Thoughts on Orthopedic Surgery

[pleach]

I am shadowing a finger surgeon in the OR in two weeks, who ironically enough, actually performed surgery on my finger last year. If you'd like to hear the story of how the injury happened, just let me know. I was scheduled to shadow him in the OR a couple of weeks ago, but last minute he emailed me, saying that I needed a TB test done, proving negative. This was the day before I was initially supposed to shadow him. As bummed as I was, we scheduled a later date.

He mentioned that, although this is my first time to shadow anyone in the OR, it probably won't be anything dramatic or too exciting, as he performs nothing like open-heart surgery or total knee replacements. Nevertheless, I am ecstatic about shadowing him, regardless of the speciality.

I hope to attend medical school after college and continue on into the medical field. Anesthesiology is the most intriguing to me; however, surgery has definitely caught my eye lately. We'll see how everything plays out.

Cutting to the chase...
What are your thoughts on orthopedic surgery, namely finger surgery?

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[skiz knot]

First of all, it's called "Hand" surgery...
Secondly, It's an amazing field. A mixture of orthopaedics, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, and general surgery. You may see "mundane" surgeries, but the field has many amazing procedures that no one else in medicine has the skill to do.

Go through medical school and find the field you are interested in. Diff' rent strokes for diff' rent folks...

 

[massmocha]

Ortho is awesome... but before you get there you'll have to get into med school and then do well.

During third year clinical rotations you will see all the areas of medicine and get a feel of whether a surgical or medical career fits you better. It is really hard to say before you have even learned about anatomy, physiology, and taking care of patients what area will fit you best.

When you complete rotations, if you like the surgical lifestyle, you can then check out a number of the subspecialties to see which fits you best. If ortho clicks with you (because it is the best field), go after it! It's a long and competitive road, but work hard and be a team player and you will get there.