Sat the stool many of times and still do. Couple thousand cases by now. But 75% of time I direct. Much prefer the latter.
You overestimate what value you bring sitting the stool. I hear all this talk about patients being sicker. That is not true. There are equally as many more asa 1, 2s, borderline 3s as sicker patients. But more importantly surgeries have gotten safer. Much less invasive. This is so apparent in vascular, thoracic, and general surgery. Most joints go home same day now and don’t get type and screens. Spines too. The stress on patients even if they are “sicker”. Is so much less.
Sitting the stool is nothing like it once was unless you are in some crazy high acuity practice. Quit arguing your value this way. Start looking at yourself as someone to manage the rare complications that you will see more of if you are supervising multiple cases because you will eventually lose this battle of sitting the stool for every case…whether it takes 5 years or 20
