Changes in the number of people interested in Surgery??

[Mango]

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So, the talk in the halls around here recently has been about how many people in our class have decided to pursue surgery. Apparently it's 2-3 times the usual number (myself included). So we're all trying to decide why this is. Here are a few ideas:

First, the old department chair finally retired, taking his pervasive malignant personality with him. Second, the clerkship has been restructured to a new student-friendly configuration. And the only other thing I can think of (and this is why I'm asking all of you about it), is that maybe nationwide people are going to be more interested in surgery next year.

Could this be a kneejerk reaction to how non-competitive surgery was last year? Or maybe since Yale happened and all these "reforms" are coming, people see a brighter furture for surgery residencies? Or is this just a case of sampling error in my class? Incidentally, I'd say about half of us are interested in sub-specialties rather than general surgery, which kinda shoots down my whole surgery being less competitve theory...

 

[surge]

Originally posted by Mango

Or maybe since Yale happened and all these "reforms" are coming, people see a brighter furture for surgery residencies?

Out of curiosity, what are you refering to in terms of Yale?

 

[Mango]

Yale was charged by the ACGME with overworking their surgical residents, and they briefly lost their accredidation last year (I believe they only lost it on paper). So in order to be allowed to continue training surgeons, they were forced by the ACGME to reform their program, and the amount of hours the residents worked. Many people think that Yale was scape-goated, since many other programs were (are) equally malignant; however, since this happened, the wheels of change have (suposedly) been turning across the country. So I think it was a good thing. I'm sure the residents at Yale are loving life with their 80 hour weeks!

 

[handsports]

Ahhh, last time I checked, the former Cincinnati chairman of surgery did not retire, rather he is now the chairman up here at Beth Israel.

Sorry, but I wanted to warn you that he is still very much in the game before you bad mouth him too much.

 

[Mango]

Yeah, I heard he went back to Boston. And I don't think I "bad-mouthed" him at all. I'm just telling you what I've been hearing. You wanna hear bad-mouthing, you should hear the fourth years tell stories about him!

 

[Ramphaus]

your class may be an aberrant finding. The chairman of surgery at the Mayo was the visiting professor down here today at Surgery Grand Rounds and the topic of his talk was "evolving Surgical Education." According to his lecture, the rate of students going in to G surg is the lowest it has ever been - 4.8% of graduating medical students in the US. On top of that, the last 2 years have gone by with LESS than ONE US applicant per each categorical position, which is also a new event (.97 applicants/position). If the case is that you Mont Reid guys have a lot of people going into surgery, especially General Surgery, then wow!

 

[shaft]

Actually I have a story about old Josef from U of Cincinnati. (I don't know if it is true but I swear I am not making it up)

So a third year is scrubbed on some abdominal surgery with Josef and some resident and smells...well what smells like the inside of the bowel.
"Sir I think we may have nicked the bowel" says student.
"I don't think so" replies Josef (who knows because he let out a giant fart).
The surgery continues but the student insists that the bowel must be perfed somewhere.
I forget how the story ends but I seem to recall a browbeating for the student.

 

[womansurg]

That's your story? That he farted one time? Not even that he was a notorious farter; a foul, rancid, putred farter, but just that he farted one time in the OR?

The man lives in infamy.

just teasin' ya 🙂

 

[med03ibd]

interesting! my class has had a similar jump in surgery applicants this year.....i don't know the exact numbers but it seems about 15% are applying. one theory is that it is not very competative. another is that our surgery program is already fairly benign for residents, and extremely benign for students. of course there may be a rude awakening when applicants match elsewhere....

 

[beezar]

My class jumped from around 2 to around 8 or 9 this year. And almost all of them are women which is a bit of a surprise. My friend in another school who is going into surgery said that the # of applicants in her school tripled as well.

Hmm... which makes me think of another point... are the number of female applicants in surgery increasing a whole lot as well?