Anyone else interested in trauma surgery?

[TexasTriathlete]

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Just curious.

 

[DrMidlife]

Yeah, so I'm volunteering in the county ER and yet another stabbing victim comes in, with one knife sticking straight out of his chest and another coming out from under his arm. There's a GSW not quite dead in the bed next to him, so there's already a pond of blood between the two beds. There's saline flying, formerly-sterile trays stacked up, and about 30 people in the room working their heinies off. The general surg residents do their thing, and the stabbee is pretty much dead, and then this tiny young woman with a braid down her back, looks about 14 years old, comes in with booties on, wades through the blood, slices the guy open from armpit to armpit and starts barking at residents to take out the knife, no, the one under the arm, you hold the liver, yes where it's bleeding, ever done open heart massage, no, well, here's your chance. They brought the guy back, but then he died again.

LOVED her, wanted HER JOB. Took about an hour to find out what kind of doctor she was. Trauma fellow. Finished a cardiothoracic residency, wished she'd done ortho.

So yeah, I'm interested in trauma surgery. Those guys get ALL the fun.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

Same here. I volunteer at the regional trauma center, and I have for a couple years, so I've been thinking about it for a while. But recently, I've become friends with one of the trauma surgeons there (he works out at my gym), and he's basically got me talked into it. Not so much that he's been trying to persuade me, but he's just kind of confirmed my notions of what the job is all about.

He's telling me where I should do my elective rotations, what surgery residencies are good for making you into a trauma surgeon, and how I should go about it from a DO school. I'm starting to get excited.

Next step: get accepted somewhere.

 

[Playmakur42]

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[TexasTriathlete]

1. If you want to do surgery in a rural area, if you play your cards right, you can make bank, and get the hospital where you work to pay for your loans. But that depends on what you mean by "rural". He suggested Del Rio, TX to me. That place is a real ****hole. Not really rural. Not really urban. Just ****ty.

2. His advice to me, obviously, is to do my elective rotations at places that have a good trauma center, and that I might be interested in doing residency at.

3. Do well on the boards (USMLE step 1, primarily).

4. The fact that I am a TX resident may work to my advantage here. There are phenomenal medical centers here with good residency programs in surgery that will prep you for trauma, and we have a physician shortage in TX. So the possibility exists that people who seem likely to practice in TX after residency may have a leg up. But maybe not.

Mostly, just pick your surgery rotations well, and do well on them. Ace your boards. And then see what happens.

 

[hoss22]

I volunteer at the UT trauma center in Knoxville, TN. I am currently planning to go into family practice, but working there I have become very intrigued with critical care anesthesiology. One of the doctors I met is excellent. He told me about how in his practice he has the opportunity to work with the patients and their families, which is one of the main reasons I want to work in family. I am currently still planning to go into family, but I am keeping my options open and critical care anesthesiology is high on my list.

 

[Nasem]

trauma surgery... too much blood for me, I think I'll stick to IM 🙂

 

[LikesScience]

Trauma surgery sounds so badass, but I'm concerned about the lifestyle. It's not that I am averse to long hours, it's just that emergency medicine has been my primary interest for a while now and allows for a lot of outside interests. I'd love to do ringside medicine on the side because I love watching combat sports. Touro-NV is actually pretty high on my list simply because Vegas is the fight capital of the world.

 

[nlax30]

I think trauma surg would definitely be interesting, Ortho surgery has always been an interest of mine, but lately I'm thinking more in terms of what would be better for family/lifestyle-wise. Especially if you do trauma surgery in a more rural area where there are a shortage of surgeons, be ready to work your tail off and either put off family stuff for a while or have a very understanding SO.

If I was slightly younger and single I would have no hesitations about going straight at Ortho or trauma surgery.

 

[PT2MD]

One thing to think about. I'd talk to a young [insert specialty here] and a more experienced [insert specialty here] to get an idea of how the lifestyle wears on them over time. I am really intrigued by things like trauma and cardiothoracic surgery, but I have to think that the stressors of the job have to take a physical and emotional toll after a while.

Those are probably answers that would be tough to get on SDN (maybe the mentor's forum?). Anyhooo....just something to think about.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

The trauma surgeon that I've been talking to about this is definitely young. I think he's about my age. Only first or second year out of residency.

The thing is, I think that the training you go through for trauma surgery allows you some versatility as a general surgeon. A lot of these guys work for a surgical group too and do non-trauma procedures. So I think if you got sick of it and wanted to slow down, you could stop doing trauma and just work for some private practice and do vasectomies or something.

 

[Halligan]

I am also interested in trauma surgery. Thought I might share this link:

http://www.amsa.org/surg/trauma.cfm

It has some pretty good interviews in there to check out - 👍

 

[TexasTriathlete]

Thanks for the link. I know that if you get the right general surgery residency, you won't need a fellowship to do trauma. Just have to pick the right spot.

 

[Meatwad]

Medicine is a fairly selfless profession to begin with, but I can't see myself going into something with this type of lifestyle committment. I don't know much about Trauma Surgery, but it obviously sounds pretty all-encompassing, like CT surgery, NS, etc.

 

[Darktide]

One of my two DO "mentors" is a Trauma-Neurosurgeon, and head of neurosurgery at Grant medical in Columbus, OH. His lifestyle is.... definitely not one that I would envy (so many hours, so much paperwork)... But with that said, before he moved to Columbus, he practiced as a "general" Neurosurgeon, and did quite well for himself. He did a few of my father's back-surgeries (one that was mind blowing~~ having to unwrap a nerve from around a Misplaced Lumbar cage... only took 19 hours of surgery)...

So as was stated, you can do "general" surgery even with a trauma specialty...

Though, with all that said, I'm still interested in the dual FP/EM residencies...I think I'll get my fill of cowboy doctorin' that way =P

 

[Tanner82]

Trauma surgery is definitly bad-ass. It would be pretty sweet but the biggest downfall is the length of training and the hours you work. General surgery residency and trauma fellow? And when are most traumas coming in? Late, overnight shifts. That's not for me, although I would enjoy the actual work.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

Good! More trauma stats for me.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

I think I want to do an elective rotation in trauma surgery at Temple. That would rule.

 

[jklasser17]

I think I want to do an elective rotation in trauma surgery at Temple. That would rule.

I work in the Shock Trauma lab some days here at Univ of MD so it's pretty sweet. (It's like the No. 1 ER in the world and considering this is Baltimore...that's not too shabby) But trauma surgery sounds so sweet, you get the fun aspects of being a general surgeon and not overly specialized, but you also get to do something so instantly gratifying and exciting. And please, bring on the night hours.