4. Its identity centers on graduated clinical autonomy within a private-attending, university-faculty hybrid model, culminating in a chief year with full team responsibility for care and administration; Queen's Punchbowl, the Pacific Basin's leading referral and trauma center, anchors critical care and trauma exposure and hosts an affiliated Surgical Critical Care Fellowship for residents interested in intensivist training. The program's structure - rotating through independently operated community hospitals rather than one dominant academic quaternary center - suggests it values residents who are adaptable across varied practice cultures and comfortable functioning within private-practice-influenced systems rather than a single monolithic academic hierarchy. The rural North Hawai'i rotation and isolated Pacific location point toward a program oriented to producing surgeons prepared for geographically dispersed, resource-variable practice rather than pure subspecialty academic tracks.