Are all orthos skilled in woodshop?

[JabsterL]

Hey guys, I really love ortho because of sports/athletics background and loving the musculoskeletal system from college and med school anatomy, but because I'm a pianist and not a wood-shopper who is already skilled with power tools, etc., like so many of the orthos, i'm apprehensive about going into the field and thus have been favoring ENT over ortho thusfar (i guess because maybe i feel i have more talent at this point in fine motor skills that would be better for head and neck and only really hand surgery in ortho, as opposed to being the skilled wood-shopper)...am i dumb to be basing any of my decision on choosing ortho vs. ent for this reason? basically, are any great orthos out there not natural wood shoppers but rather more skilled in fine motor movements like piano like i am (i've heard from lots of neurosurgs that they are great with their fine motor movements in part cuz of stuff like piano so i figure it should help for ENT-head and neck)...what other factors should i consider to decide between ortho and ENT (differences in lifestyle, personality of the field, ent involving medical management and ortho being more surgical, etc.)? how did orthos who thought about ENT decide against ENT?

thanks so much!

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[Debridement]

Reasons not to go into ENT:

1) Snot
2) Earwax
3) Cancer
4) T&As ALL DAY LONG
5) Tubes in kids ears ALL DAY LONG

'nuff said

Ortho is not like woodshop. That is a General plublic/MSI way of thinking and shows lack of understanding of the field.

If you want to do fine work with you hands then quit med school and tie flies at a fishing store. That or build ships in bottles.

 

[JabsterL]

Reasons not to go into ENT:

1) Snot
2) Earwax
3) Cancer
4) T&As ALL DAY LONG
5) Tubes in kids ears ALL DAY LONG

'nuff said

Ortho is not like woodshop. That is a General plublic/MSI way of thinking and shows lack of understanding of the field.

If you want to do fine work with you hands then quit med school and tie flies at a fishing store. That or build ships in bottles.

it's not that i wanna do fine hand work but rather i don't wanna be a worse orthopod cuz i'm not naturally skilled at woodshop stuff (which seems to be a common thread among orthopods)

 

[SOUNDMAN]

it's not that i wanna do fine hand work but rather i don't wanna be a worse orthopod cuz i'm not naturally skilled at woodshop stuff (which seems to be a common thread among orthopods)

Dude what about micro vascular and neuro stuff? Hand fellows do this. What about scopes, general muskuloskeletal surgery? I mean you have to fix a lot of fractures, but unless you are trauma you don't do this all of the time. Do some research into what orthos actually do and their various subspecialties and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

 

[JabsterL]

Dude what about micro vascular and neuro stuff? Hand fellows do this. What about scopes, general muskuloskeletal surgery? I mean you have to fix a lot of fractures, but unless you are trauma you don't do this all of the time. Do some research into what orthos actually do and their various subspecialties and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

thanks bro, the more i think about ortho vs. the other surgical fields (and every other type of field), the more i'm sure i love it and wanna bust my ass so i can get it. btw, how you enjoyin des moines? i grew up there all the way to undergrad at univ. of iowa...

 

[Debridement]

Dude what about micro vascular and neuro stuff? Hand fellows do this. What about scopes, general muskuloskeletal surgery? I mean you have to fix a lot of fractures, but unless you are trauma you don't do this all of the time. Do some research into what orthos actually do and their various subspecialties and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

I am going to give you a good example from tonight how good 'fine' work makes a good orthopaedic surgeon.

Femur fracture. Seems like a 'woodshop' case, no? Just throw a rod down the femur, pack 'em up and off you go. There is one hard part of rodding a femur--getting the starting point. The chief did this part, carefully using fluro to get the right starting point. After the first pass, he stepped back and said, 'let the medical student do some reaming.' Then the junior resident did the 'perfect circles' part. The medical student drove all the screws and did all the sewing.

If you don't know anything about rodding femurs, then you think that it is like woodshop, but if you've ever tried to hit the greater trochanter or piriformis fossa under fluro with a K-wire, you know that it's not like ripping a piece of plywood.

If you don't get the right starting point the whole case is a clusterf*ck. If you miss on 'perfect circles' you can be there all night rolling the fluro around. It can be painful....

Fine hands make for good work in any surg field. Ortho is no exception. If you are good at fine work, you will be satisfied in ortho. You don't need to sew on the aorta or the cochlear nerve to be a good 'fine' surgeon.