Chief Surgical Resident Available for Questions

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celling

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Hey,

I am a US citizen, was a Flinders Med School Graduate, came back to the US, and did General Surgery Residency at St Louis University. I've got 2 months left of residency. I've matched for a Cardiothoracic Surgical Fellowship at the Texas Heart Institute/Baylor College of Medicine. So, life is looking up.

If you have any questions about:
1) What the life of a General Surgery Resident is like
2) What to do to make your application more competitive
3) Etc

Please feel free to reply. I am in Residency currently, so I apologize if I'm tardy in my responses, but I'm working my ass off.

Also, I have interviewed prospective general surgery residents and have an idea of what programs/ med schools are looking for.
 
How do residencies look at non-traditionals? It seems there's a much shorter lifespan on a surgeon than a physician; do they view older applicants as having a poor return on investment?
 
What was internship at SLU like? Which rotations did you enjoy vs. not enjoy so much?

Have you heard of Dr. Julius Carillo?
 
If you could go ahead and answer those two questions you have in your first post, that would be great and possibly run through a normal day for you.

What made you go to school in Australia versus a US school?
 
Thanks for your time, and congrats on matching to your CT fellowship.

How did you become a chief resident? Are there any tangible benefits (ie. fellowship advantage)? I've heard it's beneficial if one wants to later become a PD and is sometimes referred to as a "teaching/administrative internship."

Besides being hardworking, having dexterity, and being a team player, what qualities do you look for in an applicant interested in surgery?

How did you decide on pursuing CT, or more precisely was it something you've dreamed about since med school and/or did your gen. surg. residency affect your decision?

Did you take into account the job market for CT? I've been reading/hearing rather grim news about it and was wondering whether you could confirm or comment.
 
Last edited:
Can you tell us what were your stats when you applied for your residency? thanks
 
What was the impact of your IMG status on residency applications? Did your school's curriculum mesh well with Step I topics, and how well did you do on Step I? Does your school do traditional 3rd and 4th year rotations, and if so how difficult was it to coordinate USA rotations from half way around the world?
 
U Wot M8 said:
Any advice for applicants hoping to get into md/phd programs?
Click to expand...
My best advice in getting into a MD/PhD program is to enhance your research experience. Get ahold of your professors at your university to get you inolved in some basic science research. From there, see if they have any contacts at the local med school and maybe you can get involved in some research there as well. If you do well, maybe those contacts can put in a good word for you during your application process to med school.

In medicine, who you know is just as important what you know. Contacts are invaluable.
 
Loveless said:
How do residencies look at non-traditionals? It seems there's a much shorter lifespan on a surgeon than a physician; do they view older applicants as having a poor return on investment?
Click to expand...
A non- traditional resident has a lot of advantages. They are more mature. They appreciate what they have achieved and are less entitled.

In applying for a surgical residency, you need to look at how long the residency is (5-7 years). You may be feel that it is too much training to only practice for a couple of years. Plus surgery residency is a young person's game. It may be tough for you.

However, shorter residencies ie IM, ER, PM&R, etc may be more to your liking.
 
Corrion said:
What was internship at SLU like? Which rotations did you enjoy vs. not enjoy so much?

Have you heard of Dr. Julius Carillo?
Click to expand...
Internship at SLU was tough but I don't know of an internship that is easy. My favorite rotations of my intern year were: Vascular, CTS. My least favorites were: Transplant, general surgery, and Trauma.

I've heard of Julius Carillo but haven't had any interactions with him.
 
I want to go into emergency medicine.....do you have anything advice about this field?
 
ClemsonFirst said:
If you could go ahead and answer those two questions you have in your first post, that would be great and possibly run through a normal day for you.

What made you go to school in Australia versus a US school?
Click to expand...
A normal day starts at 4:45 AM. I wake up and go to work. I look at the labs and images at 5:30. I round with the team at 6-7. I pre-op the days cases from 7-7:30. OR cases from 7:30-5 (average). Afternoon rounds at 6-7. I'm then on at home call the rest of the night. I average 4-5 phone calls a night and come in to see 1-3 consults a night. I'm on at home call 27 days a month. I get 4 days off a month.

1) See above. Life of a surgery resident is hard work. Long days, longer nights, and constant stress. You work 80+ hours a week, study in your freetime, and rarely have a social life. However, it's all worth it in the end, I hope.

2) I would get a high GPA, rock the MCAT, do some research, join some clubs, do some volunteer work. I would also get in good with your science professors. See if they have contacts at med schools. Maybe they can make some calls for you.
 
Daodejing said:
Thanks for your time, and congrats on matching to your CT fellowship.

How did you become a chief resident? Are there any tangible benefits (ie. fellowship advantage)? I've heard it's beneficial if one wants to later become a PD and is sometimes referred to as a "teaching/administrative internship."

Besides being hardworking, having dexterity, and being a team player, what qualities do you look for in an applicant interested in surgery?

How did you decide on pursuing CT, or more precisely was it something you've dreamed about since med school and/or did your gen. surg. residency affect your decision?

Did you take into account the job market for CT? I've been reading/hearing rather grim news about it and was wondering whether you could confirm or comment.
Click to expand...
Chief position is an administrative position. In addition to my normal responsibilities, I have to write the call schedule, deal with inter-resident conflicts, create a reading schedule, etc. We were asked if we wanted the position and I've been pretty responsible through residency plus I had some ideas about resident education so they gave it to me.

The title does look good on your resume. Plus it is a big positive if you want to develop an academic career.

As for CTS, I always wanted to go into it. It's the reason I went to med school. As for the CTS market, it bottomed out about 5 years ago and is on the upswing now. Many people are predicting the second golden age of CTS to begin in 5-10 years. The old guard are retiring and people haven't been going into CTS residencies for years. If you do the math, there will be a shortage of CT surgeons nationwide.

As for the surgery residents, I'm looking for people that are confidant but not cocky. They should be someone that I can work with. They need to be smart, self driven, and hard working.
 
PeruvianMD said:
Can you tell us what were your stats when you applied for your residency? thanks
Click to expand...
Top 10% of my med school class. Listed as first author on a research publication.

USMLE step 1: 235/95
USMLE step 2: 248/99
USMLE step 2CK: Pass
 
circulus vitios said:
What was the impact of your IMG status on residency applications? Did your school's curriculum mesh well with Step I topics, and how well did you do on Step I? Does your school do traditional 3rd and 4th year rotations, and if so how difficult was it to coordinate USA rotations from half way around the world?
Click to expand...
Being a FMG makes applying for a residency position difficult. You're looked at as inferior to the US med students.

My med schools curriculum was very different than the US med schools in the 1st 2 years of med school. I had to study for the step 1 exam on my own. I ended up getting 235/95.

The 3-4 years were very similar to the US and the Australian schools are very big on clinical skills. So I did well on my rotations. I rotated at a couple of US schools in 4th year trying to make some contacts and get some LORs.
 
Fakhter said:
I want to go into emergency medicine.....do you have anything advice about this field?
Click to expand...
ER medicine is an easy residency and life. You average three 12 hour shifts a week. You don't have to pay for an office or staff. However, I don't know many ER physicians who like their job. However the lifestyle is excellent and the pay isn't bad.
 
Is it possible to go into private practice as a cardiac surgeon, or are you pretty much confined to large hospitals with night calls and without the possibility of owning your own a clinic?
 
celling said:
I'm currently single. Not dating anybody right now. However, I plan on getting married if I ever meet the right girl.
Click to expand...

Is it very tough to manage your life and kids and spend enough (however you define that) time with them, for families with a surgeon and another doctor, eg. gastro, radiologist, EM, etc.?
 
Aside from grades, step scores, LOR's etc., what are programs looking for in the students they are interviewing?
 
nychila said:
Is it possible to go into private practice as a cardiac surgeon, or are you pretty much confined to large hospitals with night calls and without the possibility of owning your own a clinic?
Click to expand...
There is private practice CTS currently. However due the decreased reimbursements, the high malpractice, and the high overhead, the future of private practice CTS is a little iffy.

However, there are plenty of opportunities at both academic and non-academic hospitals.
 
nychila said:
Is it very tough to manage your life and kids and spend enough (however you define that) time with them, for families with a surgeon and another doctor, eg. gastro, radiologist, EM, etc.?
Click to expand...
I know a lot of residents that are married. It's tough but not impossible. You need to find a balance between work and home. Not easy.
 
celling said:
There is private practice CTS currently. However due the decreased reimbursements, the high malpractice, and the high overhead, the future of private practice CTS is a little iffy.

However, there are plenty of opportunities at both academic and non-academic hospitals.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't a patient rather have a surgery as important to their survival as a valve replacement in a large hospital?
 
celling said:
I know a lot of residents that are married. It's tough but not impossible. You need to find a balance between work and home. Not easy.
Click to expand...

A lot of surgical residents are married to physicians? I was referring to whether specifically surgeon-physician relationships are exceptionally difficult to maintain. Thanks so much for your answers.
 
CityLights said:
Aside from grades, step scores, LOR's etc., what are programs looking for in the students they are interviewing?
Click to expand...
Research experience, Class rank, AOA, extracurricular activities, emotional maturity, intelligence
 
celling said:
ER medicine is an easy residency and life. You average three 12 hour shifts a week. You don't have to pay for an office or staff. However, I don't know many ER physicians who like their job. However the lifestyle is excellent and the pay isn't bad.
Click to expand...

Do you feel EM is an inferior field compared to other specialties?
 
nychila said:
Wouldn't a patient rather have a surgery as important to their survival as a valve replacement in a large hospital?
Click to expand...
CTS is done at lots of medium sized hospitals with great outcomes. The bread and butter cases eg CABG, MVR, AVR can be done at these hospitals and done well. I would be comfortable having or doing a valve at some medium sized hospitals.

However, the larger and more rare cardiac cases, LVADs, transplants, complex aortic cases, valve sparing roots, TAAAs are best done at big academic university hospitals.
 
nychila said:
A lot of surgical residents are married to physicians? I was referring to whether specifically surgeon-physician relationships are exceptionally difficult to maintain. Thanks so much for your answers.
Click to expand...
I know some surgeons that are married to other physicians. Due to the long work hours it does make life tough but they seem to make it work.
 
thesauce said:
huh?
Click to expand...

Lol, I think he/she meant shelf life, in the sense that surgeons are more prone to burnout and, therefore, may practice for fewer years compared to those who follow the medicine route.

Thanks for your response to my questions, celling 👍
Do you feel that more integrated CTS spots will open up in the future, due to the shortage you refer to?
 
Daodejing said:
Lol, I think he/she meant shelf life, in the sense that surgeons are more prone to burnout and, therefore, may practice for fewer years compared to those who follow the medicine route.

Thanks for your response to my questions, celling 👍
Do you feel that more integrated CTS spots will open up in the future, due to the shortage you refer to?
Click to expand...
Hard to say if more integrated CTS residencies will open. I think a lot of programs are going to see how strong the residents that the integrated programs are producing.
 
Realistically speaking, as a practicing CT surgeon who is not involved in research, roughly how many hours per week of work (including on call) should one expect?

Also, what does the call schedule usually look like?
 
nychila said:
Realistically speaking, as a practicing CT surgeon who is not involved in research, roughly how many hours per week of work (including on call) should one expect?

Also, what does the call schedule usually look like?
Click to expand...
I'm not an attending yet so I'd just be guessing. I'd guess a private pratice guy averages 60-80 hours a week and a university surgeon averages about 50-60 hours a week.

Call is dependent on a lot of factors: how many partners you have, how many hospitals you take call for, how often your practice is on general call. If you don't have any partners you can be on call every day. If you have 5 partners you can be on call as little as 6 times a month.
 
celling said:
Hey,

I am a US citizen, was a Flinders Med School Graduate, came back to the US, and did General Surgery Residency at St Louis University. I've got 2 months left of residency. I've matched for a Cardiothoracic Surgical Fellowship at the Texas Heart Institute/Baylor College of Medicine. So, life is looking up.

If you have any questions about:
1) What the life of a General Surgery Resident is like
2) What to do to make your application more competitive
3) Etc

Please feel free to reply. I am in Residency currently, so I apologize if I'm tardy in my responses, but I'm working my ass off.

Also, I have interviewed prospective general surgery residents and have an idea of what programs/ med schools are looking for.
Click to expand...
I absolutely love these threads. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.

(1) Can you describe a typical day when you were an intern?

(2) What are your least favorite aspects of your residency aside from the hours/call?

(3) Does your program offer its residents a scribe service so you can dictate your notes rather than write them all?

(4) Why did you loathe trauma?

(5) Any advice for those of us entering medical school this year that are seriously considering surgery as a specialty?

Thanks again.

Oh, and for the person interested in EM, ask your questions here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=871408 You'll get exactly what you're looking for and more, if they're not already posted. 🙂
 
celling said:
As for CTS, I always wanted to go into it. It's the reason I went to med school.
Click to expand...


Thank you in advance for your time and comments.

Can you further elaborate on the statement above? What aspects about CTS are so intriguing and convincing to you?

What are positive and negative aspects (besides long hours and training years) did you experience?
 
Is there any benefit in being a chief resident? And how does one become a chief resident?
 
iforget2 said:
Is there any benefit in being a chief resident? And how does one become a chief resident?
Click to expand...

Daodejing said:
Already been asked and answered.
Click to expand...

For clarification purposes:

in most general surgery programs, ALL final year residents are considered Chief Residents. This is different than the Administrative Chief, which is what the OP is describing. The Administrative Chief is a final year resident who is elected or sometimes "forced" to take the job and does the call schedule, etc. He or she may be "rewarded" with extra pay, time off, etc. It is not known to have any benefit when it comes time for fellowship or professional employment, academic or not (despite what your PD may tell you). Often the one chosen is seen as the most organized or democratic individual of their year.

In IM programs, the Chief Resident is an additional year of training and can be highly sought after as a route to competitive fellowships or academic employment. They will often serve as junior faculty and have more duties than simply the administrative ones of the surgery counterpart.
 
He's right about the difference between a chief resident and a chief administrative resident. Guess I should have been a little more clear about my response.
 
Guero said:
I absolutely love these threads. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.

(1) Can you describe a typical day when you were an intern?

(2) What are your least favorite aspects of your residency aside from the hours/call?

(3) Does your program offer its residents a scribe service so you can dictate your notes rather than write them all?

(4) Why did you loathe trauma?

(5) Any advice for those of us entering medical school this year that are seriously considering surgery as a specialty?

Thanks again.

Oh, and for the person interested in EM, ask your questions here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=871408 You'll get exactly what you're looking for and more, if they're not already posted. 🙂
Click to expand...
1) get to work at 5:30. Peround from 5:30-6:30. Round with team/ pre-op pts 6:30-7:30. Do floor work/clinic/ occasional OR 7:30-5. Afternoon rounds 5-6. Checkout to night guy if not on call at 6. Was on in house call q4 days (no longer an issue for interns).

2) residency is tough also because of the workload, lots of studying, low pay, living like a college student, little to no social life, watching all of your friends/ family buy homes, have kids, etc. While you r having to scratch together gas money at the end of every month.

3) It does. We mostly use it to dictate discharge summaries and operative reports.

4) lots of reasons. Trauma is mostly a non-operative specialty. The pts are not the nicest ppl in the world and in my experience are more likely to throw a punch, cuss u out, or sue you compared to just saying thank you. Plus you are a babysitting service for Ortho, ENT, Neurosurg, etc.

5) I would try to make some contacts at the med school, do some research, see if u can observe in the OR, & most importantly STUDY HARD!
 
msj6403 said:
Thank you in advance for your time and comments.

Can you further elaborate on the statement above? What aspects about CTS are so intriguing and convincing to you?

What are positive and negative aspects (besides long hours and training years) did you experience?
Click to expand...
I always found the anatomy and the physiology of the heart to be fascinating. Once I started med school, the heart was were my focus was. During my clinical rotations in med school, I got to scrub on a bunch of heart cases and I was hooked. The cardiac surgery cases were the coolest thing I had ever seen.

Strengths of the profession- cool cases, constant learning, adrenaline rush, ability to save people's lives, good pay

Weaknesses- bad lifestyle, high stress, high risk of burnout, high rate of divorce, long training program, long hours, cases can be really long


Weaknesses-
 
Thank you for your answer. I have several follow-up questions.

How about other surgical areas, like neurosurgery? If CTS didn't work out for you, what other surgical specialties would you consider as a plan B?

How would you prevent yourself from burning out, potential divorces, and etc.? Time management, finding a balance, and self-motivation are important, but I was wondering if you have any practical, realistic ways to find that "balance." For instance, do you put aside your reading assignments until you spent some time first with your wife/family? Do you self-motivate by reminding yourself earlier days you first became interested in CT?


celling said:
I always found the anatomy and the physiology of the heart to be fascinating. Once I started med school, the heart was were my focus was. During my clinical rotations in med school, I got to scrub on a bunch of heart cases and I was hooked. The cardiac surgery cases were the coolest thing I had ever seen.

Strengths of the profession- cool cases, constant learning, adrenaline rush, ability to save people's lives, good pay

Weaknesses- bad lifestyle, high stress, high risk of burnout, high rate of divorce, long training program, long hours, cases can be really long


Weaknesses-
Click to expand...
 
msj6403 said:
Thank you for your answer. I have several follow-up questions.

How about other surgical areas, like neurosurgery? If CTS didn't work out for you, what other surgical specialties would you consider as a plan B?

How would you prevent yourself from burning out, potential divorces, and etc.? Time management, finding a balance, and self-motivation are important, but I was wondering if you have any practical, realistic ways to find that "balance." For instance, do you put aside your reading assignments until you spent some time first with your wife/family? Do you self-motivate by reminding yourself earlier days you first became interested in CT?
Click to expand...
I never had any interest in neurosurgery. If CTS didn't work out I would consider Vascular or maybe general surgery.

To avoid burnout, I try to go the gym a couple times a week. Also, try to have a hobby that isn't medical related.

For the family, have a family meal at least once a week. On your days off, take your significant other to the movies, to the park, out to dinner, etc. Use one of your week vacations to get away with your significant other.
 
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