Advice on the General Surgery Core Rotation

[5oProlene]

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Any of you surgery veterans out there care to advise me on how to go about my 3rd year general surgery rotation? So far I know I should:

1. Be on time

2. Wear professional attire on clinical days (i.e. try not to wear scrubs when not in the OR)

3. Shave everyday 🙂

4. Review the patient's chart, pathology of presenting disorder, and operative anatomy before going into the OR for the case.

5. If you are pimped and don't know the exact answer to the question but have an idea of what the answer is, try to reason it out to show your thought process. But if you don't have a clue then don't B.S., just admit you don't know but will look it up by tomorrow.

6. Offer to help the interns and residents even if they don't ask you directly.

7. If a resident offers to teach you something then accept, even if you are tired. Ignoring a teaching opportunity may cause the resident to not offer you future ones.

8. If a resident asks you if you want to leave or stay a bit longer, then it is your choice. If you think staying will be of educational value and you are not too tired then stay, but if you think you'll just spin your wheels and learn little then leave. Don't think it is a trick question or test of your commitment in that they want you to always pick staying.

7. Be polite to the patients

8. Be polite to the nurses and ancilliary staff

9. Don't suck up

10. Don't let any malignant persoanlity walk all over you (whether it be a patient, nurse, or doctor). Have a limit and don't let anybody cross it.


Anything else that is important??

 

[DoctorDoom]

Be a team player, be nice to your fellow students too.

Relax, be yourself, and enjoy surgery. It is a wonderful profession, don't be so wound up you miss the chance to appreciate the art.

 

[supercut]

Realize that, even if you absoluely know that you do not want to do surgery as a career, there is something valuable to be learned for every specialty from the rotation (this applies to every rotation, actually)

Every physician should be able to complete a basic workup for abdominal pain BEFORE calling for a surgery consult. Unfortuately, it seems that many cannot or can't be bothered. You should strive to achieve this skill from the rotation. Ask the residents if you can go start working up a belly pain pt in the ED first (try to get a 10 minute head start). Or at least go along and pay close attention and try to think ahead about what you would do next.

You'll very likey find that surgeons spend more time reviewing films themselves than any other specialty (except, naturally, radiologists). So this is a great chance to get ask some questions about xray/ct findings when your team reviews them.

Most of all, have fun. I find many students are surprised by how much fun they have even if they don't aspire to a surgical careeer.