Medical or Osteopath School

• You must complete medical or osteopath school, which includes two years of didactic coursework and two years of clinical duties. During the clinical rotations, you are introduced to many areas of medicine, including internal medicine, family medicine, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and surgery. You may be required to take overnight hospital shifts along with the licensed physicians.
  
  

Residency Match Program

• Apply for a general surgery residency program after your third year of medical or osteopath school. Submit your transcripts, essay and recommendation letters to the National Resident Match Program (NRMP), which coordinates applications and forwards your materials to the programs of interest to you. After visiting the campuses and interviewing during your fourth year of medical or osteopath school, you must submit a "ranked list" of programs, in order of your preference, to the NRMP. You will be matched with the residency program highest on your list that wants you in the program.
  
  

General Surgery Residency

• Complete a general surgery residency program, which is typically five years in length. You may opt for two additional years of dedicated research, generally inserted between the second and third clinical years. The general surgery residency program provides comprehensive training in general surgery and in various surgical sub-specialties, including vascular surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, colorectal surgery, trauma surgery, burn surgery and plastic surgery.
  
  

Vascular Surgery Fellowship

• You must complete specialized fellowship training in vascular surgery, which can be one or two years in length. You apply for the fellowship through a vascular surgery match program, similar to the residency match program and also administered by the NRMP. Carefully review each program to ensure you will receive enough training in open procedures as well as endovascular procedures, as some program do not provide significant training in the newer endovascular techniques. A few programs, however, have developed five-year vascular surgery residencies in place of the five-year general surgery residency and the one to two-year vascular fellowship.
  
  

Licensing

• You must be licensed to practice medicine by your state medical board. The examination has three steps and begins during medical or osteopath school. The first step is taken after your second year and the second step after your third year of medical or osteopath school. After you pass the third step, taken after your first year of residency, you become licensed to practice medicine. Although you have not completed your residency, once you receive your license, your residency program may pay you to moonlight and work extra hospital shifts.
  
  

Certification

• To practice vascular surgery, you must pass the board-certification examination in general surgery (generally taken after completing your residency) and the board-certification examination in vascular surgery (generally taken after completing your fellowship). These examinations are administered by the American Board of Surgery.